Report Boys Now Enter Puberty Younger, Study Suggests, but It’s Unclear Why

[tom_mai78101]

A large study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that boys are entering puberty earlier now than several decades ago — or at least earlier than the time frame doctors have historically used as a benchmark.

The study, widely considered the most reliable attempt to measure puberty in American boys, estimates that boys are showing signs of puberty six months to two years earlier than was reported in previous research, which historically taught that 11 ½ was the general age puberty began in boys. But experts cautioned that because previous studies were smaller or used different approaches, it is difficult to say how much earlier boys might be developing.

The study echoes research on girls, which has now established a scientific consensus that they are showing breast development earlier than in the past.

The study, which was to be announced at the Academy of Pediatrics national conference on Saturday and published online in the journal Pediatrics, did not try to determine what might be causing earlier puberty, although it mentioned changes in diet, less physical activity and other environmental factors as possibilities. Experts said that without further research, implications for boys are unclear.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/health/puberty-starting-earlier-in-boys-new-study-suggests.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me

 

[YourFace]

Hormone in milk

 

[Wummi]

It is extremely clear why. It is from the food we eat, especially meat. The cows, pigs, chicken and sheep which we eat are fed with growth hormones and antibiotics. Take chickens for example. They are raised in farms where there is no "night time" because during the night, the lights are turned on. This way, the chickens pretty much don't sleep and all they do is eat and drink all day. The food they eat are loaded with growth hormones and antibiotics in order to protect them from any sort of disease outbreak. They are raised in super crowded conditions such that the chickens literally step on one another. If one of them were to catch a disease, it would quickly spread to all other chickens in the overcrowded farm. Thus, the food they eat are full of antibiotics.
Why do you think antibiotics don't work so well on humans anymore? The doctors have to resort to using stronger and stronger antibiotics to combat diseases. A large part has to do with the bacterial already gaining immunity from lower down in the food chain.
The chickens can be slaughtered and brought onto a dinner plate within 45 days compared to over half a year for regular, free ranch chickens. So, these growth hormones are stuck in the muscles and meat of the chickens which become your next McNugget or KFC meal. No shit the boys nowadays are reaching puberty younger.
Many cows that are bred for their meat are fed with more than just grass.They are also fed food that contains lots of proteins, antibiotics and growth hormones to boost their growth speed.
So, maybe we should consider becoming vegetarians? I hope everyone can see the goodness in becoming a vegetarian. It would eradicate a lot of misery in the world. Let's just take the States as an example: about 70 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population. “If all the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million. Go VEGETARIAN!

 

[Accname]

Being vegetarian is dangerous if you dont select your next meal carefully.
There are some vitamins and nutrients which vegetables usually dont contain but are still important for the human body.
Its not impossible, but if you dont know what you need to eat in order to get these, you can become seriously sick.
I know some vegetarians, or at least, people who eat meat only very very rarely.
Some of them had serious health problems because of this. They went to the doctors and were told to either eat more meat or some specific vegetables.
Furthermore, if your body is already accustomed to eating meat on a regular basis suddenly switching to only vegetables can be very harmful to your health. It will be a shock to your stomach.

But i agree that the way meat is "produced" is not a good choice. And there is definitely too much meat being eaten by us in europe and the united states.

 

[s3rius]

The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population.

While I dislike the lack of citations I have to say that a 1:5 ratio is actually better than I'd anticipated. From school biology I remember that you usually have a 1:10 ratio from food consumed to body weight gained. And that's including non edible things like bones or feathers.
This leads to the assumption that American people actually still eat more corn than meat, on average.

And you complain about growth hormons in meat. Do you think our plants are free of all chemicals? They're coated with pesticides and artificial fertilizer, sometimes even genetically engineered. I have a hard time believing that this is much better for your body that what we're doing to our livestock.

Anyway, we humans are not made for a vegetarian life. We're omnivores, we eat pretty much everything. We just consume way too much meat than vegetables and corn.

 

[FireCat]

It is extremely clear why. It is from the food we eat, especially meat. The cows, pigs, chicken and sheep which we eat are fed with growth hormones and antibiotics.

Couldn't say it better myself.

 

[Wummi]

I have been a vegetarian for 13 years, since I was nine years old. I just make sure I eat different kinds of vegetables, eat the occasional cheese, eat tofu and stuff made from beans, fruits, and some form of carbohydrate such as pasta, noodles, rice, or bread. I have grown up taller and healthier than the rest of my family and relatives, who are almost all meat eaters.
I am on my university's badminton and volleyball team and I do just as well as my other teammates who eat meat. There is absolutely no danger in being a vegetarian as long as you don't just eat one type of food. I have eaten vegetables + noodles for 4 straight days and nothing happened. I don't feel weak and I outlast most people in terms of endurance in sports. (I'm not writing this to try to brag, but I really want to assure people that being a vegetarian is perfectly safe and everyone should try to eat less meat and if possible, become a vegetarian).
Georges St-Pierre and several other UFC fighters are all vegan, and they are extremely healthy and fit.
People who have problems when they turn vegetarian is due to their bodies not being used to digesting a vegetable only diet. It's just like making you write and work with your less used hand, which causes the muscles to feel strange and cramped. Same goes with your stomach. Part of the problem also has to do with the person's mindset. They're so scared that they will suffer from malnutrition and start becoming weak and incapacitated, that they start feeling the symptoms they imagine. In reality, the body will get used to the vegetarian diet very soon. I know many people that have turned vegetarian, and they feel no "strange symptoms" after one to two weeks of changing.
Plus, there are multivitamins everywhere and as long as you pop one every once in a while, your body will not be deprived of essential nutrients. I don't pop them and I'm perfectly fine.

 

[camelCase]

But..
If I go vegen.. won't my canines be all sad and retrenched?

 

[Nyph]

Wummi, just because animals are given hormones, does not mean that it ends up in the meat. And even if it did end up in the meat I am 99% sure that most hormones are completely inactive through oral consumption. Plus hormones from other animals may not have an effect on humans. Add to that the extremely low concentration of hormones in the animal and you can pretty much safely say none of it gets into your bloodstream from eating meat.

Who the fuck cares about animals being slaughtered anyway. They aren't humans and you have to draw the empathy line somewhere. Imo, killing anything apart from an alive out of the womb human is fine, provided you aren't doing it just to piss people off (like burning kittens or something).

Also, money cost of food is negligible in the world. Think of the food that could be produced for the price of one fighter jet...

Also, vegetarians don't get bacon.

 

[Slapshot136]

I am semi-vegan in that I rarely eat meat/dairy/etc. (maybe once a week or so) - I won't complain if I get it, but I won't eat it normally either - it just kind of lost it's appeal to me for various reasons

I suspect it's not only hormones, but other chemicals that get in the foods as well (fertilizers, sweeteners, etc.) that are causing earlier development

 

[RedOrb]

I agree. Vegetarian is best. It was once said that if everyone were vegetarian, there would be more food in the world. Grazing lands are actually quite expansive and if that land was used to grow food crops instead, far more would be fed. There is no real reason not to turn vegetarian, imo, except if in your location it is very difficult to maintain such a diet.

Taste in food is almost always about seasoning, which certainly applies to all types of food, even tofu.. Is it worth giving up bacon for a potentially healthier lifestyle? Of course. If you couldn't hack it without the taste of bacon, you may still get the taste from substitute foods, though why you would want to when there are so many insanely good tasting foods, I'm not sure..

 

[Nyph]

The actual problem that causes these sorts of changes is the opposite of what people say. Its not that our food is dirty with chemicals, its that it is FAR FAR too clean. Our bodies have not evolved to do pretty much nothing. Our immune systems, and everything else in our bodies which relies on hormesis to grow, have been stunted hard. Ever wonder why fresh veges are good for you, and nutrient supplements aren't nearly as good? It isn't the nutrients, its the poisons that we need.

 

[SouLEDGE]

Vegetarian best? Oh my lordy lord, now I'm not saying all this unnatural food is good for you
but take a look at our ancient ancestors diets: meat, lots of it and as much as they could get, coupled with whatever fruits and vegetables they could find. It worked out well for them and it actually works out well for our diets too...
Besides I don't think I could go a week without braaing up some tender sirloin steak

 

[Varine]

Well hey guys... if they're doing meth at 12 they gotta start having sex at 11 at least, if not 9 or 10. It only makes sense they grow faster to meet the demands of today's society.

And I'm pretty sure braaing's not a word. Kindly correct it.

 

[camelCase]

Going veg. is the best?
"Canines" <-- BAM! Debunked by an 18 year old kid.

 

[Nyph]

Going veg. is the best?
"Canines" <-- BAM! Debunked by an 18 year old kid.

Yeah I think I debunked it as well in another thread a while ago, where I mentioned our acute sense of smell for sulfur compounds, because they are given off of rotting meat. So we can tell whether meat is safe to eat or not.

 

[FireCat]

Who the fuck cares about animals being slaughtered anyway. They aren't humans and you have to draw the empathy line somewhere.

It doesn't fucking matter,. They're still living things, and you have to treat them right and care for them anyway!

A 2009 study found that children who consumed the most protein from animal sources entered puberty about seven months earlier than those who consumed the least. "It doesn't matter so much if it's milk, cheese, or meat -- all these animal proteins have a clear impact on [our] IGF system," says Thomas Remer, Ph.D., one of the authors of the study and a professor at the Research Institute of Child Nutrition, in Germany.

Still, hormones added to the food supply are probably not the biggest culprit behind early puberty. It's more likely that meat, milk, and similar foods help trigger earlier puberty because they are rich in protein, calories, and nutrients, says Marcia Herman-Giddens, an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, in Chapel Hill, and the lead author of an influential 1997 study on early puberty in girls.

However, Herman-Giddens cautions that more research is needed to untangle the many factors involved. For instance, she says, rising rates of overweight and obesity -- and the processed foods, high-calorie drinks, and lack of exercise driving them -- are "probably the biggest reason" for the trend toward earlier puberty. (Fat cells stimulate the body to produce estrogen.) Pesticides, flame-retardants, plastics, and other chemicals in the environment that can disrupt hormones may also be partly to blame.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

So if we eat more meat, we breed faster. Bad?

 

[Slapshot136]

but take a look at our ancient ancestors diets: meat, lots of it and as much as they could get, coupled with whatever fruits and vegetables they could find.

historically only the rich could afford to eat meat, but also they ate unprocessed foods - the meat from back then is quite different than the meat you would buy at the store today

 

[Accname]

historically only the rich could afford to eat meat, but also they ate unprocessed foods - the meat from back then is quite different than the meat you would buy at the store today

I think he is talking about way more back then, like, before money.