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W30 and Osteoporosis/Osteopenia?


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Hey everyone, what's the recommended modifications to the diet for someone with Osteoporosis/Osteopenia? The general recommendations for someone with these conditions is to limit meat consumption (as meat is an acidic food and can leach calcium out of bones). Would you say that reducing meat, bringing back in dairy, and focusing on calcium-rich vegetables with all meals is a good starting point?

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FYI doing some additional reading seems to indicate that food has little impact on acid/alkaline levels so perhaps that reason is not relevant; are there other reasons to consider modifying the base diet for someone with bone density loss?

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I don't know any reason to modify the basic Whole30 approach. You would want to make sure you include lots of calcium-rich veggies. And by keeping grains and legumes out of your diet, you will be able to absorb more calcium than people on a standard American diet.

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I don't know any reason to modify the basic Whole30 approach. You would want to make sure you include lots of calcium-rich veggies. And by keeping grains and legumes out of your diet, you will be able to absorb more calcium than people on a standard American diet.

Thanks - as with anything related to nutrition there's a lot of information pro and con for just about any dietary choice. Looking for a middle of the road opinion I ended up here:

http://www.nof.org/aboutosteoporosis/prevention/foodandbones

The basic recommendations seem to be:

1. eat foods with calcium and vit D (dairy, fish, fortified foods, fruits and veggies both generally and those that are good sources of calcium)

2. reduce bean consumption or at least soak for hours before eating to reduce phytates.

3. ~5oz protein per day. "special high protein diets can cause the body to lose calcium".

4. reduced sodium.

5. avoid food high in oxalates and wheat bran.

With that in mind, the only thing that seems particularly concerning is the note on protein (assuming you can consume enough other foods or take supplements to make up the calcium/Vit D lost from no dairy). Anyone know about what the high protein concerns are? Not sure if W30 qualifies as a special high protein diet or not. Meet is about 25% protein which is where most of this would be coming from, so you'd need to eat 20oz of meat to hit 5oz of protein. That's a good hunk of meat for the day! Of course protein comes from other places but that and eggs would be the primary source on a W30. From that reading this does seem like it fits pretty well though maybe you're toeing the line of going over that limit.

Any other thoughts about this?

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so you'd need to eat 20oz of meat to hit 5oz of protein.

You're misreading the source. :) They say 5oz of protein to mean 5oz of meat or fish. Not 5oz of pure protein. 5oz would be 141g of pure protein which is absolutely considered a high protein diet seeing as the USDA recommendation is something like 60g for an adult (which I think is too low, but that's another discussion!).

To the OP, there is no proof that high protein diets leech calcium. In fact there have been several studies that show that older folks need MORE protein than previously thought to help prevent bone loss as well as other issues.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/15640517

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Thanks for the clarification. I'm checking with a couple very good endocrinologists that I know to get their take as well. Will report back when I hear from them.

FYI this is in relation to a younger person with a systemic illness that causes osteoporosis rather than an older person, therefore I believe the issues raised in that other article are not as relevant.

You're misreading the source. :) They say 5oz of protein to mean 5oz of meat or fish. Not 5oz of pure protein. 5oz would be 141g of pure protein which is absolutely considered a high protein diet seeing as the USDA recommendation is something like 60g for an adult (which I think is too low, but that's another discussion!).

To the OP, there is no proof that high protein diets leech calcium. In fact there have been several studies that show that older folks need MORE protein than previously thought to help prevent bone loss as well as other issues.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/15640517

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I recently read somewhere that the studies done on Osteoporosis and Osteopenia were flawed and that many people were misdiagnosed. I'm sorry I don't have a source. Perhaps you can google it.

Unfortunately in this case we're talking about someone with a systemic illness that causes this condition, so it's not being misdiagnosed. :\

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