Wapo - Why are Americans getting shorter?

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/15/why-are-americans-getting-shorter/

https://theweek.com/health/height-in-america-shorter-public-health#

Though bias from self-reporting has long been considered a factor in this height assessment, experts have confirmed that the population is indeed becoming shorter. That change is due to health factors and nutrition, with the decline overwhelmingly linked to growing wealth inequality in the United States beginning in particular around the 1980s.

Ezzati explained there are still a lot of calories being consumed in the U.S., but the country "has become more obese than any other wealthy country" because the calories consumed "are not really high-quality calories." One of the outcomes of obesity is early puberty for children, leading to increased levels of estrogen in both boys and girls. Higher estrogen levels cause bones to "grow taller, faster, but then … growth plates fuse earlier," Louise Greenspan, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, told the Post.

- Following this method, the turning point becomes immediately and painfully clear: Around 1980, even native-born White men and women started getting shorter. (We’re looking specifically at Whites because they have the most robust data.)

- What changed in 1980? Childhood obesity began its steady rise, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. And Komlos believes America’s weight problem may be causing its height problem.

- And if kids’ bones stop growing sooner, it’s possible they end up shorter. Greenspan said this is particularly true of young girls, which could help explain why we see heights dropping faster among millennial women.

- By driving down inequality, the New Deal and the Great Society literally lifted up the most vulnerable (and often shortest) Americans.
When all-star economists Hilary Hoynes, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach and Douglas Almond (University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University and Columbia University, respectively) ran the numbers on the rollout of food stamps in the United States from 1961 to 1975, they found that newfound access to food assistance in utero or early childhood caused a significant drop in stunting, or the odds of someone falling into the bottom 5 percent of heights as an adult.

- For the rest of their lives, shorter millennials will bear the physical stamp of the inequality that erupted in their infancy. When we’re trying to explain America’s unluckiest generation, we should consider not just what they’ve become, but how they started out.

[Anonymous]

OMG of all the things Millennials complain about, now they're complaining that they're too short.

[Anonymous]

I think the real focus should be on the poor health and nutrition, not height.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to believe there could really have been a huge change in the quality of food around 1980. I'm more inclined to believe an environmental chemical factor we haven't identified yet.

[Anonymous]

For a few decades in the 20th century, an unprecedented number of Americans had access to decent health care, decent housing, and good nutrition. A few people on the top hated that and have been working to dismantle it ever since. Looks like they're succeeding.

[Anonymous]

No, that's not it, OP. Whites of Scandinavian descent are tall. Hispanic whites are short.

Changing heights are due to changing demographics.

[Anonymous]

I think it is amount of short foreigners moving in. Mexican, Asian etc.

When I was young in NYC the police had a 6 foot height requirement minimum.

The cops had tons of Irish, German, Black cops all who were six feet or taller.

My NYC neighborhood at time in 1960s six feet or more was a normal height.

Today 2024 my old neighborhood is largely Hispanic with Asians mixed in and Black.

Of course the average height has shrunk.

For example in 1976 my older brother was cut from the JV basket ball team in my HS at six foot four inch ninth grader!! They had two six foot five inch 9th graders already!!

Today he be star of that team. The school is all Asian and Mexican.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to believe there could really have been a huge change in the quality of food around 1980. I'm more inclined to believe an environmental chemical factor we haven't identified yet.

This. The chemicals in our foods play a big role, IMO.

Young girls are starting their menstruation earlier and earlier. What happens after menstruation starts? Growth slows and for many, stops completely. Neither DD grew in height after they started their periods.

I also think our culture's obsession with starting kids in sports so young could also be a cause. I wish I had never started my oldest in gymnastics classes as a toddler. I wish I hadn't let her keep going after her first big injury at age 7/9. She's 21 now and has so many issues from her competitive gymnastics days. She's also my shortest kid at 5'3". I am 5'9" and my wife is 5'10" and our sperm donor was 6'1". My other kids are 5'8 (14 yo dd), 6'2" (17 yo ds), and 6'1" (19 yo ds). The other kids didn't start sports until they were in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anecdotally, I'm not seeing this at all. I'm 5'2". When I was younger and in school, lots of girls were around my height or a bit taller. Our mothers, aunts, grandmothers were short too. Now, since my older is in jr high so many girls are 5'8" and they have enormous feet. Hardly any are around my size. This doesn't ring true for me.

[Anonymous]

My kids eat a much more varied and nutritious diet than I did as a kid and they're both forecast to be shorter than us. We don't have any obesity in the family and are all fit.

DH and I are both 5'8" tall. Our girls are expected to be 5'2" and 5'6", so noticeably shorter than both of us. We attribute it to genetics given other shorter female family members. It shouldn't be diet, as we eat a pretty darn clean and healthy diet by any standard.

[Anonymous]

Agree it's obviously due to changing demographics. People from difference backgrounds are different heights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to believe there could really have been a huge change in the quality of food around 1980. I'm more inclined to believe an environmental chemical factor we haven't identified yet.

I think you are on to something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids eat a much more varied and nutritious diet than I did as a kid and they're both forecast to be shorter than us. We don't have any obesity in the family and are all fit.

DH and I are both 5'8" tall. Our girls are expected to be 5'2" and 5'6", so noticeably shorter than both of us. We attribute it to genetics given other shorter female family members. It shouldn't be diet, as we eat a pretty darn clean and healthy diet by any standard.

Your DH is short, actually really short, you however are tall, if you are the tallest female in your family then you are an outlier. A genetic fluke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids eat a much more varied and nutritious diet than I did as a kid and they're both forecast to be shorter than us. We don't have any obesity in the family and are all fit.

DH and I are both 5'8" tall. Our girls are expected to be 5'2" and 5'6", so noticeably shorter than both of us. We attribute it to genetics given other shorter female family members. It shouldn't be diet, as we eat a pretty darn clean and healthy diet by any standard.

Your DH is short, actually really short, you however are tall, if you are the tallest female in your family then you are an outlier. A genetic fluke.

This weird poster makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

All latino kids I know are a lot taller than their parents. They are off of the corn diet which gives them nothing but full stomach. Their kids may end up being shorter or the same height they are because of the empty calories yet again.
US already may have hit their max height and it's downhill from there.
Europe is going downhill soon too because fast food is overtaken cooking at home. Not at schools yet luckily.