Eating a balanced diet is beneficial for the bones. Postmenopausal women who follow a Mediterranean diet would have a slightly lower risk of hip fracture.
And one more virtue to add to the catalog of benefits of the Mediterranean diet! According to a study published online by the JAMA Internal Medicine, women who follow the Mediterranean diet are less likely to fracture their hip. Researchers were interested in the impact of this diet on postmenopausal women.
This is indeed a population particularly prone to the problems of osteoporosis, which reflects a loss of bone strength. The team from the University of Würzburg (Bavaria, Germany) who observed the results, however, specifies that this is a small difference.
Known benefits
Already known for example to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, the Mediterranean diet is mainly composed of fruits, vegetables, olive oil, cereals, fish as well as nuts. It owes its second name of “Cretan diet” to the fact that it was the traditional diet of the inhabitants of Crete.
Preliminary observations
To reach their conclusions, the authors of the publication analyzed data from 40 US medical centers. via the vast study Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), which includes more than 90,000 women with an average age of 64. This study has already produced numerous results and observations in the past.
However, regarding the link between the Mediterranean diet and the lowered risk of hip fracture, the researchers said the study had limitations – notably, several diets are associated with these better results. They therefore generally conclude “that the observations support the idea that a healthy diet could play a role in the maintenance of healthy bones in postmenopausal women”.
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