www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1185457,00.html
A nation once famed for its strapping, well-nourished youth is gradually diminishing in physical stature. By contrast, the heights of men and women from Europe are increasing inexorably. The average Dutchman, whose country produces the Continents loftiest men, is now more than six feet tall - almost two inches above his American counterpart. Across the Netherlands hotel owners are lengthening beds and raising door mantles to stop the nations tall youth suffering from irreparable anatomical damage. According to a New Yorker essay on the subject last week, Dutch ambulances are even having to keep their back doors open on many occasions to allow for the prodigious dimensions of their patients legs. New research has shown some unexpected disparities between statures of Americans and Europeans, indicating that recent social changes and diet are major influences on adult height. For British men, too, are outstripping their transatlantic rivals. At the time of the American Revolution, the average US male was two inches taller than his British counterpart. This surprising reappraisal of American and European physiques is the work of researcher John Komlos of Munich University. Much of the difference is due to the great social inequality that now exists in the United States, Komlos told The Observer last week. In Europe, there is - in most countries - good health service provision for most members of society and plenty of protein in most peoples diets. As a result, children do not suffer illnesses that would blight their growth or suffer problems of malnutrition. On the other hand, America has eight million people with no job, 40 million individuals with no health insurance, 35 million living below the poverty line, and a population that exists mainly on junk food. There, the rise in average height that marked its progress as a nation through the 19th and 20th centuries has stopped and has actually reversed - albeit very slightly - in recent years. Many Americans are rich and do well anatomically as a result, but there is a large underclass that is starting to drag the country down the stature charts. This discovery, which has been revealed through research that Komlos has assembled over decades, amounts to an assault on the values of the free market economy espoused by Americans and provides powerful support for those who back European ideas about universal healthcare. Fluctuations in human stature are not new and have occurred regularly throughout history. Later, as farming spread across the world, dense populations learnt to live on only a few standard crops and suffered considerable nutritional neglect. Similarly, climatic changes have had a profound effect on human height - a physical attribute that is now regarded by historians, scientists and economists as a key indicator of the health of any group of people living at any particular time and place. For example, during the Little Ice Age, in which temperatures plummeted across the world between 1300 and the mid-19th century, there was a noticeable decrease in human stature. There are two possible mechanisms for this observation, said Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum. However, there is an alternative explanation for shrinking stature in bad weather. It means poor crops, and that in turn means malnutrition and, of course, the consequence of that is poor stature. Those tiny suits of armour that you see when you visit the Tower of London were worn by people who were badly nourished. During winter they would have only salt meat and a few vegetables to live on. Modern society now protects humans from such problems, though in recent years it has become clear that political factors are having some effect on nutrition levels and proper diet and therefore stature. Through painstaking investigations he has calculated the heights of men at different times over our recent historical past. This shows that, around 1850, Americans - blessed with Western technology that allowed its citizens to spread unstoppably across the United States - lived relatively fine lives that let its menfolk reach an average height of 5ft 9in. By the early 20th century the average American man was still about the same height as his predecessor. But the average Dutchman had nearly caught up and was only about half an inch shorter. More importantly, the latter is continuing his rise in average height. The Americans have long since stopped growing and, according to some measures, may actually be getting smaller. In relative terms, Americans are certainly shrinking in comparison with Europeans, says Komlos. As more Mexicans and Chinese enter the US, these individuals may lower the average height, it is argued. During the 19th century the country took in millions of malnourished, and therefore small, people. Yet Americans remained the tallest people in the world at that time. In fact, the very idea that various peoples are programmed, on average, to be short or tall is thrown into doubt by Komloss work. Apart from a few rare races, such as African pygmies who are genetically programmed to have low stature, virtually everyone in the world has the potential to reach the same average height as the Dutch, and that includes the Mexicans, Chinese, Inuit, and other peoples who are not usually noted for their stature. To achieve that status will require some arduous social engineering. The Dutch health service, with its magnificent support services for pregnant woman quality of life in the womb is a key factor in determining future health and height and its high-protein diets based on dairy food, will not be easy to emulate in a world whose population is now soaring towards seven billion. Growth Spurt The steady increase in the height of British youngsters which began over a century ago continues to manifest itself today, particularly among girls.
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