Juvenile obesity is growing so quickly that neither nature nor nurture, genes or nutrition, seem really to provide a complete explanation. Not even a combination of, or interaction between the two seems to fit the timescale
Since our definition of obesity involves both height & weight, perhaps we should also be asking questions about height
Height doesnt make headlines & I dont feel like going on the hunt for figures, so here are my personal observations
Until the mid-70s, I could not easily buy trousers which were long enough for me. Then M&S came to the rescue with Extra Long. These days I rarely have to check if a pair of trousers will suit
I have spent most of my life being taller than most of those around me. Especially in the area where I grew up. It actually came as a shock to me when I moved back to the area 20 years ago to find that what I had thought of as a loss of self-consciousness due to age & maturity was in fact due to having lived in places where my height was not so extraordinary
One very young boy in Somerfields tilted back his head to get a proper view of me, then said to his mum 'TALL!'. When I was in hospital in 1991, one of the SHOs said to me 'Just exactly how tall are you, Mrs X'
But I gradually noticed girls getting taller. Especially perhaps on campus. And I know at least one lecturer who felt intimidated by the size of some of his young male students
Maybe I just stopped noticing, maybe I have osteoporosis, but suddenly its not at all unusual to see young people who are taller than me. And 6'6" for a young man is not rare, even in Stockport
So our population is definitely growing
Could it be that some have a gene for growing up, while others have a gene for growing out?
And could it be that the Quetelet index needs to be recalibrated or abandoned?
