The image of a 7 year-old wearing a bra is disturbing to me. Not only is childhood being cut short in the West driven by many factors including media of all sorts, an obsession with the body, with sexualizing everything, the glamorization of violence, etc, etc – you know the deal. Now childhood is being cut short even earlier by means of biology.
As someone who matured early, I can tell you personally that it’s not a pleasant experience. You don’t fit. You look different. You are treated differently. It takes years for people to catch up, and by then, it’s “too late.” You’ve been different, often ostracized socially, or at least placed in a different category for so long. You are treated as more of an adult. You think of yourself as more of an adult. There is a vast effect on self-esteem. The list goes on. For a long time people have also talked about the health risks that these resulting women are afflicted by, including earlier-onset menopause and a much greater risk for breast cancer and osteoporosis. Recent studies also suggest that these girls become sexually active much earlier, exposing them to potential disease, pregnancy, and all of the psychological issues that are involved in such behavior. And the earlier a girl develops, the higher the risks for all of these things, physically, mentally, emotionally, and with the future of her health and lifespan.
A tough break. Nobody asks for it. And throughout all time it was something over which we thought we had no control.
Until recently.
My mother forwarded me this article published in Reuters citing a definitive study that concluded that girls are entering puberty earlier at quite alarming rates. The main cause that they focused on was childhood obesity. Fat girls were more likely to develop earlier. OK. I drew a connection to why much earlier than the article did. As I read I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the article to mention it. Come on now. What are people eating that makes them obese? The moment I was waiting for came at the end and wasn’t explored much: HORMONES in our FOOD.
In 2005 Americans 185 lbs meat per capita
Puberty results from hormone changes within the brain which signal the reproductive organs. They in turn send more hormone signals to other parts of the body, initiating growth and change. I’m not going to get into science. I’m not a scientist and I’m not going to bother with citations up the wazoo. Everyone reading this blog is capable of doing the same google searches that I do. But here are the main things I gleaned:
- Two-thirds of American cattle raised for slaughter today are injected with hormones to make them grow faster, and America’s dairy cows are given a genetically-engineered hormone called rBGH to increase milk production.
- European Union’s Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating to Public Health questioned whether hormone residues in the meat of “growth enhanced” animals and can disrupt human hormone balance, causing developmental problems, interfering with the reproductive system, and even leading to the development of breast, prostate or colon cancer.
- Children, pregnant women and the unborn are thought to be most susceptible to these negative health effects.
- Hormones are also present in animals’ excrement which remains in the soil for months, can seep into the groundwater supply, and also move into bodies of water where they affect fish reproduction.
Hormones and Puberty
Why are hormones used on cattle? To make them bigger and to produce more milk. More, more, more, cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. Having read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, as well as Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats, years ago, I have become very concerned about the amount of hormones we’re consuming. When you think about it, hormones of every sort are simply chemical signals. Each hormone triggers actions that different systems in our bodies take. We have hormones that control metabolism, growth, mood swings, immune system, reproduction, and more. Can you imagine what we’re doing by adding (or flooding) wrong signals into our bodies? Depression, hyperactivity, metabolic issues, goodness, everything can be affected adversely. In the macro world, messed up signals and messages can cause airplanes to crash, cars to crash, wars to start, for goodness sake. What systems are crashing, wars are being fought inside our bodies?
So, here’s one of the most obvious examples: little girls sprouting breasts at 7 and 8 years-old. It’s easy to see because it’s the hardest to ignore. Breasts are out there. And little girls aren’t supposed to have them, poor things. I can’t imagine what’s going on inside all of us that we can’t see. And although I’m not eating meat right now (thankfully so, until I make up my mind about some issues, and if/until I find organic meat and humane slaughtering that I think are acceptable), I’m drinking English Breakfast tea with milk right now. Milk. You go on thinking, a little drop of milk won’t hurt. I’m not drinking gallons. But it might add up. And as a good American child, I did drink gallons. Every week. I had a minimum of 3-5 glasses a day, (not counting what I added to my cereal), and with two sisters and a dad who liked milk too, we went through a gallon almost every day. We would buy 2+ 2-gallon bottles every week. Perhaps it’s not so shocking I went through puberty early.
As far as I can see, this is another strong strong and scary argument for forgoing non-organic meats and milk (and eggs, now that I’m thinking about it, although that’s more for antibiotics, also a related scary issue). So scary that although I am so swamped with work, it’s not funny, I stopped everything to blog about this. I leave you with this: think hard about what you put into your body. It becomes you. I need to start thinking harder, too.
Links on the topic:
Scary UK National Obesity Ad Campaign (worth a look)
3 year-olds getting their period
EU scientists confirm health risks of hormones in meat
Puberty coming earlier for girls
Irène Sharon Hodes 