Toxic chemicals and food causing an early puberty epidemic

Dear Reader,

We’re going to have kindergartners wearing training bras — and they’re calling it the new normal!

If you have daughters or granddaughters, you’ve probably witnessed firsthand the epidemic that’s making life miserable for millions of young girls.

I’m talking about early puberty.

More girls than ever are starting to develop breasts before they learn to read — and are having their first periods before their first day of middle school.

It’s a situation that didn’t exist just a few decades ago, and it could be setting up these innocent girls for a lifetime of health problems — and even cancer.

Believe it or not, some mainstream pediatricians are telling us to ignore the problem. But it’s becoming clear what’s really causing this early rush to maturity.

And what we have to do to stop it.

A toxic soup

“It’s really as if my six-year-old has a twelve-year-old trapped inside her body.”

That’s how one worried mom, Ellen, describes what happened to her young daughter, Rebecca.

Rebecca was just six — a normal kid starting school and obsessed with Disney — when she started developing breasts and growing hair under her arms.

And there are more girls like Rebecca out there than ever before.

Just a generation ago, less than 5 percent of girls started puberty before their eighth birthdays. But today, that number has more than doubled.

So what’s changed in just a generation? Well, plenty.

Today’s kids are living in a toxic soup of dangerous chemicals and foods that can actually jumpstart their bodies’ puberty cycles.

And I’ve been warning you for years about two of the worst — BPA and soy.

Both BPA and soy can actually mimic the sex hormone estrogen, telling young girls’ bodies that it’s time to start growing breasts and pubic hair — and even to start menstruating.

And over the past 30 years or so BPA and soy have become harder and harder to avoid.

BPA is still used as a plastics component in everything from water bottles to the linings of soup cans. And literally hundreds of the processed foods you’ll find at the supermarket every day are loaded with dangerous levels of soy.

They’re even packing it into baby formulas!

Just imagine how many young girls right now are sitting down to a bowl of their favorite cereal — or a microwaveable meal — and a bottle of water. All without ever realizing they’re getting a double whammy of BPA and soy.

These girls are on the fast track to puberty before they finish breakfast!

And the one group you’d expect to take the issue seriously — the American Academy of Pediatrics — is burying its head in the sand like an ostrich.

They even put out a recent report saying parents shouldn’t get “unnecessarily alarmed” about the signs of early puberty.

Are you kidding me? If this shouldn’t get parents and grandparents alarmed, I don’t know what should.

Studies have shown that kids who start puberty years before their bodies are ready are more likely to develop cancer, heart disease, diabetes and even depression. Who wouldn’t worry about that?

The good news is that there are a few simple things we can all do to keep our girls safe, like: Avoid food packaged in cans that still contain BPA. Which ones do is easy enough to find out, because most all companies that have ditched this chemical will say “BPA-Free” right on the label.

Stop using plastic containers for food storage and switch to glass.

If your child or grandchild is still taking a bottle, make sure it’s a new one. Manufacturers were allowed to use BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups until just three years ago!

Check for soy and unfermented soy on all your food labels. You won’t believe some of the foods you’ll find soy in!

Just a little diligence on your part could help a little girl you love stay a little girl for a while longer.

Sources:
“AAP: Early puberty in girls most likely benign” Molly Walker, December 14, 2015, Medpage Today, medpagetoday.com