During last week’s Presidential debate, Senator McCain pointed out the height difference between North and South Koreans.
This is likely due to malnutrition and poor living conditions:
Studies of escapees from North Korea show that those born after the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula in the North were consistently about two inches shorter than their counterparts in the South.
Tara Parker-Pope considers this fact, as well as an interesting observation of a growing height gap between Americans and Europeans.
Apparently height itself is a form of “biological shorthand” that can be extrapolated to measure a society’s well-being.
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Kevin, look at the original paper. The comparison European group was Northern Europe.
Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, while excluding France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Eastern Europe.
So this basically Teutonic group is compared to white Americans which is heavily Southern European. The Northern European immigration plummeted right about 1890.
I don’t know why all of a sudden there’s interest in the paper again, I thought it was useless when it came out in 2004, it is just as useless today.
Actually, another thing comes to mind. The author tries to link the height disparities to “healthcare” and “diet”.
What influence does healthcare have on the average height of a population? Healthcare can have plenty of effect on an individual, but on a population? Most kids get well-child checks, don’t need much medical intervention.
I have a problem with the diet argument as well. What we’re probably seeing with these studies is the Europeans stopped killing each other, started eating properly, and now reach their maximum genetic potential.
The “bad” American diet. I agree with the “bad” part; unfortunately, it’s being copied all over the world. But do we have evidence that the high-caloric stuff we eat makes you shorter? I can see coronary artery disease, diabetes, shorter lifespan.
I’m not sure if I can see height disparities. I’d wonder if the American diet might just be like overfertilizing plants. Maybe the kids will grow to the same height…..then, unfortunately, grow fat, diabetic, lipemic.
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