The World Is Growing Taller — But Very Unevenly

[Afro_Vacancy]

The world is growing taller — but very unevenly
https://next.ft.com/content/64d6dbc0-5275-11e6-9664-e0bdc13c3bef

Better nutrition has helped to make the world grow taller over the past 100 years

In 1914 Americans and Scandinavians were the tallest people in the world. A century later other north Europeans have left them behind, with Dutch men and Latvian women the global height champions in 2014.

Overall, the world has grown taller over the past 100 years as economic prosperity and better nutrition have spread. But that growth has been uneven, according to the first comprehensive study of human height released on Monday at the European Science Open Forum in Manchester, England.

Interesting graphic:

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

This is a useful statistic that I was looking for -- the average height for 18 year-old American men is 177.1 cm, that's the relevant comparison for my circle as I'm moving there soon.

The article points out that height growth stopped in the USA in the 1970s: two things happened in the 1970s. The middle class began to whither away, and the country as a whole shifted to a low-fat, high-carb diet.

Note that Americans also started becoming fatter in the 1970s. The historical fat curve was actually shifting very slowly up until the 1970s, which is when obesity began sharply accelerating. See here:

Americans stopped growing taller right when they started growing fatter. The two effects together rules out the possibility that it's just total calories that matter, clearly quality of calories has to matter too.

In conclusion, if I have children tomorrow, I'm feeding them a relatively high-fat diet as much as possible. That means meat, fish, butter, high-fat dairy products, nuts, and so on and less bread, potatoes, and rice. Among other benefits, they will benefit from growing taller and slimmer.

 

[lickawrist]

another great post man. its mind-boggling how negatively people perceive foods like steak and pork, but have no hesitation of stuffing their faces with carbs. even more of a slap in the face when you consider that diabetes and coronary heart diseases are rampant in this country, yet no one blames carbs for the rise in incidences despite the fact that its the most abundant and eaten resource.