Girls Reaching Puberty As Young As Age 7

by Hallelujah Acres 1/25/11

An increasing number of girls in the United States are reaching puberty as young as the age of seven, according to a study conducted by researchers from Cincinnati Children Hospital and published in the journal Pediatrics. See:
http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?docID=641926

Researchers examined more than 1,200 girls between the ages of six and eight who were living in Cincinnati, San Francisco or East Harlem, N.Y. twice between 2004 and 2006. Each examination was conducted by a different female pediatrician, who determined the girls’ development of breast tissue.

The researchers found that 10.4% of Caucasian girls, 15% of Hispanic girls and 23.4% of African-American girls had developed breast tissue by the age of seven. By contrast, one study 10 years ago found that only 5% of Caucasian girls and 15.4% of African-American girls had developed breast tissue by that age. The prior study did not include Hispanic girls.

The new study further found that 18% of Caucasian girls, 31% of Hispanic girls and 43% of African-American girls had breast development by age eight. The prior study found breast tissue in only 10.5% of Caucasian girls and 36.6% of African-American girls at age eight.

Early onset of puberty can expose girls to both physical and social problems. It has been associated with a higher lifetime risk of breast cancer, and can expose emotionally immature young girls to sexual advances from older boys and men.

Researchers believe that rising rates of obesity and increasing exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals are the two major causes of early puberty.

EDITOR NOTE – Through the years a number of mothers who have their families on The Hallelujah Diet have written expressing concern that their 12-14 year old daughters had not as yet experienced puberty while most of their classmates had. My response has been “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad!”

With the early onset of puberty these days, most do not realize that prior to World War II, most young girls did not initiate puberty until the age of 15 or after. That is apparently the age God intended. So what has happened to cause girls as young as age seven and eight to begin puberty in this current day?

The answer is diet and lifestyle! Prior to World War II animals were not injected with growth hormones to help them reach market faster, dairy cows were not injected with growth hormones in order to increase milk production, and refined soy products (loaded with estrogen-like compounds called estrogenic isoflavones) were not available in the numbers they are today.

In a normal healthy girl, the body naturally begins producing estrogen at around the age of 15. This is what initiates puberty. But when a girl eats a diet high in animal flesh and dairy, both containing estrogen, puberty is accelerated.

Dr. Russell Blaylock (a nationally respected, nutritionally-minded neurosurgeon) tells us that it is not unusual for baby girls fed soy-based formulas to develop breast buds as young as two years of age.

As noted in the research above, obesity and just being overweight, along with lack of exercise, also contributes to the initiation of early puberty.

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