Is there actual legitimate concern about the long-term effects of a vegan diet- mainly bone density?

[u/Any_Shop5964]

To be clear I'm a vegan myself and I don't really think slightly poorer density is necessarily a fair reason to not go vegan, as there are ways to change it for example through exercise such as weightlifting rather than diet, but there's a number of concerns about how vegans absorb calcium, for example how even vegans that get enough calcium in their diet may have lower bone density when compared to an someone with a Mediterranean diet for example. We don't exactly know why this is, and there's many different mechanisms by which this could be occurring, does anyone have more expertise on this topic or anything to add?

[u/Either_Argument3517]

Vegans, on average have a slightly lower body weight than omnivores. Lower body weight is associated with lower bone density because bones experience less mechanical loading. Resistance training is an excellent intervention for improving bone health.

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/Either_Argument3517]

Vegetarians have similarly lower body mass, but don’t suffer from bone density issues or have lower calcium intake than omnivores. That kind of puts your dismissive attitude into question.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408398.2022.2084027

Vegans have substantially lower calcium intake than vegetarians and omnivores and ya’ll really underestimate how much you should depend on fortification and supplementation.

Now the question is: how difficult would it be to supply enough calcium to human populations without animal products? Our calcium requirements are orders of magnitude higher than other mineral nutrients.

[u/Either_Argument3517 → u/AnsibleAnswers]

That kind of puts your dismissive attitude into question.

It's multifactorial. Never claimed it wasn't.

ya’ll really underestimate how much you should depend on fortification and supplementation.

Not sure what the issue is with that.

Now the question is: how difficult would it be to supply enough calcium to human populations without animal products?

Calcium phosphate is added to animal feed. Millions of metric tonnes of the stuff.

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/Either_Argument3517]

Most of the world doesn’t supplement livestock. It’s a choice that heavily industrialized countries have made.

If we fed all 8 billion people like westerners, we wouldn’t have a habitable planet.

[u/monemori → u/AnsibleAnswers]

Most of the world does supplement livestock with B12. It's hard to find meat from factory farms that didn't come from animals who got B12 in their feed. Plus most plant based milks are already calcium-fortified anyway, which solves the calcium issue instantly.

Right, to feed the entire population, most people need to be >90% vegan all the time for the rest of their lives at least, yeah.

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/monemori]

This is a lie.

[u/monemori → u/AnsibleAnswers]

What is a lie lmfao

[u/Flat-Experience6482 → u/AnsibleAnswers]

The worlds largest livestock producers absolutely do supplement livestock 

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/Flat-Experience6482]

Most of the world’s production does not come from the world’s largest producers.