As suggested by a new study of vegetables, fruits, fish and whole grains are high in anti-inflammatory diets and could boost bone health and prevent fractures in some women. Previous studies showed a connection between high levels of inflammatory markers in the blood to bone loss and to fractures in older women and men, which wondered the researchers to find if dietary choices contributing to inflammation are also related to declines in bone density.

For analysis an observational study was done which was led by Tonya Orchard, an assistant professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University, that appeared in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. It evaluated data of landmark Women’s Health Initiative which was used to compare the levels of inflammatory elements in the diet to bone mineral density and fractures. A new link between food and bone health was found.

The team observed dietary data of 160,191 post-menopausal women. They were assigned reported inflammation scores, based on 32 foods consumed by these women within three months before they were enrolled. Bone-mineral-density data was collected from a subset of 10,290 women. Fracture data was collected for the entire study group and a correlation was found only between high-inflammatory diets and fracture in younger white women. Higher scores were around 50 percent larger risk of hip fracture in Caucasian women < 63 year, compared with the risk for women in the group with the lowest inflammatory scores. This suggests that a high-quality, less-inflammatory diet may be specifically important in reducing hip fracture risk in younger women, according to researchers.

Women on less inflammatory diets (based on a scoring system called the Dietary Inflammatory Index) had less bone density loss during the six-year follow-up period as compared to those with most-inflammatory diets. This was despite the fact that they started off with lower bone density overall.
Orchard said that, the findings estimated that women’s bone health could benefit if they have diet higher in beneficial fats, plants and whole grains. This suggests with proceeding age of women, healthy diets do have impact on bone which is another reason of supporting the recommendations for a healthy diet in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”

Being observational, it’s not possible to definitively link dietary patterns and bone health and fracture outcomes. Rebecca Jackson, the study’s senior author and director of Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science, said the new findings support a growing body of evidence that factors that increase inflammation can increase osteoporosis risk. By observing full diet than individual nutrients, data gives foundation for studying how component of the diet might interact to provide benefit and better inform women’s health and lifestyle choices,” said Jackson. 

Overall study estimated that more-inflammatory diets were not linked to fracture and — in fact — the researchers found a modestly lower risk of lower-arm and total fracture in women with the highest dietary inflammation scores. One possibility: The women with lower inflammation scores were more physically active as a group and therefore were at a slightly greater risk of falls. Women with the least-inflammatory diets had lower bone mineral density overall at the start of the study, but lost less bone than their high-inflammation peers, the researchers found. The lower bone density to start could be because women with healthier diets are more likely to be of a smaller build, Orchard said. Larger people have higher bone density to support their larger frames. “These women with healthier diets didn’t lose bone as quickly as those with high-inflammation diets, and this is important because after menopause women see a drastic loss in bone density that contributes to fractures,” Orchard said.