How We Get Tall
theatlantic.com
How We Get Tall
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: How We Get Tall
#2[deleted]
Re: How We Get Tall
#3We still haven't reached the average height we were 40000 years ago[1]. Agriculture allowed us to feed many more people, but it came at a terrible price on human health.
And the fact that the article says we are taller now than we have ever been in history, which is patently not true, casts a serious level of doubt on the article.
1. http://australianmuseum.net.au/How-have-we-changed-since-our...
Re: How We Get Tall
#4[deleted]
I've never heard this before. Do you have a source? Some cursory Googling gives me nothing.
Re: How We Get Tall
#5[deleted]
We need some evidence of this. Ive often heard that people are 1/2 of their adult height by age 3.
Re: How We Get Tall
#6Could the fact that America has been a melting pot of immigrants moving in from various parts of the world affected the average American height? I am from Southeast Asia, where average heights are less than European or Americans'. And my impression is more people like me have settled in America in recent years than say several decades ago, causing the average American height to go down. In which case, nutrition and healthcare may not be the (sole) cause.
Re: How We Get Tall
#7[deleted]
I've never heard this before. Do you have a source? Some cursory Googling gives me nothing.
Yeah, I dislike comments like the parent comment. The statement is clearly based on his/her own intuitive understanding based on anecdotal experience; something that can be useful in forming-opinions/developing-understanding , but shouldn't be asserted as fact.
It's particularly annoying because a statement like that isn't easily refuted; I mean, after all, a child who literally doesn't move at all has no physical activity and therefore doesn't grow(dies pretty quick actually), whereas a child who exercises regularly does grow, so the MUST be a correlation between exercise and height right? Ultimately, yes, there obviously is _some_ correlation, how much of a correlation and exactly how exercise reflects on a humans development are left unanswered though.
edit: Nvm, it's deleted now.
Re: How We Get Tall
#8Could the fact that America has been a melting pot of immigrants moving in from various parts of the world affected the average American height? I am from Southeast Asia, where average heights are less than European or Americans'. And my impression is more people like me have settled in America in recent years than say several decades ago, causing the average American height to go down. In which case, nutrition and h…
Yep, this very possibility is stated near the end of the article.
"That’s probably not the full story—immigration and fertility changes play a role too, after all."
Re: How We Get Tall
#9We still haven't reached the average height we were 40000 years ago[1]. Agriculture allowed us to feed many more people, but it came at a terrible price on human health. And the fact that the article says we are taller now than we have ever been in history, which is patently not true, casts a serious level of doubt on the article. 1. http://australianmuseum.net.au/How-have-we-changed-since-our...
The article is mostly based on a work by "Tim Hatton, an economist at the University of Essex in the U.K.". That the author took license calling a moment in man's history 'most of human history' doesn't imply the rest of the article isn't worth anything. Also, I don't know living longer, or living without hunger is that terrible of a price to pay. More souls, after all.
Re: How We Get Tall
#10"It wasn’t until well after the invention of cars and antibiotics that the average European man outgrew today’s average American teenaged girl."
Am I missing something or is that a really bizarre statement?