Eleanor writes:
“Can you comment on the benefits of prunes to stimulate bone growth? There are a lot of sites promoting prunes as a scientifically proven way to ward off osteoporosis. I’d love it if you would give these claims a critical look.”
There has been quite a bit of research done on dried plums (aka prunes) and their effects on bone health. Some of the results have been quite impressive. One study, for example, found that subjects who had already experienced substantial bone loss were able to completely reverse these losses by eating prunes every day! Others show that eating prunes can help prevent the bone loss from occurring in the first place.
The only problem is that these studies were all done in mice and involved eating prunes as 25% of the entire diet. I’ll just give you a moment to contemplate the potential impact of that.
