No meat. No eggs. No dairy. No honey. These are the staples that make up a vegan diet. While it may seem like a new lifestyle, veganism actually saw its beginnings in 1944. The focus of the diet is to consume more plant-based meals to curb the exploitation and cruelty towards animals for food, clothing and other purposes.
This plant-based lifestyle is popular with pro-athletes like Super Bowl champ Tom Brady and tennis all-star and Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams. While this lifestyle has helped these star athletes, a recent study in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, found that those who incorporate weight lifting into their exercise routine are more likely to have stronger bones than those who don’t.
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According to a press release, about six percent of people in the U.S. are vegan. And that a vegan diet can lead to lower bone mineral density and greater fracture risk.
“Veganism is a global trend with strongly increasing numbers of people worldwide adhering to a purely plant-based diet,” says Christian Muschitz of St. Vincent Hospital and the Medical University of Vienna in a press release. “Our study showed resistance training offsets diminished bone structure in vegan people when compared to omnivores.”
Researchers looked at data from 43 men and women who have been vegan for at least five years and 45 men and women who are omnivores. The findings indicated that vegans who used weight training, free weights or bodyweight exercises in their workout routine, at least once per week, had stronger bones than vegans who didn’t. Researchers also found that vegans and omnivores who predicted weight training had similar bone structures.
Muschitz suggests that “people who adhere to a vegan lifestyle should perform resistance training on a regular basis to preserve bone strength.”
