aha! some big-'time' validation for the vegan diet!

------quote-------
HORMONES IN MEAT AND MILK
--They're given to help cattle grow bigger, produce more. But some think the
hormones linger in food and wreak havoc

=================

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,58388,00.html

HEALTH
OCTOBER 30, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 18
Teens Before Their Time
With budding breasts and pubic hair, girls are developing earlier than ever.
What's causing it? And what are the psychological effects?
BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK


<snip>

In retrospect, pediatricians and psychologists say, there have been hints
for the past decade or so that something strange was going on. But it wasn't
until 1997 that anyone put her finger on it. That's when Marcia
Herman-Giddens, now an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina
School of Public Health, published her famous paper in the journal
Pediatrics. Herman-Giddens noticed in her clinical work that more and more
young girls were coming in with breasts and pubic hair. Intrigued, she
launched a major study of 17,000 girls to get a statistical handle on the
problem.

What she and her colleagues found was that the changes of puberty were
coming in two stages, each with its own timetable. The average age of
menarche, or first menstruation, had already fallen dramatically (from 17 to
about 13) between the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the
20th--mostly owing to improvements in nutrition. (Menstruation is considered
the technical start of puberty; the outward signs of sexual maturity usually
come earlier.) But since the 1960s, average age of first menstruation has
basically remained steady at 12.8 years. For African Americans, it's
currently about six months earlier, possibly reflecting genetic or
nutritional differences.

What was striking about Herman-Giddens' report was the onset of secondary
sexual characteristics: breast buds and pubic hair. Significant numbers of
white girls--some 15%--were showing outward signs of incipient sexual
maturity by age 8, and about 5% as early as 7. For African Americans, the
statistics were even more startling. Fifteen percent were developing breasts
or pubic hair by age 7, and almost half by age 8.

<snip>

What Causes Early Development?
Doctors suspect fat cells, but pesticides, chemicals and hormones in food
could also be involved

PCBs
--These long-lived chemicals, once used in the electric power industry, may
jump-start reproductive development

PHTHALATES
--A study speculates that they may have caused two-year-olds in Puerto Rico
to grow breasts. But the link is far from proved

HORMONES IN MEAT AND MILK
--They're given to help cattle grow bigger, produce more. But some think the
hormones linger in food and wreak havoc

DDE
--Though the U.S. banned the pesticide DDT in 1972, this breakdown product
persists in the environment

FAT CELLS
--Leptin, a protein secreted by these cells, is involved in the progression
of puberty. The nation's obesity epidemic makes leptin a prime suspect