Fruit and veg – the bone builders!

We’ve known for a long time that diets high in fruit and vegetables are good for you. A study examining the relationship between diet and hip fracture risk recently confirmed that they are also best for your bones. The Singapore Chinese Health Study is population-based and enrolled over 63,000 men and women aged 45-74 years between 1993 and 1998 in Singapore. Their diet has been repeatedly assessed over the years and two dietary patterns have been identified – the vegetable-fruit-soya pattern and the meat-dim-sum. The study also divided each of these patterns into different levels according to what they ate. With the ‘vegetable-fruit-soya’ pattern, it was mostly cruciferous vegetables (cabbagey things), fruit and tofu items. The study found that those who ate the most fruit, vegetables and soya had a 34 per cent lower risk of hip fracture compared to people who ate the least. And the observed relationship seemed direct – the more of the healthy, plant-based foods people ate, the lower their risk of fracture and vice versa.

_{Dai Z et al., 2014. Adherence to a Vegetable-Fruit-Soy Dietary Pattern or the Alternative Healthy Eating Index Is Associated with Lower Hip Fracture Risk among Singapore Chinese. The Journal of Nutrition. 144 (4) 511-518.}