Via Mark Thoma, this latest installment in Americans’ decreasing height. Whenever I mention this to a certain kind of person, they wave a hand and say, oh, it’s because of Latin American and Asian immigration.
But it’s not, if you remember the feature on Komlos in The New Yorker:
The obvious answer would seem to be immigration. The more Mexicans and Chinese there are in the United States, the shorter the American population becomes. But the height statistics that Komlos cites include only native-born Americans who speak English at home, and he is careful to screen out people of Asian and Hispanic descent. In any case, according to Richard Steckel, who has also analyzed American heights, the United States takes in too few immigrants to account for the disparity with Northern Europe.
We have bad habits and bad institutions. These bad habits and bad institutions have consequences.
36 comments
May 29, 2008 at 6:45 am
drip
This height/obesity point has been bubbling along for a few years now. I hope that the simplistic argument “we’re shorter than the French!” will give some politicians the guts to argue for a national health system which includes preventive health measures: clean housing, clean air, good food, good habits. Almost sounds old fashioned, eh?
May 29, 2008 at 7:44 am
Megan
That can’t be right. American exceptionalism = no consequences. That’s the rule.
May 29, 2008 at 8:09 am
Kieran
Fatter. Poorer. Shorter.
It’s the six thousand calorie man!
May 29, 2008 at 9:21 am
rja
Two thoughts: Krugman is on the right track when he relates this to poor parenting. It might have as much to do with sleep as it does with food.
Second, this is a humbling visual on Americans eating habits.
May 29, 2008 at 1:13 pm
bitchphd
Do you know, since I started biking and joined the Y and blahblah more active, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much amazingly better and more energetic and happy I feel. And it’s just fucking amazing to think how much this sort of thing has to do with (1) actively choosing to fight cultural norms (having a second car, having a job–which would really mean a lot less time to, say, bike to pick PK up from school 2-4 times a week, take him to classes at the Y during the afternoon, which gives me time in the weight room, etc.) and (2) how even in situations where I’m not culturally normal (e.g., my diet), I’m normal *enough* that I have high cholesterol (which neither of my parents has).
The exercise should take care of it, I think, along with all the darn oatmeal. But, e.g., RJA’s comment above mine seriously underestimates the way that blaming “poor parenting” for all sorts of things–health problems, educational problems, behavior problems, etc.–fails to recognize that “good choices” involve a lot of time, and a lot of conscious critical thinking about what’s “normal,” because the institutional settings actively push people into “bad choices.”
May 29, 2008 at 1:30 pm
urbino
I don’t think this study can be accurate. After all, I’m an American and I’ve only gotten taller over the course of my life, never shorter.
Their methodology must be flawed.
May 29, 2008 at 1:33 pm
eric
“Poor parenting” is only part of it, if by “it” we mean Americans’ general poor health. Lack of public healthcare is still statistically significant as a factor in Americans’ life expectancy and such even if we take bad habits into account. See e.g. here.
May 29, 2008 at 1:36 pm
bitchphd
Lack of public healthcare, plus zoning restrictions, plus loan practices, plus lack of public transportation, plus school lunch programs, plus the economics of restaurants, etc. etc…..
May 29, 2008 at 1:37 pm
urbino
…subsidizing of car use…
May 29, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Meowser
People are shorter? Is there any connection with the number of people who go on DIETS when they’re still in grade school? Maybe? Just a teense?
May 29, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Cala
I’m a little skeptical. Northern Europeans are, when properly cared for and fed, really tall. But there are other nations in Europe with comparable social systems who are shorter than the Dutch, and this leads me to wonder whether part of the reason even white Americans are shorter is that we’re not all a bunch of Northern Europeans.
I’m completely willing to believe we’re less healthy overall, but won’t full height for the population map onto ancestry a little bit, and might that be enough to explain a three-inch difference?
May 30, 2008 at 3:35 pm
CharleyCarp
My son just got home from his annual physical. Grew 5 inches (to 5″10″) in 366 days. He’s 13. God knows what would have happened if he’d followed his mother’s advice re: skipping junk food, and mine re: skipping caffeine.
May 30, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Vance Maverick
What was your advice? “If you must skip junk food, for God’s sake don’t skip the caffeine?”
Anyway, that one lawyer’s son should grow impressively doesn’t say much, I’m sure you know, about the averages, any more than an unseasonably cold day in May belies the big story about the climate.
May 30, 2008 at 3:49 pm
ari
I grew five inches the summer before entering sixth grade. I was freakishly tall for a few years. Then the tall people caught and passed me. I think that story disproves global warming. But without access to a supercomputer, I can’t be totally certain.
May 30, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Megan
Heh. Anand grew four inches and lost forty lbs between arriving at college his freshman year and going home for Thanksgiving. They put him on the plane a little roly-poly and got back a tall skinny dude three months later.
I asked him if it hurt. He said no, but he slept a lot.
May 30, 2008 at 5:07 pm
urbino
I grew 3 inches after college.
May 30, 2008 at 7:13 pm
ari
You did not. (Did you?)
May 30, 2008 at 9:34 pm
urbino
Yup.
May 30, 2008 at 9:45 pm
ari
Unless you started college when you were fourteen, that’s just weird. No offense, of course. Weirdo.
May 30, 2008 at 9:54 pm
urbino
None taken. Douche bag.
People who knew me in college — when I have the misfortune of encountering them — often don’t recognize me. I was about 5′7″, 120 lbs. then. Just gristle and bone, really.
May 30, 2008 at 10:02 pm
urbino
You know, 5 in. over the summer between 5th and 6th grades doesn’t exactly put you square in the middle of the normalcy bell curve, either, Sasquatch.
May 30, 2008 at 10:04 pm
ari
So now you’re just shy of six feet and look like this guy?
May 30, 2008 at 10:06 pm
ari
Also, point taken. Glass houses and all that.
May 30, 2008 at 10:09 pm
urbino
and look like this guy?
Just the winsome smile.
May 30, 2008 at 10:13 pm
ari
If I had know you were so impish, I’d have been much nicer to you these past few months.
May 30, 2008 at 10:19 pm
urbino
I try not to put on impish airs. Besides, if you were nice to me, I’d stop hanging around. I’m one of Those.
So how tall did your 5 new inches make you in 6th grade?
May 30, 2008 at 10:29 pm
ari
5′ 11″. I grew another inch and a half between now and then. Seriously, for about three years people thought I might play professional basketball. Another foot and a bunch more talent, and I probably would have.
May 30, 2008 at 10:34 pm
urbino
I don’t gainsay it. Would that have made you the only NBA Jew, btw?
We had 2 girls in 2nd grade who were taller than the teacher. She was pretty wee, but still.
May 30, 2008 at 10:54 pm
ari
Jews in the NBA. Google: it’s the next big thing. You should try it.
May 30, 2008 at 11:04 pm
urbino
Gave it up for Lent.
So, in your own gruff but lovable way, you’re saying: why yes, urbino, yes I would. (David Blumenthal doesn’t count, as your career, spectacular though it doubtless would have been, would have ended before his started.)
May 30, 2008 at 11:24 pm
ari
You’re saying Jews can’t jump? Anti-semite.
May 31, 2008 at 12:05 am
urbino
No. I’m saying you’re old.
May 31, 2008 at 12:24 am
ari
That’s the truth. I’ve started shrinking, though not very quickly. Yet.
May 31, 2008 at 12:32 am
urbino
One of these summers, you’re going to contract 5 inches. Your students won’t recognize you, and global warming will be re-confirmed.
June 1, 2008 at 6:44 am
Navi
Doesn’t height has very little to do with health, unless you’re talking malnourished? And poor food/exercise choices are unhealthy, but don’t necessarily cause one to be malnourished…
So I’ll have to agree with Cala’s point.
And then one has to wonder what studies like this say about being short? short = unhealthy? wtf?
June 1, 2008 at 6:49 am
eric
I can see that it’s possible to interpret this as a critique of a given individual, but it really isn’t, any more than any social science is:
So it’s not that short=unhealthy for an individual, it’s that a shrinking height for the whole population means a less healthy childhood, on average, for that population.