In recent years, a casual search on the Internet can lead to various reports of precocious puberty in infants. Media often question that this is caused by food.
Off-season vegetables, bean products, bovine colostrum, milk powder, instant chickens… Well, there are quite a lot of food shot.
Let’s talk about some issues that parents are most concerned about: Is precocious puberty caused by what? Will these foods lead to precocious puberty? How should precocious puberty be prevented?
Who is to blame for precocious puberty?
Precocious puberty is divided into true precocious puberty and pseudo precocious puberty.
True precocious puberty may be caused by intracranial infection, trauma or tumor, or it may be the so-called [idiopathic central precocious puberty] for which no cause can be found.
There are also many causes of pseudoprecocious puberty, such as tumors in ovaries and testis, which stimulate the body to secrete sex hormones and lead to premature development.
Therefore, if the child has precocious puberty, he should go to the hospital as soon as possible to eliminate organic diseases.
Strange food? First, think about whether there is excess nutrition.
In addition to the causes of diseases, precocious puberty may also be related to unreasonable diet, excessive nutrition and indiscriminate intake of supplements.
Today’s children’s living conditions are much better than before. Overweight and obesity are becoming more and more serious. There are also some parents who give their children indiscriminate supplements, and some even have no approval documents for health care products. Clinically, cases of abnormal hormone levels in obese children can often be seen. Some little boys’ estrogen levels are even higher than those of adult women.
In many news reports, children with precocious puberty may have eaten such and such foods, but if they go further, they may find that the real reason is that their nutritional status is too good.
These five foods do not cause precocious puberty.
Next, let’s analyze the five foods that are most frequently shot.
I. Ripening Plants
Off-season vegetables and fruits, cucumbers with prickly top flowers, ripening bananas, mangoes, watermelons with swelling agents…
The media often say that these vegetables and fruits are ripened with [hormones], which is actually very imprecise. Strictly speaking, these so-called [plant hormones] are actually called plant growth regulators, which are different from human hormones.
[Plant hormones cause precocious puberty in human beings] It is a bit out of the question. Animal and plant physiological and biochemical mechanisms are completely different, and plant hormones and human hormones do not have chemical structural similarities.
One comment: If plant hormones can make people precocious, can pollen, as the [sperm] of plants, make people pregnant?
Two, bean curd, soybean milk and other bean products
Some media said that bean products contain a kind of estrogen [soybean isoflavone], which may lead to precocious puberty in infants.
But please pay attention to the word “estrogen-like”! Estrogen-like hormone is not equivalent to human estrogen, and its content in bean products is also very limited.
However, it is necessary to remind you that some soybean isoflavone health products on the market boast of various magical effects. Whether these products will secretly add real estrogen in order to achieve the effect, only heaven knows the manufacturer.
One comment: Bean products really have such great power, wouldn’t it be possible to enlarge breasts by drinking soya-bean milk and eating tofu every day?
3. Bovine colostrum
The Ministry of Health has stipulated that from September 1, 2012, bovine colostrum and dairy products made from bovine colostrum will not be added to infant formula foods. This regulation has been interpreted by some media as [because bovine colostrum may lead to precocious puberty].
In fact, the relevant industries have determined the content of 50 hormones in bovine colostrum, and the results show that there is no statistical difference between the hormones in bovine colostrum and ordinary milk.
Moreover, the content of similar hormones in human milk, especially human colostrum, is generally higher than that in ordinary milk and bovine colostrum.
The reason why babies are not recommended to eat bovine colostrum is not what’s precocious puberty, but:
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Bovine colostrum is not so good: there is no valid evidence that bovine colostrum has the effect of improving immunity and making babies less sick.
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Bovine colostrum may be harmful: the nutritional structure of bovine colostrum is not suitable for babies, and the high proportion of protein will increase the burden on babies’ kidneys; Bovine colostrum also has the risk of causing baby allergy.
One comment: If the hormones in bovine colostrum (or milk) are enough to cause precocious puberty, wouldn’t it be that all breast-fed children will have precocious puberty?
Four, infant milk powder
Milk is secreted by cows. There is no doubt that there will be cow hormones in it. Will milk powder lead to precocious puberty?
In 2010, the media revealed [XX milk powder precocious puberty case], and the Ministry of Health tested the samples of the products involved. Comparing this milk powder with milk and breast milk, the result is as follows:
- Incident products: estrogen 0.2 ~ 2.3, progesterone 13 ~ 72 milk: estrogen 0.16 ~ 4.4, progesterone content up to 98 breast milk: estrogen 7.9 ~ 18.5, progesterone 10 ~ 40
(in micrograms/kg)
In other words, XX brand milk powder contains far less estrogen than breast milk, and progesterone is no different from ordinary milk, many of which are equivalent to the level of progesterone in breast milk.
Finally, the expert group, including doctors, decided that the cases reported at the beginning were all individual cases and were not caused by milk powder.
One comment: If a best-selling food really leads to precocious puberty, there will not be only individual cases.
Five, fast-growing chickens and other [urged] animals
The most typical statements about precocious puberty caused by animal foods include eels fed with contraceptives and fast-growing chickens fed with hormones.
Monopterus albus:There are a lot of statements about the Monopterus albus growing up on birth control pills or hormones, but they have already refuted the rumor. Breeders cannot feed Monopterus albus with birth control pills or hormones, which will only make Monopterus albus die quickly. Monopterus albus is indeed a young female and becomes a male when it grows up, but this is a spontaneous change and does not need any exogenous sex hormones.
Fast-growing chicken: We are talking about fast-growing chicken, which is the result of fine breed breeding and scientific feeding. The problem chicken exposed on TV is abuse of antibiotics, which has nothing to do with hormones. If hormones are used, the health of the chicken will be poor.
One comment: Before blaming chicken, think about whether there is something wrong with the cooking method of chicken. After all, eating too much fried chicken with high oil and fat will lead to obesity.
How to avoid precocious puberty?
To avoid children’s precocious puberty as much as possible, and to rule out unreliable suggestions such as not eating chicken, not eating off-season vegetables, and being completely vegetarian, the more reliable ones are as follows:
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Reasonable collocation of grains, vegetables, meat, eggs and milk to avoid excessive nutrition.
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Drink plain boiled water as much as possible for thirst, drink less fruit juice and beverages, and avoid excessive energy intake.
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Try not to give children nutritional health care products, especially those without the [Tactical Unit] logo.
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Encourage children to go out to play and exercise more.
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If parents are taking contraceptives, they must put them away to prevent their children from turning them out and taking them by mistake.
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Avoid children’s early exposure to sexually suggestive images through the media.
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Reduce the use of plastic products.
Summary
Many media will simply conclude that children suffer from precocious puberty due to eating such and such foods, which is actually a wrong understanding of correlation and causality.
Children with precocious puberty still have the habit of drinking water for a long time and eating for a long time. It is absurd to say that this is the cause of children’s precocious puberty.
If the child shows signs of precocious puberty, he should first go to a regular hospital to eliminate the possibility of disease.