Their bone density was identical.

The study was led by Professor Tuan Nguyen from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He collaborated with Dr Ho-Pham Thuc Lan from the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Their findings are now published online in Osteoporosis International .

"For the 5% of people in Western countries who choose to be vegetarians, this is very good news," said Professor Nguyen. "Even vegans, who eat only plant-based foods, appear to have bones as healthy as everyone else."

"Bone health in vegetarians, particularly vegans, has been a concern for some time, because as a group they tend to have a lower protein and calcium intake than the population at large."

"In this work we showed that although the vegans studied do indeed have lower protein and calcium intakes, their bone density is virtually identical to that of people who eat a wide variety of foods, including animal protein."

"The nuns' calcium intake was very low, only about 370 mg a day, where the recommended level is 1,000 mg. Their protein intake was also very low at around 35 g a day, compared with the non-vegetarian group, which was 65 g."

Professor Nguyen and Dr Thuc Lan chose to study Buddhist nuns because their faith requires them to observe strict vegan diets all their lives.

"We didn't study vegetarians from the West because many are lacto-vegetarians, so could have considerable calcium in their diets. It would have compromised the results," Nguyen explained.

"The Buddhist nuns came from 20 temples and monasteries in Ho Chi Minh City. The control group, 105 non-vegetarian women of exactly the same age, were recruited from the same localities."

Although Professor Nguyen and Dr Thuc Lan do not advocate a vegan diet, they note that fruits and vegetables are likely to have positive effects on bone health.

They also note that the study did not measure Vitamin D levels (as important to healthy bone as calcium) and factors such as lifestyle and physical activity. These variables may affect the outcomes for vegetarians elsewhere.

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At the end of the study, the researchers found that:

In males:

Coffee: increased food intake by 21%, decreased markers of oxidative stress by 39-65%, increased markers of antioxidant enzyme protein content by 46-139%, and decreased markers of cell death by 34-36%. Caffeine: increased food intake by 22%, decreased markers of oxidative stress by 45-81%, increased markers of antioxidant enzyme protein content by 21-99%, and decreased markers of cell death by 17-22%. Chlorogenic acid: increased food intake by 12%, decreased markers of oxidative stress by 25-35%, increased markers of antioxidant enzyme proteins by 23-44%, and decreased cell death by 41-44%.

In females:

Coffee: increased food intake by 30%, decreased markers of oxidative stress by 64%, but did not increase markers of antioxidant enzymes or decrease markers of cell death. Caffeine: increased food intake by 28%, decreased motor performance by 20%, decreased markers of oxidative stress by 58%, decreased markers of antioxidant enzyme protein content by 11-48%, and increased cell death by 23-74%. Chlorogenic acid: increased markers of oxidative stress by 178%, had equivocal effects on markers of antioxidant enzyme protein content, and decreased cell death 33-39%.

Conclusion

According to Ms. Seevaratnam, "If we were to extrapolate these results to human patients with ALS, then coffee appears to be beneficial for men, both reducing oxidative stress and cell death, and increasing antioxidants. But for women, caffeine appears to be harmful. Women with the disorder may want to restrict caffeine consumption, or switch to decaffeinated products which contain the antioxidants, but with little caffeine."

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