The Fat Diaries: Is Obesity Making Girls Hit Puberty Sooner?
Well, it’s that time of year. Vacation is almost at an end. We’re seeing lots of sales on kids clothing and school supplies. We’re getting notes in the mail telling us to send in those last-minute forms for school, and we’re starting to see more articles about school-aged kids and obesity in the news again.
I read an article this week in the Yahoo! News health section, which I admit I was only browsing because I wanted to see the video of the Jet-Blue guy. The headline was fairly chilling however: “Puberty Coming Earlier for U.S. Girls”. Having a girl myself, I felt compelled to read the study.
It stated that in a study of 1,200 girls, more were starting puberty at increasingly younger ages (7 or 8) since 1997. Subsequently, these girls were at a higher risk for breast cancer, and what the article deemed “risky behavior.” The doctors monitoring the study aren’t sure why this is happening, but blame obesity.
The study then admits that while the percentage in the group of white girls rose from 11% to 18% with early puberty (the somewhat humorous medical term is actually called precocious puberty) the percentage of black girls entering puberty, 43%, stayed the same. It didn’t give any statistics as to which girls were overweight, which irritated me.
I admit I was a little disappointed. The article revealed little and didn’t give much practical advice. The indicators of this particular kind of precocious puberty, were more related to genetic obesity than poor nutrition. Namely, if you were an overweight baby, your body is more likely to produce a hormone (which they don’t name) that will aggravate your pituitary gland. I also double-checked at the Mayo Clinic’s website which stated that puberty beginning at the age of eight is perfectly normal. They blame precocious puberty on abnormal chemical/hormonal balances.
I remember those horrible talks in school where the girls were divided from the boys and told about the wonderful gateway to adulthood called “puberty.” I had a particularly sadistic teacher ask the girls who had started their period already, and asked them to stand up. I clearly remember the scarlet faces of the four girls who answered, for fear of the teacher pointing them out. One was obese, her parents were Pacific Islanders and she came from generations of obese family. The other three looked like ordinary girls, only built on larger scales. They were the tallest kids in class by a clear foot, and towered over the rest of us like imposing valkyries. They weren’t fat, but most of them had really tall moms or dads. We all ate the same junk food at lunch. If this recent study blaming obesity had merit, than with all the junk food I ate I should have rightly started puberty at age 7, but I didn’t.
The famous Dr. Oz has a different opinion. He points to the vast amounts of estrogen that are in our water supply. You know those studies that local environmental groups keep doing on all the frogs and fish that are born with pairs of sexual organs and females that won’t mate? Our water supply contains estrogen in it from various sources. It gets in the water from female hormone replacement medicine and the pill. It also gets in from livestock urine, from animals that are being pumped up with estrogen. The other source is from xenoestrogens, which are chemicals that mimic estrogen in bodies, namely phthalates. These come from BPA plastics, pesticides and glues, and exposure to them can heighten your risk for breast and testicular cancer. If Dr. Oz is right, the estrogen in the water might tie together the links between early puberty and breast cancer.
Estrogen is a contaminant in of all forms of water, including bottled water. Brita filters don’t eliminate it, and it isn’t broken down by the water treatment facilities. Dr. Oz advises people not to flush their medicine down the toilet (who does that?) and to recycle plastic bottles.
So: what can Mom and Dad do to protect their girl? I have no freaking clue. If non-genetic obesity is a factor, we at least have a little power. I was pleased as anything last week to hear on the news that several school boards were stepping up to the plate and attempting to remove junk food from vending machines and giving the menus an overhaul. (PLEASE let them drop nachos with chili and cheese from the rotation!) When it comes to genetics, race or estrogen in the water, however, there’s not much else we can do. No one has devised (or at least publicized) a way to neutralize estrogen in water. No one has come up with a “cure” for the obese gene; they only know it exists.
I’m not convinced America is facing an epidemic of precociously pubescent girls, but then I tend to think anyone under 20 is just a baby. Of course as my little girl is starting preschool this year I do get the horrible feeling that she’s growing up too fast. I do agree that America is facing an obesity epidemic, but we also have the tools and the know-how to overcome it. I have hope that my children will grow up healthy, because I can affect that future. But I can’t control when my girl starts to grow up. I can only try to help her along the way.
