Eat Your Onions and Save Your Bones

An onion a day could help keep osteoporosis away, suggests a study reported in the current issue of the journal Nature. Drs. Roman C. Mühlbauer and Feng Li of the University of Bern in Switzerland found that 14 vegetables common in the diet can significantly alter bone metabolism in rats and perhaps decrease the incidence of osteoporosis in humans.

When male rats were fed one gram of dry onion per day, bone resorption -- the process in which calcium is released from bone stores, thereby weakening the bones -- was inhibited by 20 percent.

That was slightly higher than the effect of calcitonin at doses used to treat osteoporosis in women past menopause.

Because osteoporosis occurs most frequently in postmenopausal women, the researchers performed the same experiments on rats with their ovaries removed.

In these rats, bone resorption was 32 percent higher than the normal rat but also was inhibited by onion intake.

The results suggest that in addition to a moderate intake of dairy products or a calcium supplement, the diet should include a good mix of vegetables, Dr. Mühlbauer said.

"We hope that once the effects have been confirmed in humans, it will be possible to slow down bone loss and, ultimately, reduce the incidence of osteoporosis," he said.

ALISA TANG