Dietary Contribution to the Development of Precocious Puberty in Children

This study examined seven dietary factors contributing to precocious puberty in 200 children, with an age and gendermatched control group of 200 healthy children. The case group was classified according to Traditional Chinese Medicine principles; their dietary habits were investigated by questionnaire, with dietary statistics compiled for each Traditional Chinese Medicine evidence group. The chi 2 test revealed a statistically significant higher exposure in the case group to five factors, namely frequent consumption of nutritional supplements, foods with high hormone content, anti -seasonal fruits and vegetables, products with high trace elements of zinc, and foods packaged in plastic (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that frequent consumption of nutritional supplements (odds ratio = 13.558), foods containing high levels of hormones (odds ratio = 11.829), anti -seasonal fruits and vegetables (odds ratio = 8.114), products containing high trace elements of zinc (odds ratio = 6.734 ), and plastic wrapped food (odds ratio = 3.419) were high -risk factors; the order of preference in dietary habits was as follows: salty > greasy > sweet > spicy > cold > hot > light.