Supports Chapter 25: Deficiency diseases
New research suggests that body fat may have an impact on bone mineral density.
Results of a study by Kathryn Piehowski, RD, of Pennsylvania State University showed that bone mineral density in normal weight women was higher than in overweight women.
The report suggested that the reasons why fatter women should have a lower bone mineral density were unclear. Piehowski suggests that inflammation may well play a role, as high levels of body fat are associated with greater levels of inflammation, and some inflammatory mediators are known to promote bone loss.
Well, it might. But there may well be another reason. Fatter women tend to be those on calorie controlled, carbohydrate-based diets. These are inevitably low in fat and, as fat comes mainly with protein, low in protein as well. Although women are told that low bone density can be caused by eating a high-protein diet, in fact the opposite is true. The real reason for the low bone density in fatter women, therefore, could well be their reliance on a ‘healthy’ diet
Too Much Body Fat Bad for Bones? WebMD Health News. October 31st 2008.
3 comments:
I agree Barry. Obesity is a symptom of a bad diet, as is poor bone density. Correcting the diet should fix both problems.
Another possible reason could be simple bone mechanics, as well as diet. Bone is stimulated to increase its bone mineral density by weight-bearing exercise - tension & compression forces, (you would think overweight people should then have a higher BMD since they have to lug all that extra weight around - but it would seem not the case); severe compression forces inhibit bone growth however; as could thus be the reason for overweight people having a lower BMD. I wonder if there are any studies that show a difference between the BMD of overweight, obese, morbidly obese etc. - as body fat goes up, does BMD go down? OF COURSE, without the right nutrients/diet, bone cannot correctly react to ANY mechanical stimulus.
Hi Bryan and Wendy
You´ve got it! Diet, diet, diet is the answer. And I don´t mean the so-called ´healthyone
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