High-fat Diet & Osteoporosis

 

 

 

 

Some claim that osteoporosis is due to a high-fat diet.

 

 

One study shows that BMD is lower in rats fed a high-fat diet.

 

Their explanation:

"In vitro studies indicate that lipid products of oxidation promote osteoblastic differentiation of vascular cells and inhibit such differentiation in bone cells". (1)

Osteoblasts are the cells that induce calcium absorption precipitation in the bones.

 

But the decrease in BMD can very well be due to a decrease in physical activity. (The bones rapidly lose calcium in space due to inactivity of the bones).
A high-fat diet decreases physical activity due to a lower availability of glucose relative to available fatty acids. The presence of glucose is essential to transform fatty acids into glucose (for muscle activity). If it is not sufficiently available, wastes like aceto acetic acid and beta-hydroxy buteric acid originate, which inhibit further transformation of fat into glucose. Thus, a high-fat diet inhibits physical activity. A high-sugar diet increases physical activity.

 

More importantly:

Osteoporosis incidence does not correlate with average fat consumption per country. For example:

Osteoporosis incidence within Europe is highest in Sweden (and Finland), significant higher than in countries like France, Italy and Greece, (2) but fat-consumption is much lower in Sweden and Finland.

 

Fat consumption in gram / capita / day, in 1998 (source FAO):

 

164.7      France     

152.3      Italy

151.7      Greece

 

130.8      Finland

124.1      Sweden

 

 


Also, a decreased BMD is very different from osteoporosis. They did not mention spongy holes, just a decrease in BMD, which is fundamentally different. In particular, elderly Asians can have extremely low BMD and razer-thin but very healthy and strong bones.

 

 

 

 

© 2000 Copyright Artists Cooperative Groove Union U.A.     

 

 

 

 

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Excessive Calcium Causes Osteoporosis 

 

  

 

Sources

(1) Parhami, F. et al, Role of lipids in osteoporosis. Arterioscler Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 2000 / 20 (11) / 2346-2348.

(2) Lips, P. ,Epidemiology and predictors of fractures associated with osteoporosis. Am.J.Med. 1997 / 103 (2A) / 3S-8S / discussion 8S-11S. , Memon, A. et al, Incidence of hip fracture in Kuweit. Int. J. Epidemiol. 1998 / (5) / 860-865. , Paspati, I. et al, Hip fracture epidemiology in Greece during 1977-1992. Calcif. Tissue Int. 1998 / 62 (6) / 542-547.