It’s very interesting and exciting when science discovers easy interventions that can be implemented to improve our health! Dried plums aka prunes as low as 50 grams per day (around 6 prunes a day) have proven to be a dietary intervention that has the ability to prevent the loss of total body bone mineral density in osteopenic postmenopausal women!

Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women

The risk of postmenopausal women developing osteoporosis becomes high because as we go through menopause the amount of estrogen we produce drops significantly. Osteoporosis is a chronic disease where bone mass is reduced and structural properties of the bones deteriorate which increases the chance of fractures, which of course we don’t want! Initially, rapid bone loss occurs as estrogen decreases and it is followed by a gradual deterioration of the bones.

There is much that can be done to improve our bones and whilst some of the most effective interventions include weight training, limiting alcohol intake, ensuring adequate vitamin D, calcium, and vitamin K2 intakes, to name a few we can also add dietary prunes to our daily regime to the list of things. And what an easy addition this is!

Bones and Prunes

It is known that what you eat and nutrition play an important role in bone health. These studies show that prunes are most effective in preventing and reversing bone loss among the fruits and vegetables that were studied.

The bioactive compound composition in prunes is related to promoting bone health. These nutrients include:

• Dietary fiber
• Vitamin K
• Boron
• Copper
• Magnesium
• Manganese
• and many more

   

  And non-nutrient bioactive compounds such as polyphenols are high in prunes. In fact, these phenolic compounds are what make prunes effective in protecting bones and positively affect bone metabolism.

The Studies

This study shows consuming 100g of prunes a day for a year significantly increased the serum markers of bone formation which means it prevents and reverses bone loss. In addition to these findings, they found that the bone-protecting effects are long-lasting in that they can contribute to the maintenance of bone density after stopping regular consumption.

This comprehensive review indicates that consumption of prunes is safe and it can benefit bone health in postmenopausal women it is a good option over other fruits as prunes have a higher amount of vitamin K (improves bone health by helping to create a healthy balance of calcium) compared to other fruits that are consumed commonly.

In this study, 48 osteopenic women were studied for 6 months where one group had 50 g of prunes, the second group 100 g of prunes and the third group as a control (so no prunes). Both groups with regular consumption of prunes prevented the loss of total body bone mineral density and showed improvement in their bone health. In addition, they found that even 50 g of prunes can be as effective as consuming 100 g of prunes in preventing bone loss as prunes have the ability to inhibit bone resorption.

50 GRAMS OF PRUNES = APPROXIMATELY 6 PRUNES

Enjoy your prunes!

Want to spice things up check out our beautiful prune and almond cake recipe here 🙂

References:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28505102/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28422064/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26902092/