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ISLAMABAD, January 24 (Online): A new study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine suggests that vegetarians who don`t cook their food have abnormally low bone mass but have other biological markers indicating their bones, although light in weight, may be healthy. The team led by Luigi Fontana studied 18 strict raw food vegans ages of 33 to 85 who ate a diet that not only lacked animal products but also included only raw foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and legumes, dressed with olive oil. They had been on this diet for an average of 3.6 years. The researchers compared them to people who ate a more typical American diet, including refined carbohydrates, animal products and cooked food. The groups were matched according to age, sex and socioeconomic status. Those on the raw food diet had lower body mass indices and significantly lower bone mass in important skeletal regions such as the hip and lumbar spine, sites where low bone mass often means osteoporosis and fracture risk. "For example, it is clear from research that higher rates of bone turnover equate to higher risk of fracture. But in these people, although their bone mass is low, their bone turnover rates are normal," Fontana said. The raw food group also had less inflammation, indicated by low levels of C-reactive protein, which is made by the liver as a response to inflammation in the body. They also had lower levels of IGF-1, one of the most important growth factors regulated by calorie and protein intake that is linked to risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. They also had higher vitamin D levels than people on a typical, Western diet. The people on the raw food diet are lighter with lower body fat. They have less bone, but they have normal markers of bone turnover, higher-than-normal vitamin D and very low levels of leptin and inflammatory markers. Fontana added that many in this group have osteoporosis or less severe bone loss called osteopenia. But with low levels of inflammation, normal bone turnover and high vitamin D, the usual clinical parameters may not apply. "For example, post-menopausal, frail women with osetoporosis have low bone mass and an increased risk of fracture. But they also have increased circulating levels of inflammatory molecules called cyotkines. That`s a different biologic condition from what we are seeing in the raw food vegans," he added.
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