I wouldn't worry about the pH of your body. It is 7.4. Your diet has very little to do with your pH. It is regulated by your kidneys, liver and respiratory rate. The best you can hope to do is make your urine more acidic.

These wacky diets always rub me the wrong way. Eating clean is very easy without having to resort to supplements and special foods. I do agree with avoiding refined sugars and processed grains but can't think of any good reason to avoid animal products or caffeine in reasonable amounts.

Eat smart and move more. It's not that complicated

Or you can just eat a lot of venison such as us.  No steroids, hormones, etc.  About as natural fed as an animal can possibly be.

I love me some meat...but I have quit eating as much red meat as I once did.  I still eat lots of chicken and turkey...but I am starting to notice that the hormones in the chicken is making my breasts enlarge and every 28 days I get a little moody.

Every time I speak with Josh I have to constantly say "talk to the face, not the breasts" as he cannot keep his eyes off of my chest now.  Having said that, I think I'll still err on the side of caution when it comes to putting just anything into my system.

Peter, you don't think the fact that kids are reaching puberty at earlier and earlier ages (a recently documented trend) has anything to do with the hormones that are being pumped into animals?

p.s.  I just ate two bugers from Wendy's.

Peter, you don't think the fact that kids are reaching puberty at earlier and earlier ages (a recently documented trend) has anything to do with the hormones that are being pumped into animals?

p.s.  I just ate two bugers from Wendy's.

I don't due partly because of the reasons I mentioned earlier and also because the trend is not as steep as the media would have you believe. The onset of puberty is signaled higher in the pituitary-gonadal axis by  GnRH which becomes elevated. If the onset of puberty was brought on by exogenous sources of hormones this level would be depressed but is instead elevated. I do think that obesity and high fat including trans fats is part of the issue. There are also a lot of environmental issues that trigger the pituitary gland to start releasing GnRH such as stress, loss of a parent (including divorce) or moving from one place to another all of which are more common now. Different ethnic groups also have different ages of onset of puberty so as we become more of a melting pot the age will trend toward a mean.

If you re-read your statement I think you can figure out the error in logic.

Hormones are fed to animals.

Hormones cause puberty                          Doesn't necessarily mean hormones that are fed to animals cause puberty

I'm also not saying that you can't get female breast development in males because you can with massive  amounts of estrogen. Just ask Eric

Just wanted to share a portion of an article about the early puberty topic:  makes a few interesting points....

Chemical cocktails and the new “normal”

Most experts, including Steingraber, agree that the early decline in the age of puberty is likely directly attributable to decreased rates of disease and increased nutrition, and the ability of human females to adapt their sexual maturation to environmental cues (e.g., health, food and shelter). This is why it is difficult to speak of a “normal” age and time for puberty. We are adaptive creatures, so “normal” is always changeable: dependent upon our environmental (personal and communal) conditions.

Implicit in Steingraber’s assessment is that this also means that “normal” rates of puberty development are not necessarily “good” or “healthy” either (as the word “normal” often implies): it is simply an average marker of response to external circumstances which impact internal functions.

Steingraber argues that more recently, particularly in the last several decades, trends in the decline of the onsetof puberty in the United States (which are similar with other affluent countries or countries with similar ethnic heritage) seem to be responding to stimuli beyond nutrition and general health.

Her report highlights numerous studies which have linked exposure to chemicals in our environment, particularly endocrine-disrupting chemicals (which can mimic hormones in the body), to a plethora of health concerns, such as shortened gestational periods in fetal development, low birth weight babies, higher rates of obesity and poor insulin regulation in the body, which are all risk factors for early puberty. This should make us sit up and take notice, since as Steingraber says, “children are exposed continuously to low-level endocrine disruptors in their diets, drinking water and air supply.”

Chemical flame retardants, for example, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) have been linked to earlier menstruation in girls and with earlier pubarche. Similarly, high levels of dioxin exposure have been associated with elevated risks for breast cancer and early menarche.

Also, hormonally active components, which have been linked to earlier pubertal development, can be found in a wide array of consumer products, including hair tonics, pesticides, packaging and building materials.

As a result, studies have shown hormonally active agents in the urine of US girls and traces of such known human contaminants as phthalates and bisphenol A (which was originally developed as a synthetic hormone, but is now used in all polycarbonate plastics and the linings of food and beverage cans, among other uses; it has been recently been banned in Canada for use in baby bottles). Rat studies on bisphenol A indicate that prenatal and early-life exposure can induce earlier sexual maturity.

The use of natural and synthetic hormones to promote growth in US livestock and stimulate milk production in dairy cattle (a practice banned in European countries) has also raised concern; critics of the practice believe this may contribute to early puberty onset, but again, more research is necessary.

Steingraber concludes that, in combination, this chemical cocktail may be a significant factor in causing the “new normal” rates of pubertal development in US girls, but we don’t have enough research to say for certain—only enough research to raise red flags and caution.

And we also need to know how these chemical contaminants act and combine with other known risks for earlier puberty development, such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and psychosocial stressors (e.g., family dysfunction), to contribute to early puberty onset, and what other physical consequences this may have for human development.

Josh,

When did you start reading the Women's Health Activist Newsletter? It is probably not the best source for medical info.