Vegetarian diet unhealthy

[pgg]

Vegetarian diet 'weakens bones' - Yahoo! News

Vegetarian diet 'weakens bones'
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/File – A vegetarian salad. Australian researchers have said that people who live on vegetarian diets have slightly … Thu Jul 2, 6:31 am ET
SYDNEY (AFP) – People who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, Australian researchers said Thursday.

A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2,700 people found that vegetarians had bones five percent less dense than meat-eaters, said lead researcher Tuan Nguyen.

The issue was most pronounced in vegans, who excluded all animal products from their diet and whose bones were six percent weaker, Nguyen said.

There was "practically no difference" between the bones of meat-eaters and ovolactovegetarians, who excluded meat and seafood but ate eggs and dairy products, he said.

"The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, are associated with lower bone mineral density," Nguyen wrote in the study, which was published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"But the magnitude of the association is clinically insignificant," he added.

Nguyen, who is from Sydney's Garvan Institute for Medical Research and collaborated on the project with the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City, said the question of whether the lower density bones translated to increased fracture risk was yet to be answered.

"Given the rising number of vegetarians, roughly five percent (of people) in western countries, and the widespread incidence of osteoporosis, the issue is worth resolving," he said.

[Jenna]

That's what calcium pills are for.

[ChesCopPodz]

Any diet that has to come with a supplemental pill should tip the dieter off that it is unhealthy.

[Xiphos]

I've always marveled at all the obese vegetarians I knew. But then it occurred to me, candy bars and soda don't have meat in them.

Just bring the cow to my table, I'll cut off what I want to eat and ride the rest home.

[pgg]

Any diet that has to come with a supplemental pill should tip the dieter off that it is unhealthy.

Bingo, you hit it on the head there. If you are required to take supplements because your diet can't provide you what you need, you have a major problem and need to change your ways.