On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Mary wrote:

> Dear Todd and List,
>
> Many of my friends' kids seem to be maturing very young. I also noticed that
> many girls these days as young as 11 or 12 have giant feet.
>
> I wear a size 10 shoe which used to be considered large. Now, some of  the
> young girls at 12 or so are wearing size 11, 12, etc. I noticed this when 3
> out of the 4 preteens in our dance group had gigantic feet.
>
> Another girl who is only 8 years old and is a friend of my daughter has
> gigantic feet already. Her diet is sugar cereal, tons of milk, wheat, pizza,
> etc, and her alertness is lower than many kids.
>
> Could some of these gigantic feet be from hormones in milk, processed foods,
> or what?

Good question.  Could it be just a carb-heavy diet from a young
age, with plenty of calories?  Insulin is an anabolic hormone,
after all.  Americans expect a lot of food on their plates.  I
remember when I was 20 I lived in Paris for three months, and in
London for 9 months.  In both cities I found the servings in most
restaurants "skimpy" by my standards.  It was impossible for me
to buy size 12 shoes.

My mother overfed me as a baby.  She still talks about my infant
appetite.

Anyway, I'd suspect the sheer quantities of food, and the
predominance of carbs, as the cause of this phenomenon.

Todd Moody
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