Daily consumption of eggs promotes the growth of children.
- In this study, 83 children ate one egg a day for six months.
- Eating eggs daily reduced their risk of being stunted by 47%.
- In girls, the growth spurt occurs at the onset of puberty. In boys, it occurs on average around 12 years of age.
They are rich in protein, omega-3, phosphorus and vitamins. “Eggs are a good source of nutrients for growth and development,” said US researchers. In a study published in the journal Pediatricsthey hypothesized that introducing eggs to the diet early would improve child nutrition.
To test this theory, they recruited 163 infants aged six to nine months in Ecuador. The young participants were divided into two groups. Members of the first group had to eat one egg a day for six months. The rest of the volunteers were part of a control group and did not eat eggs.
Eating eggs every day reduces the risk of stunting
According to the results, the children’s mothers did not report any allergic reactions to the eggs. The team found that infants who ate eggs daily were 47% less likely to suffer from stunting, or slow height development. In addition, 74% of them were less likely to be underweight than children in the control group. “Toddlers with higher dietary intakes of eggs had lower consumption of sweet foods”can we read in the works.
Boys and girls grow the same way until puberty
As a reminder, the height of children increases on average from 50 cm at birth to 75 cm at the end of the first year, then it generally reaches 100 cm at the age of four. Then this rhythm slows down. Until puberty, boys and girls grow in the same way and gain about 5 to 6 cm per year.
“In girls, a growth spurt occurs at the onset of puberty, on average at the age of 10–11 years. This peak lasts until the first period, when growth slows and then stops, usually around age 14–16. In boys, the first signs of puberty and the accompanying growth spurt are somewhat later, occurring on average around age 12. This growth spurt continues until the end of puberty. Later, the growth of boys generally stops around 16–17 years of age”, explain Inserm.
