Slog
News & ArtsSunday, October 18, 2009
Health
The War on Obesity Shortness
Posted by Dan Savage on Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Daniel Engber in the NYT Magazine:
Many problems associated with being overweight correspond to being “underheight.” The shorter you are in America, the more likely your chances to develop coronary heart disease, diabetes or stroke. Fat people and short people lead briefer lives, and they put an increased burden on the health care system. Economists estimate that excess weight alone accounts for 9 percent of the country’s medical spending.... To win a war on shortness, we might promote the consumption of fruits, vegetables and other foods that are low in calories and high in micronutrients. Or we could invest in education as a means of alleviating poverty and environmental stress. Better access to doctors for children and their parents would improve prenatal and postnatal care and stave off the stunting effects of childhood disease.
The whole thing is here.
1
i can vouch for that. i'm only five feet and an extra five to ten pounds on me is like an extra twenty on an average person. LAME!
3
The Economists are wrong.
Excess weight alone accounts for way more than 9 percent of the country’s medical spending-
try 35% ....
Excess weight alone accounts for way more than 9 percent of the country’s medical spending-
try 35% ....
4
short people have no feelings. short people have no feelings. short people have no feelings at all.
short people have no reason. short people have no reason. short people have no reason to live.
short people have no reason. short people have no reason. short people have no reason to live.
5
This article is unbelievably stupid. I am a short man, but not overweight. I am in good shape, but very small framed. 5-4 and 125 pounds, age 49. All of my brothers and sisters are short, as are my mom and dad. Genetically short...Welsh, you know?
To assert that I would be less of a drain on the health system by getting taller is ludicrous.
Would we spend more on health care costs in America if we were all short and fit? Or tall and obese? Weight is obviously a more critical and actionable factor to consider than is height.
To assert that I would be less of a drain on the health system by getting taller is ludicrous.
Would we spend more on health care costs in America if we were all short and fit? Or tall and obese? Weight is obviously a more critical and actionable factor to consider than is height.
6
I'm a stout, muscular, hobbit-like 5'5"
If you Longshanks Folk bring a war on The Short, you will lose. I may not be able to crush your larynx with a swift blow, due to height constraints, but I will bite your sack off.
I don't have knee, back, or any other joint - or any - problems. I will run you down and you can't knock me over.
You want some? Git some.
If you Longshanks Folk bring a war on The Short, you will lose. I may not be able to crush your larynx with a swift blow, due to height constraints, but I will bite your sack off.
I don't have knee, back, or any other joint - or any - problems. I will run you down and you can't knock me over.
You want some? Git some.
7
Who was the comedian who said, "I'm not overweight, I'm under-tall -- for my weight, I should be 7'9"?
8
ADD medications, when taken continuously throughout grade school, can also inhibit growth... there's nothing wrong with genetically being a shorter build, but when drugs stunt your growth, that can make it harder for you to maintain a healthy weight.
9
The midget army knew this was coming. We have contingency plans. Time to assemble, my small kinfolk
11
Do people like this guy read what they've written before they send it off? Unbelievably stupid. Like a couple of other commenters, I'm short -- a bit over 5'5" -- but not anywhere near overweight and certainly not unhealthy. We had huge amounts of fruits and vegetables at meals when I was growing up. I still eat a lot of vegetables. And I'm still not getting any damn taller. But with every passing year, my elbow gets sharper.
12
... Seriously??
I had all the doctors, all the fruits and vegetables, all the gym classes, etc.
And I'm 5'1 at 19. These ppl can kiss my stunted ass.
I had all the doctors, all the fruits and vegetables, all the gym classes, etc.
And I'm 5'1 at 19. These ppl can kiss my stunted ass.
14
Why waste my time skimming an article, when I can just skim one paragraph and assume that the article asserts that short people never eat fruits and vegetables and are all fat.
15
This is such horse shit. It's propaganda geared to make those who don't fit a distorted idea of normal, feel guilty. I'm 5' and 170 pounds. My cholesterol is fine, my heart and blood pressure normal. I bicycle everywhere and do martial arts twice a week. Good health and nutrition is not one size fits all. Ignore the article and live well.
17
Weird. I heard the opposite: being taller means more cells, which means more cell mitosis, which means more chance of mitosis fucking up so more cancer.
18
as a 34 yr old, 5 ft reader, i object!!! this makes no sense. the guy asserts (yes i read the whole thing) that fruits and veggies can make you taller. perhaps eating right can help when you're little, but having a 5'4" dad really sets a limit there, especially when there are no tall anomalies on that side of the family. they're all short. i was doomed from the start. on another point, you can change your weight (though perhaps only to certain degrees for some people, but i do have several friends that lost a good deal of weight by simply diet and exercise) at any point in your life - height is sorta set by the time you're 20. i don't think any amount of fruits and veggies is gonna make me any taller at this point.
19
I assume the article is mostly talking about people who are shorter than they should be because of childhood malnutrition or disease, not people who happen to be short.
It makes sense to me that there could be long-term effects of early malnutrition, besides just being shorter than you should be. The problem isn't healthy people who are 5'1, but people who should have been 5'7 but wound up 5'1 due to disease or lack of vitamins.
It makes sense to me that there could be long-term effects of early malnutrition, besides just being shorter than you should be. The problem isn't healthy people who are 5'1, but people who should have been 5'7 but wound up 5'1 due to disease or lack of vitamins.
21
If a person is of smaller stature, it takes less fat to put them in an unhealthy range. Ten pounds makes a bigger difference on someone who is 5 feet tall, versus someone who is 6'4". Regardless of why people are shorter, after they stop growing, they cannot change it. People can however control their weight throughout their lives.
22
They can control their weight throughout their lives, but the article makes the daring suggestion that rather than berating people about it, we make changes to "win the war on shortness" - strike that, obesity.
Here's the crux of the article, which nearly all of you missed:
"Controlling our country’s height may be just as plausible — or implausible — as controlling its weight. It’s true that someone who is fat can lose weight on purpose, while a short adult can’t do anything to gain height. Yet instances of radical, lasting weight loss are exceedingly rare. Diet and exercise schemes tend to yield only minor effects over the long term. While lesser changes to your weight may be associated with modest health benefits, they won’t help all those obese adults to become slender. For most of us, changes in body size follow a long, slow pattern across our adult lives. Every year, we lose a tiny bit of height and gain a pound or two of weight until, in our older years, we shrink in both measurements.
Given how hard it can be to lose weight, a realistic war on obesity starts to look a lot like a war on shortness. In both cases, we’re dealing with a complex function of genetics, social class and poor health in childhood."
I normally am totally annoyed with Dan's inability to lighten up (hah!) on fat people, but Christ, shorties.
Here's the crux of the article, which nearly all of you missed:
"Controlling our country’s height may be just as plausible — or implausible — as controlling its weight. It’s true that someone who is fat can lose weight on purpose, while a short adult can’t do anything to gain height. Yet instances of radical, lasting weight loss are exceedingly rare. Diet and exercise schemes tend to yield only minor effects over the long term. While lesser changes to your weight may be associated with modest health benefits, they won’t help all those obese adults to become slender. For most of us, changes in body size follow a long, slow pattern across our adult lives. Every year, we lose a tiny bit of height and gain a pound or two of weight until, in our older years, we shrink in both measurements.
Given how hard it can be to lose weight, a realistic war on obesity starts to look a lot like a war on shortness. In both cases, we’re dealing with a complex function of genetics, social class and poor health in childhood."
I normally am totally annoyed with Dan's inability to lighten up (hah!) on fat people, but Christ, shorties.
23
22, A healthy diet and exercise routine will provide great lasting benefits if people maintain them for life. The problem is that many people stop doing them. People can control their weight much more easily than their height. The two things are apples and oranges, and it's a silly analogy.
24
I've heard the opposite. Shorter people put less stress on their bodies and esp their heart, so they live longer.
25
Hmm Japanese has the highest life expectancy and they're shorter than most westerners. I call this study BS.
26
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles…
According to the above link which sites many studies there is no proof of increased risk of heart disease or decreased longevity from being shorter than average. The opposite may be true.
According to the above link which sites many studies there is no proof of increased risk of heart disease or decreased longevity from being shorter than average. The opposite may be true.
27
@22 My very first assumption was that the authors were making a statement that just as height has a genetic component that can't be overcome, there could be the same with obesity.
@23 If it was so easy, there wouldn't be so many fat people. The problem is for those who aren't overweight, they assume that the fat people just aren't trying hard enough. "A calorie is a calorie" is a fallacy--there's more to it than that.
@23 If it was so easy, there wouldn't be so many fat people. The problem is for those who aren't overweight, they assume that the fat people just aren't trying hard enough. "A calorie is a calorie" is a fallacy--there's more to it than that.
28
27, It's basic physics. If you burn more calories than you take in you will lose weight, and vice versa. America's growing obesity problem is due to fewer and fewer people exercising, and that they take in more calories than ever before. Between meal snacking caloric intake on average has doubled since the 70s.
29
It's silly and not helpful to equate the type of extreme malnutrition that can cause non-genetically ordained short stature with the bad eating and exercise habits that cause obesity. These are extreme opposites.
I think it makes much more sense to see these as extreme opposites.
I think it makes much more sense to see these as extreme opposites.
30
pregnant women should be aware that many animal sources of protein are very high in fat and might contribute to excessive weight gain. www.1wallmart.com/women-health.php
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