Is there a future at all... | 39 comments (39 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Cold burns calories (4.00 / 2)

I heard recently that in cold climates poor children spend so much of their food intake keeping warm that they grow less, so there is a correlation between income and body size.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 06:04:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cold burns calories (none / 1)

Then people in Sweden shouldn't be so tall...but they are.
I wonder if they are getting fat too? Cause they never had that problem before and having a high standard for decades the food was not something they missed...All tho they it much of the sea food which is much better...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 06:16:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cold burns calories (none / 0)

Larger bodies retain more heat - heat production is proportional to body mass and heat loss proportional to skin surface. Volume to surface ratio favours large bodies in cold climates.

But you misunderstand my claim anyway. The claim is that among a ethnically homogeneous group of Swedes living in Sweden, those in relative poverty would grow to be shorter, on average, than wealthier ones.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 06:21:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cold burns calories (none / 1)

I understand what you mean...in scientific sense...
But I am not so sure the theory is relevant in this sense.
Here where I live - tropical QLD, people are also getting fat...even Asians that are not genetically predisposed...so I am sure it's about food.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 06:41:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cold burns calories (4.00 / 2)

We are tall now, but used to be short when food was scarce. There was a class difference in height back then, but I think that was the case in most nations since poverty meant not always enough food during the three periods of growth spurt - in the womb, the first 2 years of living and puberty.

Weight is going up here too, but not dramatically so. There is a worrying fixation on weight though. Personally I suspect that obesity (not just a couple of extra kilos) is often linked with an unhealthy relation with food, where food becomes a substitute for something else. And if that something else is to look skinny you have got yourself a feedback loop.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 09:12:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

hunger, height, and heightism (none / 0)

A swedish kind of death: We are tall now, but used to be short when food was scarce.

According to Barbra Demick, 18-year old escapees from North Korea average five inches (13 cm) shorter than 18-year old South Koreans.

A swedish kind of death: There was a class difference in height back then, but I think that was the case in most nations since poverty meant not always enough food during the three periods of growth spurt - in the womb, the first 2 years of living and puberty.

Demick also says that this adds insult to the injury of finding themselves at the bottom of society when North Korean refugees manage to make it to South Korea. She says South Korea is a "heightist" society. But which society isn't?

The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.

by marco on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 09:27:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: hunger, height, and heightism (none / 1)

I can't find it right now, but there was a German study (also discussed on ET), that showed that, while people are generally becoming taller in developed countries, people in the U.S. have started becoming shorter (the study seemed to rule out genetic reasons).

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 09:35:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cold burns calories (none / 1)

Yes - as I've said before, anorexia is a recursive mental problem to do with wanting to be thinner (relative), rather than thin (absolute). It's the same problem with 'richer' and 'rich' = anglo nervosa

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 09:33:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Is there a future at all... | 39 comments (39 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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