China News Service, Beijing, November 23 (Reporter Sun Zifa) Vegetarian or meat?

A recent study of European populations stated that vegans, vegetarians and finfish have higher fracture risk than meat eaters.

　　Springer Nature’s open-access journal "BMC Medicine" published a paper online on the 23rd by a British university research team that pointed out that compared with people who eat meat, vegans have lower average calcium and protein intakes. The risk of total fracture (that is, the total risk of fractures in any part of the body) is 43% higher, and the risk of fractures in specific parts (such as hips, legs, and spine) is also higher; vegetarians and finfish have a higher risk of hip fractures than carnivores high.

　　Research teams from the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol in the UK analyzed data from nearly 55,000 people in the EPIC-Oxford study. The EPIC-Oxford study is a prospective cohort study. The recruitment period of participants was from 1993 to 2001, and many of them participated. None of them eat meat.

A prospective cohort study will find a group of people and follow up for a period of time to understand how certain factors (diet in this study) may affect certain results (fracture risk in this study).

　　Among the 54898 participants in this study, 29,380 people ate meat, 8037 people ate fish but no meat (fish vegan), and 15,499 were vegetarians (no fish or meat but may eat egg, milk and other animal products). In 1982, he was a strict vegetarian (no animal products were touched at all).

The first evaluation of eating habits was at the time of recruitment and was re-evaluated in 2010.

The participants' continuous follow-up time averaged 18 years, and the collection of relevant information on the occurrence of fractures was as of 2016.

During the study period, a total of 3941 fractures occurred, including 566 arm fractures, 889 wrist fractures, 945 hip fractures, 366 leg fractures, 520 ankle fractures, and other major sites (clavicle, ribs, and spine). ) 467 fractures.

　　The results of the study showed that compared with carnivores, vegans, vegetarians and fish vegetarians had a higher risk of fractures except for the hips, and also higher risk of fractures in the legs and other major parts.

Researchers found that if the body mass index (BMI) is taken into account, there is no significant difference in the risk of arm, wrist, and ankle fractures between different diet groups; if BMI, dietary calcium and dietary intake Taking all the proteins into account, the risk of total fractures and the risk of fractures at specific sites will be partially reduced.

　　The lead author of the paper, Dr. Tammy Tong, a nutritional epidemiologist from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, said that this is the first study to assess the risk of total fractures and specific site fractures for people with different diets.

"We found that vegans have a higher risk of total fractures than carnivores, and the higher risk is equivalent to nearly 20 more fractures per 1,000 people in 10 years. The biggest difference in risk is hip fractures and vegans. The risk of hip fracture is 2.3 times higher than that of carnivores, which is equivalent to 15 more cases per 1,000 people in 10 years."

　　Tammy Tong pointed out that previous studies have shown that low BMI is associated with a higher risk of hip fractures, and low calcium and protein intake is associated with poor bone health.

Their latest research shows that, on average, vegans have lower BMI, calcium intake and protein intake than meat eaters, and have a higher risk of fractures in multiple sites.

A balanced plant-based diet can improve nutritional levels and reduce the risk of many diseases including heart disease and diabetes.

Individuals should consider the benefits and risks of their eating habits, ensure that they consume enough calcium and protein, and maintain a healthy BMI, that is, neither underweight nor overweight.

　　The authors of the paper reminded that because they were unable to obtain data on the causes of fractures, they could not distinguish between fractures caused by poor bone health and fractures caused by accidents.

There are no data on differences in the use of calcium supplements among different dietary groups, and there are measurement errors in the estimates of nutrients (such as dietary calcium and protein) in all diet studies.

At the same time, the participants of the study are mainly European whites, so the versatility to other groups or races may be limited. Considering the differences in bone mineral density and fracture risk between different races observed in the past, ethnic differences may be important.

　　They said that more studies on other different populations are needed, including non-European populations. In addition, since about three-quarters of the participants in the EPIC-Oxford cohort are women, a cohort with a higher proportion of men is also needed. Explore possible differences in gender risk.

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