Mind Your Minerals

Drink your milk. That's the motherly advice of Susan Barr, Ph.D., R.D.N., professor of nutrition at the University of British Columbia, after she led a study that compared the bone mineral density of vegetarian (including lacto-ovo vegetarians, who consume dairy foods and eggs) and non-vegetarian women ages 20 to 40. The vegetarians had lower bone mass than the nonvegetarian women.

"The findings underscore the importance of dairy foods in a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet," explains Barr. "Milk and milk products provide the bulk of the calcium in our food supply. If you eliminate these foods from the diet, it's difficult to make up the balance and bone health could ultimately suffer."

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