{"id":505438,"date":"2026-03-31T16:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505438\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:02:11","slug":"prunes-the-dried-fruit-that-can-boost-your-health-in-older-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/505438\/","title":{"rendered":"Prunes: The Dried Fruit That Can Boost Your Health In Older Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

You probably already know that strength training<\/a> and calcium can help to keep your bones healthy<\/a> and strong as you age. <\/p>\n

But some factors \u2013 like getting enough vitamin D<\/a>, which helps to absorb calcium, and avoiding smoking<\/a>, which raises your risk of osteoporosis and is linked to a 30-40% higher risk of broken hips \u2013 are less obvious. <\/p>\n

And in one study<\/a>, prunes, which are high in<\/a> anti-inflammatory polyphenols and calcium-balancing vitamin K<\/a>, appeared to preserve bone density and strength at weight-bearing parts of the hip for post-menopausal women.<\/p>\n

What did the research show? <\/p>\n

The researchers followed a group of 235 postmenopausal women, who are at greater risk of bone loss<\/a>, over a year. <\/p>\n

They told one group to eat 50g (about five to six prunes) a day during the trial, and another group to eat 100g a day. A third group didn\u2019t eat any prunes at all.<\/p>\n

Though both prune levels were beneficial, the first group (50g) were more likely to stick to the habit, which meant they tended to get better results. <\/p>\n

Professor Mary Jane De Souza, the study\u2019s lead author, said<\/a>: \u201cConsuming five to six prunes a day for 12 months resulted in preservation of bone at the hip, a finding that was observable at six months and persisted through month 12.\u201d <\/p>\n

Postmenopausal women who didn\u2019t consume any prunes saw a 1.1% bone loss in the same time period, while for those in the study, it stayed the same.<\/p>\n

That benefit could lead to<\/a> fewer bone breaks.<\/p>\n

It could have benefits for bone quality, too <\/p>\n

The same group of women were part of another study<\/a> looking at how prunes seemed to affect the structure and estimated strength of their tibia. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first randomised controlled trial to look at three-dimensional bone outcomes with respect to bone structure, geometry and estimated strength,\u201d Professor De Souza said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn our study, we saw that daily prune consumption impacted factors related to fracture risk. That\u2019s clinically invaluable.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added that<\/a> prunes may help to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, but more research is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You probably already know that strength training and calcium can help to keep your bones healthy and strong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5079,132648,1991,59,102,657,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-505438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ageing","9":"tag-bulletin","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-menopause","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}