Tuesday, 29 March 2005 The bones of raw food vegetarians only need to be thin because they don't have to carry much weight (Image: iStockphoto)

People who eat nothing but raw vegetables might have thin bones but they're still healthy, a new US study has found.

The findings contradict warnings from nutritionists and the food industry that a diet without dairy foods can lead to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

A team, led by Dr Luigi Fontana of the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, reports its findings in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Because of their low calorie and low protein intake, raw food vegetarians have a low body mass index (BMI) and a low total body fat content, say Fontana and team.

BMI is an internationally accepted measurement of height to weight, and a low BMI normally suggests that a person is at a higher risk of bone fracture.

But in their study of 18 people aged 33 to 85, who had been strict raw food vegetarians for an average of 3.6 years, Fontana and team found none of the other signs of osteoporosis.

The vegetarians only ate plant-derived foods that had not been cooked or processed, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, and sprouted grains.


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