# The new Goliath Children! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447 "2002-09-24T12:44:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/1 "2002-09-24T12:44:23Z")
– My kid can beat up your kid! – this saying gets new meaning when we (Americans) think about what we are feeding our children. I have heard a buzz recently (the last year or so) about hormones that may be put in chicken feed. knowing Americans eats tons and tons of chicken, is it true that children in recenty decades have been entering puberty any earler because of added hormones and steroids to chicken feed. Are our children growing up sooner than we did? I know kids are are developing higher intelects at younger ages due in part to the computer revolution and access to vast amounts of information very quickly but are kids actually growing up earlier? I have also noticed a surge in grocery stores to market _Natural_ food and _Organic_ foods. Utilizing marketing ploys like ‘no hormones added’ no preservatives etc…etc… So what might happen to our kids as a result if there are hormones added to foods? ---
**Author:** ![Skippman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skippman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skippman)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/2 "2002-09-24T13:28:25Z")
Depends. Chemistry isn’t a simple subject. The main conjecture is that by the time the meat reaches the mouth most of the chemicals have been disipated from the system. Both from washing the chicken (which you should always do) and the cooking process. In times gone by, there was a problem from pork. Many people were getting sick so it was decided that pork was “evil”. Turned out they wern’t cooking it correctly and now we can all enjoy a BLT. That being said, I don’t really think children are maturing any faster than before. I think the body fat levels are increasing due to dietary changes. That would account for the alleged increase in pubecent brest tissue leading to an older apperance. That is the current theory anyway. Remember, that anthropologically speaking, women used to give birth at 14 and 15. It is only recently that we have artificially raised the “childhood” years. Kids in thier 20’s were raising families and running nations in the past. Now, the majority of them are living at home with thier parents. I love to listen to all the “expert” psychologists who fail to heed anthropological data. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/3 "2002-09-24T14:15:10Z")
Are kids maturing faster? I can’t say, but a friend’s daughter just got her first bras. She’s ten years old. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/4 "2002-09-24T15:03:37Z")
So? As I’ve mentioned oftentimes before, I got my first period at nine and had everything, boobwise, that I have now in the 5th grade (that’s 32 B, NOT a training bra at age 10). My parents were both broke and idealistic so we ate mostly natural foods. They even made their own baby food from cooked fresh veggies, etc. My mother would sooner die than feed me a “sugar” cereal – we ate Cheerios or, if she was feeling racey, wheat Chex when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/5 "2002-09-24T15:08:44Z")
Gee, are Cheerios not considered sweet enough to be a “sugar cereal” in the US? I know my mother would consider them to be “full of sugar”…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/6 "2002-09-24T16:18:47Z")
> [@](#): > > That being said, I don’t really think children are maturing any faster than before. Age of menarche is a convenient standard. Average age at menarche has been decreasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution, but there is some evidence that it is starting to level off. > [@](#): > > A new study in the British Medical Journal confirms that there has been little change in the average age of menarche (age at first period) in British teenagers during the past 20-30 years. This finding contradicts claims previously made in America that man-made chemicals, so-called endocrine disruptors, in the environment are disrupting human hormonal development. > > … > > The results clearly show that any decrease in average menarcheal age during the past 20-30 years has been small (almost certainly less than six months), particularly when compared with the reduction of a year or more that occurred in many European countries (including Britain) between the late 19th and mid 20th centuries, conclude the authors. > [http://www.ncpa.org/pi/enviro/pd050401c.html](http://www.ncpa.org/pi/enviro/pd050401c.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/7 "2002-09-24T21:33:19Z")
Um, no, not nearly. Perhaps you’ve been eating Frosted Cheerios? The ones I’m thinking of have only 1 gram of sugar/serving, and don’t have any artificial colors or flavors, and pretty much taste like little circular bits of sawdust (LOL). Froot Loops, which you would never eat again if you’d been to the factory to see what they’re made of, has 15g sugar/serving. ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-goliath-children/129447/8 "2002-09-24T22:51:58Z")
I remember reading a series of articles in the _Sun Times_ last year. Their theory, IIRC, was that increasing child obesity was leading to earlier onset of puberty, which they said was a particular problem in the minority community. Again according to the articles, IIRC, in women/girls hormone production can be triggered by high body fat levels, the body, in essence, believes that it is time to breed.