Healthy diet in childhood linked to later first menstrual period

Eating an unhealthy diet is tied to an earlier first period, a new analysis suggests. The study linked a girl’s first menstrual period — a milestone known as menarche — to what she ate, showing ties between potentially inflammatory diets rich in processed and refined foods, red meat and beverages such as soda and an earlier onset of menstruation. Published in Human Reproduction, the study looked at 7,530 participants in the Growing Up Today Study, an ongoing study that evaluates factors thought to influence health across a lifetime. Participants enrolled in 1996 and 2004 and answered questionnaires about diet and activity, general health, family history, demographic factors and when they got their first period. Researchers assessed participants’ diets using two rubrics: the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, a score based on participants’ adherence to a healthy diet, and the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern, which identifies diets linked to inflammation. These potentially inflammatory diets are higher in processed foods, beverages like soda and juice, and red meat. Advertisement Ninety-three percent of participants started their period during the study, at a median age of 13.1 years. But the age of menarche varied among participants with different diets. Overall, having a healthier diet predicted later menarche, and those who ate the healthiest diet were 8 percent less likely to get their first period in the next month. The association remained after researchers adjusted for body mass index, height and neighborhood socioeconomic status. The association could be affected by diet’s effects on sex hormones, the researchers write — influences that may be “at least partially independent” of body size or height. “Importantly, these results were independent of BMI and height, demonstrating the importance of a healthy diet regardless of body size,” Holly Harris, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who led the study, said in a news release. “As earlier age at menarche is associated with multiple later life outcomes, including higher risk of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, this may be an important period for trying to reduce the risk of these chronic diseases.” According to a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age at first menstrual period in the United States fell from 12.1 in 1995 to 11.9 in 2017. Dietary patterns and age at menarche in a prospective study of girls in the USA