Category Research project
  • Expositionsschätzung

Vegan nutrition and bone health

Project status
Completed
Project start
2017
Project end
Mar 2020
Department
Lebensmittelsicherheit

Description and Objective

The interest in a vegetarian and vegan diet has been increasing steadily in Germany in recent years. This project aims to investigate whether relevant differences can be observed in bone health parameters or in biomarkers of bone metabolism in vegans compared to omnivores. It will also be investigated whether selected nutrients are associated with bone health and acid load and thus indicate differences in the osteoporosis risk of vegans and omnivores. The planned project is based on a cross-sectional study with 36 vegan and 36 omnivorous (omnivorous) men and women (middle-aged). For the proposed project, in addition to measuring bone health and a detailed nutritional survey, extensive vitamins and micronutrients as well as selected biochemical parameters of bone metabolism are to be measured in the blood and urine of the study participants

Result

Scientific evidence suggests that a vegan diet might be associated with impaired bone health. The RBVD study was used to investigate the associations of veganism with calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements, along with the investigation of differences in the concentrations of nutrition- and bone-related biomarkers between vegans and omnivores. This study revealed lower levels in the QUS parameters in vegans compared to omnivores, e.g., broadband ultrasound attenuation. Vegans had lower levels of vitamin A, B2, lysine, zinc, selenoprotein Pshort forphosphorus, n-3 fatty acids, urinary iodine, and calcium levels, while the concentrations of vitamin K1, folate, and glutamine were higher in vegans compared to omnivores. Applying a reduced rank regression, 12 out of the 28 biomarkers were identified to contribute most to bone health:  lysine, urinary iodine, thyroid-stimulating hormone, selenoprotein Pshort forphosphorus, vitamin A, leucine, α-klotho, n-3 fatty acids, urinary calcium/magnesium, vitamin B6, and FGF23. All QUS parameters increased across the tertiles of the pattern score. The study provides evidence of lower bone health in vegans compared to omnivores, additionally revealing a combination of nutrition-related biomarkers, which may contribute to bone health. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33669942/
Type of project

Third-party funded project

Research focus

Gesundheit von Mensch, Tier und Umwelt (One Health)

Organisational units and partners

Lead specialist group: Humanstudienzentrum Gesundheitlicher Verbraucherschutz (8HSZ)
Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Cornelia Weikert

Funding body and grant number

Elsbeth Bonhoff Stiftung, BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment - Vergabetitel
60-0103-12.P106

Our newsletters

The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment offers you various newsletters in German and English.

Subscribe