Thank you for your kind words. Regarding diet, I wouldn’t try to put a kid on the Eating Plan. It’s hard enough to get them to eat right, without introducing added stipulations. Historically and in most parts of the world, remaining lean was not an issue for children. Their biggest problem was avoiding death by pathogenic diseases that opportunistically infect immature immune systems. Nowadays, inveigled by the TV pitchman and other commercially driven forces, millions of children contend with diseases more associated with gluttony, like obesity and Type 2 diabetes, than deprivation. But if it’s gluttony it’s the most perverse form, driven by unnatural food cravings and marked by undernutrition concurrent with overfeeding. I would just try to get them to eat and appreciate natural unprocessed foods. If you can accomplish that for the most part, you’ll have done well. But although I’m not a parent, I think if a parent goes too far in the other direction the appeal of the forbidden foods (which “all the other kids are eating”) might have an undesired effect.

Your question about children lifting weights is an impossibly difficult one for me, because I started lifting weights when I was eight and I believe it has not hurt me in any way. On the other hand, I see reasons to recommend against it especially when “playing tag, jump rope, basketball, baseball” are ready alternatives. I don’t know the answer to your question about growth plates and it is by nature speculative, because how can one know how tall a person would’ve been? I’m about the same height as my two brothers (5'8''-5'9'') and I was the only lifter, but maybe I would’ve been the one to get the “tall jeans” had I not lifted. Your question “do the hormones react the same in their bodies as ours” is at the core of the matter.

Children and teenagers are in a highly anabolic state relative to adults; their bones and muscles are growing rapidly. So there is no need for them to lift weights. It’s the old folks, who are in a more catabolic hormonal state, who need weight training most. Furthermore, sports like the ones mentioned in your letter provide a dimension of social interaction and advance neuromuscular development by demanding coordination. I believe it is vital that children engage in physically vigorous activities, but I see no reason why their limited time for study and sports should be curtailed by an investment in weight training. Nutrition and ample outdoor activities including sports, as opposed to sugar-laden snacks and inordinate time spent looking at a screen, are two things kids today in America are badly lacking.