How do the hormones found in a typical steak affect a growing girl?

According to the journal Pediatrics, 15 percent of American girls now enter puberty by age 7. For African-American girls, the percentage is 23 percent.

Seven.

It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? At age 7, I was a baby and had absolutely no idea of what puberty even was.  We talk so much about kids growing up way too fast and I agree that they are. Not only are mega companies sexualizing children, but so is the media. Why? For a fast buck. And I tend to think, a fast buck may be behind the reason in the rise of early puberty currently being seen throughout our country.

When we were growing up, our food didn’t have the amount of artificial preservatives and chemicals in it and meat in particular wasn’t pumped with loads of hormones. Doctors say girls are maturing faster than ever and, for reasons doctors don’t completely understand, reaching puberty younger than any generation in history.

Today Carolyn covered a recent USA Today article in which doctors say they can’t fully explain why girls are reaching puberty now so incredibly early, but I think they need only look at our food supply.

Back when we were young, meat was expensive and families bought it less than they do today. Now meat has not only become more affordable, and it is everywhere. Typically it is the cheaper versions pumped with hormones, preservatives, and chemicals that widely found in children’s food offerings. Did anyone catch the episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution tonight? In it, he breaks down exactly how the ground beef is made in school cafeterias. By taking meat “not fit for human consumption”, which is usually reserved for dog food, the meat is mixed with ammonia and chemically manufactured into what passes for edible ground beef.

Food in general (and the synthetic material it is often made from) are also behind another theory about early puberty – the idea that girls are more overweight now than ever and the extra body fat stimulates the early puberty. In Heather Turgeon’s article, “Why Are 7- and 8-Year-Old Girls Entering Puberty?,” she cites some alarming statistics:

Overweight girls are 50 percent more likely to enter puberty early, and those considered obese have an 80 percent chance of developing breasts before their ninth birthday. In this country, nearly one third of children and teens are overweight or obese.

Yes, of course, parents need to monitor their child’s diet and health. But I can’t help but be infuriated by the fact that farmers are intentionally creating unhealthy food for the sake of profit. They are not only producing and raising farm animals that are abused their entire lives, but they are valuing the almighty dollar over human health.

Many of us are fortunate enough to be able to buy organic milk and meat from cows that have been raised without antibiotics or hormones, but this is an extravagance many families cannot afford. Many of us are vegetarians who intentionally avoid the hormones and antibiotics found in meat.

And while parents ultimately select their child’s food and the accountability falls on each individual parent, aren’t the FDA and the beef and dairy farmers also responsible for choosing greed over quality and money over health? And shouldn’t the food being processed with hormones given to farm animals be studied significantly more, especially in light of the growing number of girls reaching puberty while still young children?

Image: Stockxchng

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