Very interesting article.
I'm not convinced that white Europeans are taller than white Americans, adjusted for demography (the taller Europeans tend to be Northern Europeans, and white Americans trace more of their heritage to the Atlantic, Germanic, and Mediterranean regions).
However, if white Europeans are indeed taller and slimmer than white Americans net of demography, what if this difference is due to the evolution that has occurred because of healthcare, a la the Gambia study? This is an inchoate, speculative hypothesis, of course.
I'm personally against government-provided "free" healthcare (moral hazards and privatized gains with socialized losses), but the prospect of slimmer American chicks a few decades down the line is certainly a compelling argument for it.
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The data also showed that natural selection shifted from favoring shorter women with a high body mass index (BMI) to taller women with lower BMI. Since height and BMI are both highly heritable, these reversed selection pressures should eventually produce generations of taller and slimmer Gambian women, the authors said.
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, an anthropologist from the University of California Davis, said the results are interesting but it is not clear why selection pressures on BMI and height took a U-turn. “Do fat, heavy women no longer enjoy a fertility advantage over their taller, thinner counterparts because of changed disease prevalence, changed diet, new mate choice criteria, or something else?” she asked. “We are left with rather a limited understanding [about] what contributes to the BMI and height findings.”
I'm not convinced that white Europeans are taller than white Americans, adjusted for demography (the taller Europeans tend to be Northern Europeans, and white Americans trace more of their heritage to the Atlantic, Germanic, and Mediterranean regions).
However, if white Europeans are indeed taller and slimmer than white Americans net of demography, what if this difference is due to the evolution that has occurred because of healthcare, a la the Gambia study? This is an inchoate, speculative hypothesis, of course.
I'm personally against government-provided "free" healthcare (moral hazards and privatized gains with socialized losses), but the prospect of slimmer American chicks a few decades down the line is certainly a compelling argument for it.
#NoSingleMoms
#NoHymenNoDiamond
#DontWantDaughters