To wonder if it’s down to plastics? Or milk?

[patienceandprudence]

Sorry for the DM link but:

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10834835/Young-girls-starting-undergo-puberty-young-six-years-old.html

Obviously this is about the US, but it’s fair to say the trend has been seen all over. Why are girls going through puberty so early?

I remember reading about the chemicals used in plastics even potentially being passed down from mother to child.

My mother (despite pumping us full of the stuff) always insisted it was mostly milk and meats. I watched that documentary on UPFs and wasn’t there a suggestion it could contribute also?

Thoughts please!

Why are girls going through puberty so early?

The short answer is exposure to endocrine disrupters which the body reacts to as if it were estrogen. Female children mature early, male children have increased risk of cancer. In the US, they use bovine growth hormones which is in regular milk (but not organic milk). Bovine growth hormones are endocrine disrupters. Other known examples include various pesticides, artificial food preservatives/flavourings/colours which are used in the US but banned over here. BHT in plastics, also an endocrine disrupter but it has been banned in the US so while it did contribute, it no longer does so. In addition, no safety studies on many widely used GMOs in the US have been done so it is unknown whether things like GMO corn contribute as well.

Discover

When I read the thing on plastics (wish I could find the article, but it was a year or two ago), the suggestion was that it’s likely to be various chemicals that haven’t yet been identified. I think they were àt there very beginnings of studying a few specific ones.

I do wonder if these chemicals are also contributing to rise in obesity and disproportionately affecting those in poverty

America terrifies me.

There may be, but there are already so many known endocrine disrupters that cause early puberty and at least in the US far less is being done to lower child exposure to them. The sinister aspect is that once the body is fully mature, these endocrine disrupters are then carcinogens and contribute to your lifetime cancer risk. But because there are dozens and dozens of them that everyone is constantly exposed to over decades, no one can bring a court case proving that one single disrupter caused their cancer. So these all stay as legal background pollution. The US also with it’s for profit health system has no interest in lowering cancer rates as cancer treatment is a multi-trillion dollar industry that supports millions of jobs.

Ah! Very interesting, thank you! The US is terrifying

Corn syrup aka glucose syrup certainly does contribute to obesity. And it is 100% made from GMO corn that is banned here as it isn’t proven safe to consume.