Nutrition Specialist Responds To Factors Leading To ‘Precocious Puberty’
On April 23, News Channel 3 aired a report on the factors leading to and the effects of early puberty, which is premature maturation among children as young as three-years-old.
We reported, among several factors, that hormones contained particularly in chicken, beef, eggs, and milk may accelerate that premature maturation.
This week, a nutrition specialist for the Dairy Council of California responded to the report, disputing the claims of dairy products having anything to do with earlier maturation, and instead, pointed that childhood obesity may play a role in early puberty.
In a letter to News Channel 3, Lori Hoolihan, Ph.D. said:
About 30 percent of kids ages 4-8 don’t get the recommended amount of calcium in their diets. (What We Eat in America, NHANES 2001-2002: Usual Nutrient Intakes from Food Compared to Dietary Reference Intakes;www.ars.usda.gov/foodsurvey). Nearly 90 percent of teenage girls and almost 70 percent of teenage boys (ages 14-18) don’t meet daily calcium recommendations. (What We Eat in America, NHANES 2001-2002: Usual Nutrient Intakes from Food Compared to Dietary Reference Intakes;www.ars.usda.gov/foodsurvey).
