Almonds for Osteoporosis

Eating almonds is a safe, natural way to protect against osteoporosis.

This video was originally published on NutritionFacts.org and republished with permission. NutritionFacts.org

We often think about bones as unchanging organ with its rigid structure, but just as everything else in your body, it is alive and changes throughout your life. As we age, bone forms and reforms through specialized cells in the body called osteoblasts,  which form bone material, and osteoclasts, cells that break bone down. Osteoporosis occurs when the body has an imbalance and there are too many osteoclasts breaking down bone cells. Usually, this is the result of a hormonal change, such as when a woman enters menopause.

Scientists who studied this ailment found a natural aid for osteoporosis in seemingly unlikely place. Studies on the effects of plant-based substances are usually done by dripping concentrates of the substance onto cells and recording the results. A similar testing process can be used to detect the effectiveness of a food on a given disease. By taking blood before and after eating a specific food and dripping it onto osteoclasts in a petri dish, scientists can measure the affect the food has on the cells. What the scientists in this study had found was that osteoclasts could be inhibited simply by eating almonds regularly.

In addition, the same amount of almonds used in the study (just a handful, or around 35 almonds a day) also suppressed hunger when eaten as a snack in the morning. Just by adding almonds as a morning snack, volunteers being studied ate noticeably smaller meals at lunch as well as dinner. Not at all a bad side perk to fighting off osteoporosis!

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