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  • From: Rob <becida AT comcast.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Height and health
  • Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:54:48 -0800

This was an interesting article on the first read, as I was thinking about it I had to go back and take a look again.
This article (roughly) equates average national height with health care, nutrition, stuff like that.
They use the date of 1970 as when the height 'shifted' to somewhere else, I wonder how that date correlates with the widespread use of processed food in the USA?

It's worth the read on a late autumn night....

Rob
becida AT comcast.net


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20071129-9999-lz1c29height.html

>>Height has long been considered a pretty good measure of society's health and prosperity. A nation of tall people, the thinking goes, reflects a high standard of living. Food is abundant. Health care is broadly available, particularly for children.
Americans long enjoyed this kind of elevated status. For centuries, we were the tallest people in the world, on average. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the typical American colonist was 2 inches taller than the Englishman he was fighting. By 1850, the difference was 3 inches. The gap grew through much of the early 20th century.

The Dutch are now the tallest people in the world, according to recent studies. Americans have shrunk, relatively speaking. American men now rank ninth in the world in average height; females rank 15th. The average young Dutch male is slightly above 6 feet tall; the average American male is 5-foot-10. (Women tend to average about 5 inches shorter than men.)
American men are now generally shorter than Danes, Swedes, Czechs, Norwegians, Germans, Belgians and Canadians. They remain slightly taller than the English (by three-quarters of an inch) and the French (by eight-tenths of an inch).

It's hard to argue the point. Many Americans appear to survive substantially on fast food, which is notoriously rich in sugar and fat but deficient in overall nutrition. In 1970 – around the time the Netherlands actually surpassed the United States in average height – Americans spent about $6 billion annually on fast food. In 2004, the total was $148.6 billion.<<




  • [Homestead] Height and health, Rob, 11/30/2007

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