Growth Hormones were introduced to cows so that they will produce more milk. Massive campaigns were run, advising parents to give more milk to their babies, children, adolescents and adults, so that they would have a greater intake of calcium ("milk, does the body good", "milk, it's good for you", "more calcium means better bones", etc). After years of drinking more milk than ever before, along with an increase in growth hormones in the cows so that they would have longer lives of dairy production, leads to earlier development in humans. The article says there is no research for this, but the reality is quite the opposite...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A53101-20 ...
http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/09/26/puberty/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_n6_ ...
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/bgh.htmThat certainly doesn't discount a plausible link to increases in body fat for people in industrialized (wealthy) nations, due to the changes in diets over the last 60 years or so. However, the growth hormones are too closely connected via vast increase in intake, and an increase in production and usage in dairy cows, for it to be discounted...