 Northern European girls reach menarche at 13 years and 4 months on average

 Southern European girls reach menarche at 12 years and 4 months

 African-Americans tend to reach puberty earlier, and Chinese-Americans tend to reach it later
 The average of menarche in Canada is 12.72 years
 When it comes to hormonal and sexual changes, girls are only a few months ahead of boys
 Another major influence on the onset of puberty is body fat, at least in girls
 Most girls must weigh at least 45 kg before they experience their first period
 Secular trend – more food has led to biological advances, leading to earlier onsets of puberty over
generations
 Leptin – hormone that causes increased body fat and triggers puberty
 Affects appetite in females more than males
 Experiencing early or late puberty puts adolescents more at risk for most adolescent problems
 Cortisol (stress hormone) is directly related to early puberty, therefore stress can hasten the onset
of puberty
 Growth spurt – the relatively sudden and rapid physical growth that occurs during puberty. Each
body part increases in size on a schedule. Weight usually precedes height, and growth of the limbs
precedes growth of the torso
 At the age of 17 the average girl has twice the percent of body fat than the average boy
 Weight spurt à height spurt à muscle spurt à increase in size of organs
 The lymphoid system decreases in size
 Circadian (meaning “about a day”) rhythm – a day-night cycle of biological activity that occurs
approximately every 24 hours
 “Phase Delay” caused by hormones on HPA axis leads to teens being more awake at night and
sleepy during the day
 25% of Canadians are sleep deprived
Nutrition:
 about 62% of girls and 68% of boys between the ages of 9 and 13 did not meet Canada’s Food
Guide’s recommendation for at least 5 daily servings of fruit and vegetables
 14 to 18% of girls aged 9 to 18 ate less than 100 grams of meat or other proteins sources per day
(recommended daily intake of 100 to 300 g)
 deficiencies of iron, calcium, zinc, and other minerals are especially common after puberty
 anemia (deficiency of iron) is more likely among adolescent girls than of people of any other age
or gender, partly because adolescents do not eat enough iron rich foods
 Menstruation also depletes iron in girls
 Boys naturally require more iron than girls, and can deplete their iron from pushing in physical
activities
 the average North American teen consumes less than 500 mg of calcium a day although the
recommended dose is 1300 mg
 About half of adult bone mass is acquired between ages 10-20. Low bone mass in adulthood can
lead to osteoporosis (fragile bones)
 body image – a person’s idea of how his or her body looks
 anorexia nervosa – an eating disorder characterized by severe calorie restriction and the fear of
being fat. Affected individuals under eat, or over eat and then over exercise or purge, depriving their
vital organs of nutrition
 leads to death by organ failure or suicide for between 5 and 20% of sufferers
 if a person’s BMI is less than 17% and if he or she has a fixation with weight, anorexia is
suspected