Burris ME, et al. - Researchers aimed at determining how household food security is associated with variation in age at menarche among girls aged 12-15 years from the 2009-2014 United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In addition, they examined correlations between food insecurity, nutritional status, and allostatic load among these girls. When compared with non-Hispanic White-identifying girls, Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/Mexican American girls reported earlier mean ages at menarche, higher mean BMIs, and disproportionately experienced household food insecurity. Overall findings suggest predictive value of marginal household food security for earlier age at menarche, particularly for girls who identified as non-white; this was observed irrespective of nutritional status and allostatic load. At the same time, significant predictive value of having more energetic resources (ie, higher BMI) was observed for earlier menarche.