September 29th, 2008
Short Americans
In the debate the other night, John McCain stated an unusual statistic. He said that North Koreans are three inches shorter on average than South Koreans. He attributed the difference to the repressive North Korean regime and the better nutrition available to the South Koreans. Senator McCain was off a little bit… the actual difference is two inches but his point is well made.
But what would Senator McCain think of this… the average American (looking at only native born Americans of non-Hispanic and non-Asian origin) is shorter than the average European. In fact, the average American is two inches shorter than the average person from the Netherlands! Historically, Americans have been the tallest people in the world. But that is no longer the case. Dr. John Komlos, whose scientific journal originally published the Korean figures said this:
“Of course, a similar argument could be leveled against the U.S. as it is not doing as well as its Western European counterparts,” he wrote. “Of course there are many other indicators that the U.S. health care and diet are not as good as in Western Europe. Western Europeans live longer.”
Perhaps it is time for the US to look at our health care system. Don’t we owe it to our children?
