Vegetarians may be at higher risk to suffer bone fractures, study suggests

Vegetarians may be at higher risk to suffer bone fractures, study suggests

Lower calcium and protein intakes had a 43 per cent higher risk of fractures.

Those who follow a vegan diet with lower calcium and protein intakes are at a 43 per cent higher risk of bone fracture compared to those who eat meat.

According to newly published research in the journal BMC Medicine, vegetarians and people who ate fish but not meat had a higher risk of hip fractures, compared to people who ate meat.

However, the risk of fractures was partly reduced once body mass index (BMI), dietary calcium and dietary protein intake were taken into account.

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"We found that vegans had a higher risk of total fractures which resulted in close to 20 more cases per 1,000 people over a 10-year period compared to people who ate meat," said study author Tammy Tong from the University of Oxford in the UK.

Fracture in older people are common, but the risk in vegans was 2.3 times higher than in people who ate meat, equivalent to 15 more cases per 1000 people over 10 years," Tong added.

The study was conducted on nearly 50,000 participants in the EPIC-Oxford study, a prospective cohort of men and women, who