Many people have had issues with the fact that farmers are allowed to inject their livestock with growth hormones. It is not natural for these animals to be growing twice as fast and twice as big. It is all for the money of course, because a larger animal means more meat to sell. Mass production is the main concern and this applies to everything, not just animals.

These growth hormones have been around for years.  In the years since the growth hormones were initially allowed in the 1950s, the growth rate of children has gradually skyrocketed, the probability of getting cancer and other diseases that were previously relatively uncommon has also increased. So what are these hormones really doing to those who consume them?

While hormones are allowed in animals such as cows, they are not yet allowed in fish. The biotech company, AquaBounty, is trying to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve of doing so however.

The FDA has approved the use of growth hormones in cows and they tell us that those hormones are not harmful to humans. But  this only applies to cows, and it doesn’t explain the rapid puberty or the sudden disease. In the past twenty years, they have approved the use of recombinant bovine growth hormones in cows. These hormones speed up the rate at which the milk is produced and cause more milk to be produced.

None of these hormones have been proven to directly effect your health. However, when combined and consumed in large quantities, insulin-like growth factor (IGF) is produced. This is basically human growth hormones that can be very harmful to you. High levels of this can cause several types of premature cancer and have been associated with doing so. 

Now the sex hormones, mostly estrogen, that are injected, are what is causing the early puberty. This estrogen is combined with five other hormones and injected into the ear of a cow. This problem is mostly in girls but can however apply to boys as well. For a young girl who is not yet producing hormones on her own, these chemicals can be very harmful in causing them to reach puberty several years before those generations older than them. An even worse culprit, is the processed meats combined with various other processed foods. Those foods that create fat cells on children, especially those who are inactive, cause estrogen to be produced at a more rapid and unnatural rate.

While you will not just fall over and die if you eat a hamburger, it is time to step back and look at what you are putting into your body. These things could be slowly killing you and you wouldn’t even realize it. Being cautious and knowing exactly what you’re eating is key to a healthy and safe lifestyle.