I had to write a paper for school and my teacher thought it was a good read, so I decided to share.
The point of the paper was to find an article and see what could have been explained or added that wasn't there and then to find another article that has the missing pieces of the first to better understand. Which is why some of the bottom of the paper is underlined.
Teachers comment:
Sugary
Drinks and Development
I
found a story on a Student Science and The Washington post websites that
featured an article on children and sugary drinks and how it affects their
bodies. This study is solely based on
girls under the age of fourteen years old.
The Washington Post article is a study made by Harvard University on over
5,000 non-menstruating girls between the ages of nine and fourteen and how this
effects early puberty; I chose this article for the reason that everyone can
relate to this information. Everyone
knows of or has a child that was or is under the age of fourteen (Which is a
formal fallacy on my side, for stating that everyone
could relate). The study asked these
girls how much sugary beverages they consume on a daily bases. The study found
that the girls that drank more than 1.5 serving of these sugary beverages;
which did not include fruit juice, started their period 2.7 months early than
the girls that consumed less than 1.5 servings of sugary beverages on daily
bases; with the average age of these girls being 13 years old (Izadi 2015 para
2). Harvard University also wanted to see how diet and lifestyle affected
sexual development and puberty. The study also stated; I will be using a
conditional statement also when I say this but it is put in this article; Michels
said. "Basically, these girls could reproduce at age 11 but the rest of
the body is not ready, and we wouldn't want that. They're not mentally ready
either; from a social standpoint they are immature (Izadi. para 10)." Now
I believe there were a couple things left out of this article that would have
made it better understood. What kind of
chemicals from these sugary drinks had an effect on the girl’s bodies to cause
early menstruation, why fruit juice was not associated with sugary beverages in
this study, and what were the girls studied body types? For these questions I found an article from
Student Science, which held the answers I was looking for.
The
Student Science News Article did a study on how young girls who regularly drink
sodas and other sweetened beverages may have their first menstrual period at a
younger age (Landhuis. 2015. Header). (Underlined are the parts of the last
article not mentioned of emphasized.) This study was more in-depth than the
first article; a lot of the facts stated, confirmed what the first article did
and was also conducted over a five year span with more than 5,000 girls
across the United States. This article stated; the consumption of more
than twelve ounces of other sugar-sweetened beverages — Hawaiian Punch, for
example, or Kool-Aid — showed the same effect as soda. Fruit juice and diet
soda did not, had their first periods 2.7 months sooner than those who
did not consume an average of 12 ounces of the same beverages containing added
sugar (Landhuis 2015 para 11). The sucrose (house hold sugars) in these
drinks produce a hormone called insulin, which is deposited in the blood
when sugary drinks are consumed and digested. This increase of Insulin
creates a spike in the body of other hormones; For instance, Michels notes,
“High levels of insulin can translate to high estrogen levels (Landhuis
2015 para 12).” Fructose which is a type of sugar found in fruit juice and diet
sodas does not have the same effect as those sugars found in those other sugary
drinks mentioned above. To end this paper: I learned that drinks with Sucrose
consumed daily cause lead to a spike in insulin than brings on other hormones
such as estrogen, which in turn makes your first menstrual cycle come early. I
chose this article to point out the importance of not giving children a lot of
sugary drinks at a young age, because it can lead to diabetes (high insulin) which
contributes to other developments of a child’s body. I would also like to
mention this does not affect only girls, it affects everyone.
Reference
Izadi, E. (2015 Jan 29). The Washington Post. Girls who drink more sugary drinks start
their periods earlier, study
suggests. Retrieved: February 23 2015. Retrieved From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/01/29/girls-who-drink- more-sugary-drinks-start-their-periods-earlier-study-suggests/
Landhuis, E (2015 Feb 13). Student Science. Skip the soft drinks, period. Retrieved:
February 23 2015. Retrieved From: https://student.societyforscience.org/article/skip-soft-drinks- period
©Egan, Patricia 2015
