Dried Plums and Your Bones

Dried plums as a bone-strength enhancer? Come on! For one thing, dried plums are still called dried prunes in my book. And for another, the only thing prunes have ever enhanced for me is the number of times I go the bathroom. So excuse me if I'm a little leery of increasing my dried plum/prune intake as a way of enhancing my bone strength.

But you know what? Maybe I'm off the mark a little bit. According to osteopenia3.com, dried plums are filled with compounds called polyphenols that rebalance your bone-building cycle. In other words, dried plums slow down the breakdown of your bone strength. And believe me, there are times I'm at the gym with a couple hundred pounds of weight pressed over my head when I'm very aware of the importance of bone strength.

In technical terms, osteoporosis is a disease of the bones that makes them weak and prone to fractures. Bones weaken during normal aging in a process called resorbtion, which is the e gradual loss of bone. According to an article in the e-zine natural standard.com. Women in particular develop osteoporosis more often than men because they start out with lower bone mass and tend to live longer. They also experience a sudden drop in estrogen at menopause that accelerates bone loss. The solution? Eat dried plums and plenty of them!

The Bowels of Plum Research

The road to discovery that plums are indeed a bone strength enhancer has been one full of twists and turns. Research - as is often the case - started off with lab animals and ended up with humans.

Realage.com (real age) maps out the progression of plum research: starting out at Oklahoma State University, research to determine what substance in prunes created improved bone mineral density revealed that polyphenols (see above) in the dried fruit achieved two effects: (a) they increased growth factors linked to bone formation and (b) they countered the activity of tumours. Prunes also contain potassium and boron (a trace mineral); both believed to contribute to bone mineral density.

Ten a Day is the Only Way

According to natural standard.com - which recapped a great interview with nutrition researcher Bahram H. Arjmandi, of Florida State University; midlife women who ate ten prunes daily for a year slowed their bone loss substantially. If ten sounds daunting, even three a day can make a difference. Arjmandi also feels that prunes are the most bone-friendly fruit around, much more so than other so-called bone-builders like soy. Women in particular can lose up to 20 percent of their bone mass in the seven years after menopause, so increasing plum consumption is a good thing.

But plums aren't just for women. Men have just as much need when it comes to enhancing their bone strength as they get older. Maybe their bones don't age as fast as their female counterparts but the process occurs none-the-less, and that breakdown can be slowed with a consistent intake of plums.