Adherence to Mediterranean diet and bone health

Several studies have concluded that incidences of osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related fractures vary across the European Union, the lowest incidence being reported in the Mediterranean area. The beneficial effect is mainly attributed to a specific eating pattern. The Mediterranean diet contain a complex array of naturally occurring bioactive molecules with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and alkalinising properties that may contribute to the bone-sparing effect of the Mediterranean diet.

The purpose of this review is to examine the evidence to date on the effects of Mediterranean diet on bone health.

The search for articles came from extensive research in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. We used the search terms "Mediterranean diet", "adherence", "fruit and vegetable", "olive oil", "fish" "legume", "cereal" "alcohol", "bone", "osteoporosis", "fracture", and combinations, such as "Mediterranean diet and bone" or "Mediterranean diet and fracture".

A limited number of studies have examined the relationship between Mediterranean Diet and bone health, and they have reported conflicting results. On the one hand, adherence to a traditional MeDi has been associated with higher bone mineral density and lower fracture risk. The results of these studies could be attributed to the combined beneficial effects of individual components of the Mediterranean diet. On the contrary, several studies failed to show any association between adherence to the MeDi and indices of bone mass.

Further large-scale studies are required to clarify the effect of Mediterranean diet on bone health, in order to establish the role of this diet in the prevention of osteoporosis.