High meat diet may lead to early puberty for girls
Published 11 June 2010
Increased amounts of meat in children’s diets may be part of the reason why girls go through puberty at a much younger age than they did 100 years ago, new research led by the University of Brighton shows.
And with evidence suggesting that girls who start their periods early are at higher risk of developing cancer and heart disease, scientists involved in the new study said their results added to evidence that it was healthier to avoid high-meat diets.
The research, led by Dr Imogen Rogers from the University of Brighton, involved a study of 3000 girls taking part in the Children of 90s study in Bristol.
Dr Rogers and colleagues from the University of Bristol, including Professor Andy Ness and Dr Pauline Emmett, looked at the girls’ dietary intakes at the ages of three and seven years and how likely they were to have started their periods by the time they attended a research clinic aged around 12 years.
They found that girls who had higher intakes of meat and protein at three and seven were more likely to have started their periods by 12 years old than girls who ate less meat and protein.
Their report found 49 per cent of girls eating more than 12 portions of meat a week at the age of seven had started their periods by age 12, compared to only 35 per cent of those who ate less than four portions of meat a week.
Dr Rogers, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton’s School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, said there was evidence that girls who start their periods early were at higher risk of a number of diseases including breast cancer, ovarian cancer and heart disease. This work suggests that a girl’s diet in early childhood may affect her risk of suffering from these diseases as an adult.
Dr Rogers said “Meat is a good source of many important nutrients including iron and zinc and there is no reason why girls should adopt a vegetarian diet or that meat in moderation cannot form a valuable part of a balanced diet for children.
She said the findings needed repeating in other populations before firm recommendations on diet can be made but, she added: “These results add to the evidence that it is healthiest to avoid diets containing very high amounts of meat.”
The new research, funded by the World Cancer Research Fund, has just been published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.
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