Puberty is the time when children develop into men and women. Most girls begin the early stages of puberty at around age 10, but some girls start showing early puberty signs such as breast development before ages 7 and 8, according to KidsHealth from Nemours. This condition, also known as precocious puberty, is more common in girls than in boys, and it may have a variety of underlying causes. Diet is one of them.
Link to Meat
No matter when a girl begins puberty, it usually starts when a part of her brain -- the hypothalamus -- tells her pituitary gland to release hormones that stimulate her ovaries, according to KidsHealth. A popular school of thought is that ingesting hormones in many types of American meat may lead to the onset of early puberty in girls. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which concentrate many animals in small and confined spaces, can use certain hormones and steroids to speed up animal growth for faster turnover. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved hormones such as progesterone and estradiol, natural female sex hormones, for use in cattle and sheep during food production.
Supporting Research
Some evidence suggests a link between the amount of meat consumed and the timing of puberty's onset. For instance, in a 2010 study published in "Public Health Nutrition," researchers in the study found that 49 percent of girls who ate at least 12 portions of meat per week at age 7 had already begun their periods by age 12 ½, whereas only 35 percent of girls who ate four or fewer servings of meat per week had their periods by that time.
Concerns
Researchers in the 2010 "Public Health Nutrition" study also found some evidence suggesting that girls who begin their periods earlier are at a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer later in life. However, the hormones in meat weren't specifically linked to the earlier onset of puberty, and the researchers didn't recommend cutting all meat out of children's diets. Still, the researchers did recommend that parents avoid giving children large quantities of meat to reduce their children's risk of future health problems.
Diet-Related Problems
Girls who are significantly overweight are more likely to develop precocious puberty than girls who aren't, according to MayoClinic.com. And, supporting that statement, a report in "Breast Cancer Research and Treatment" mentions that girls who eat a high-fat, low-fiber diet and don't get enough exercise are more likely to start puberty earlier than girls who exercise and eat a high-fiber, low-fat diet. Whereas female ballerinas and gymnasts tend to begin puberty later because they don't meet the right fat and weight distribution, obese children develop high levels of a chemical called protein, which can in turn stimulate puberty hormones.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Precocious Puberty
- KidsHealth from Nemours: Early Puberty
- Huffington Post: Is the Early Onset of Puberty in Young Girls Linked to Meat?; Christina Pirello, MFN, CCN; 2010
- Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State; R. Gandhi, et al; 2000
- "Breast Cancer Research and Treatment"; Western Diet, Early Puberty, and Breast Cancer Risk; B. Stoll; 1998
- "Public Health Nutrition"; Diet Throughout Childhood and Age at Menarche... ;I. Rogers, et al; 2010
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