Random Ranting

I was watching morning television yesterday and I was really disturbed by a piece on girls reaching puberty at unbelievably younger ages, like age 7 instead of the national average of age 12 (the article is here).  Apparently parents and doctors are boggled by it and can't figure out why it is happening more frequently in our society.  They are blaming obesity, family stress (girls who don't have a father figure present tend to hit puberty earlier), television content, and environmental chemicals, among other factors for the reasons why these little girls are developing breasts, growing body hair and getting their menstrual cycles before they're even out of the third grade.

It's just amazing and upsetting how our society is confused as to why this is happening, when first of all, parents feed their children sugary and sodium filled foods as soon as they are out of their wombs and people grow up hardly eating any vegetables at all. It makes you wonder what kind of effect these behaviors have on the human body.  Interestingly enough, there was also another news piece with research showing that women who ate more veggies in their lifetime have a lower chance of developing breast and other cancers.  No kidding!  Eating healthier means having a healthier body?!?  Don't get me wrong, I love my occasional junk food treat, but I have the self control (and husband who won't help me eat any of it) to not go crazy or overboard.  And I also don't weigh 200 pounds.

Secondly, children's television isn't even the same as it was when we were growing up.  What ever happened to the family oriented, more innocent television that we had when we were kids, like Full House, Boy Meets World, and Saved by the Bell? I mean, the ABC Family channel has shows about a teenage girl getting pregnant and having a babies for crying out loud.

I could probably go on and on about a bunch of other reasons our society has changed with questionable results, but I won't. (Mainly because I have to do some research for things to do in California this weekend. Eep!)