Milk Myth #1

Drinking milk causes early puberty.

 

 

Myth Buster: There is no scientific evidence that drinking milk causes early puberty.

 

In the United States, girls are entering puberty at younger ages than they were 30 years ago. It is unclear why this is happening, although there are many hypotheses. For example, many believe that childhood obesity—which has also risen dramatically over that time frame—may lead to earlier onset of puberty for girls, as puberty tends to occur earlier in heavier girls. Some people blame milk for this down-aging of puberty. Many lines of scientific evidence, however, refute this link and debunk the myth:

• Children who consume more milk tend to have lower, rather than higher, body weights.¹
• Today's girls drink less milk than their mothers did.² Thus, it is unlikely that milk is responsible for any change in the age at which girls enter puberty.
• Milk has always contained natural bovine growth hormones (BST) in very small amounts. Some dairy producers administer the synthetic version of this hormone (rBST) to increase milk production in their cows, and FDA has concluded that milk produced by treated and untreated cows is exactly the same. 90 percent of these hormones are destroyed with pasteurization. The remaining trace amounts are broken down into inactive fragments in the gut. Both hormones are "cow specific" and have no effect on the human body.³

Milk is a significant source of calcium and should not be eliminated during the adolescent years. Preteen and teenager girls (age 9 -18) need 1,300 mg of calcium a day since this is the "window of opportunity" when calcium is deposited in bone. The 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend that adolescent girls consume three cups of milk or milk products per day.⁴