Girls who drink more sugar-sweetened drinks may cause their menstruation to start earlier

Two days ago, we reported that puberty comes earlier for girls, thanks to EDCs and phthalates exposure. According to another research. girls who frequently consume sugary drinks also tend to start their menstrual periods earlier than girls who do not, The findings are important not only because of the growing problem of childhood obesity in a number of developed countries, but also because starting periods earlier is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer later in life.

Harvard Medical School researchers found that the girls who drank more than 1.5 daily servings of sugar-added drinks (not fruit juices) started their periods an average of 2.7 months earlier than girls who had been drinking fewer than two servings of such drinks a week. This should not be overlooked, because unlike most other predictors of a girl’s age at her first period, sugar-sweetened drinks consumption is something people can change,

Sources and more information

• Sugary drinks linked to earlier onset of menstrual periods,
  Oxford University Press (OUP), 26 January 2015.
• Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and age at menarche in a prospective study of US girls, Oxford Journals doi: 10.1093/humrep/deu349, January 27, 2015.