Calories and Consequences

I recently read a news story about girls going through puberty earlier than ever before. While a generation ago the average age was around 14-15, it has now dropped to around 12, and 10% of girls show signs of puberty as early as age seven. This is a concern because the onset of puberty -- the age at which a child is hormonally thrust into the adult world -- has all sorts of consequences, from medical to social. Breast and uterine cancer later in life have been tied to early puberty, for instance, and psychologists warn that looking more mature than you really are can lead to behaviors that are unsafe for a pre-teen. The reason for this mass change in physiology is unknown, though the study's authors cite possible exposure to chemicals such as BPA, sometimes found as a manufacturing by-product in plastic food containers, and increasing rates of childhood obesity.

While the effects of unwanted chemical compounds are easy to decry as 'unnatural,' with calls for increased industrial oversight, a rise in childhood obesity is perhaps less likely to galvanize policymakers. After all, if it's just 'baby fat,' surely the child will simply shed it as their body adjusts to the rigors of adolescent growth? As we learn more about fat, though, we're discovering that it plays a variety of roles in the body's complex web if chemical interactions -- it's not simply a passive storehouse for extra calories, but rather an active organ. Part of its role is to concentrate and synthesize female hormones, which -- in young girls -- can lead to early puberty, with all of the fallout that entails.

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