Raw food eaters thin but healthy

It has been suggested that eating only plant-derived foods that have not been cooked or processed might make bones thinner and prone to fractures.

But a study in Archives of Internal Medicine found although bones were lighter on this diet, turnover rates were normal with no osteoporosis.

The lower bone mass is down to raw food eaters being slim, believe the authors.

The raw food diet is different to more typical vegetarian and vegan diets, which do not exclude cooked, processed or otherwise refined foods.

Lead researcher Dr Luigi Fontana, from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, said: "We think it's possible these people don't have increased risk of fracture but that their low bone mass is related to the fact that they are lighter because they take in fewer calories."

Dr Fontana said the raw food diet group also had higher vitamin D levels than people on a typical Western diet, even though they did not consume dairy products which are known to be a good source of vitamin D. He said this was probably down to sun exposure.

•	Raw food eaters thin but healthy People who follow a raw food vegetarian diet are light in weight but healthy, according to US researchers. BBC News online (UK), Tuesday, March 29, 2005

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