Hi everybody this is Monica Reinagle the nutrition diva here with your quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous

A listener from Fredericksburg Virginia asked me to talk about hormones in food and their effects on your health.

Let me start by pointing out that hormones aren't used in poultry or in pork products.

So if you're paying extra for hormone-free eggs or bacon, it's kind of like paying extra for

fat-free broccoli.

But don't feel too bad if you fell for that one.

Lots of us did.

They do, however, give hormones to cows, both dairy cows and the kind that are raised for meat.

A variety of hormones, both natural and synthetic, are used to increase milk production

and to make cows grow to their slaughter weight faster.

In fact, science news reports that hormones are given to 80% of all US feedlot cattle.

Is this a problem?

Well, some scientists fear that hormone residues in the meat and the milk could affect the humans who consume them.

It might affect the age at which boys and girls reach puberty or perhaps increase the risk of cancer.

And environmentalists are concerned that a lot of those hormones are going to end up in the

cow's manure and then from there they'll make their way into streams and rivers affecting fish,

frogs and other sensitive fauna. The cattle industry insists that the use of hormones is not only safe,

but that it benefits consumers by keeping costs down. They claim that an overwhelming body of scientific

evidence proves its safety and effectiveness, and that there's a worldwide

scientific consensus to support the use of hormones. Well, maybe not so much. The European Union

has outlawed the use of hormones in cattle, and they've banned beef imports from the United States on the basis of these concerns.

So far, there's no definitive proof that giving hormones to cows is going to cause problems in humans or that it won't.

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