Our society tells us that taller is better. While there are advantages to taller height, there also many disadvantages. For example, taller people tend to weigh more, and greater weight means greater demands for food, energy, materials, and farmland. In addition, bigger people produce more trash, carbon dioxide, and environmental damage. As one example, Samaras points out that researcher Dannenberg found a mere 10 pound increase in average US weight requires an additional 350,000,000 gallons of airline jet fuel per year. Since 1940, US weight has increased by over 40 pounds.

In summary, Samaras has long held that increasing human body size has devastating consequences on our health and the survival of humankind.

Thomas Samaras, founded Reventropy Associates 16 years ago and has worked with several researchers studying how greater height and weight affect health, longevity, performance and the environment. His associates included Dr. Elrick, a physician and longevity and nutrition expert, and Dr. Storms, a former professor at the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and staff member at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Diego. Samaras has conducted research on body size for over 35 years.

Writing in the journal, World Nutrition, Samaras, a former engineer and configuration management specialist, warns us of the manifold problems that will result from our worship of greater height in our children.

While a small percentage of taller, bigger people is not a problem, a world population of larger people is. Failure of environmentalists to include the worldwide increase in body size in their future estimates of global warming, environmental damage and resource scarcity fails to accurately predict future problems.

A world population of larger people simply amplifies all the world’s problems with very little in return. Yes, taller people tend to make more money and hold higher positions in society. This condition is due to our social prejudice which incorrectly relates size to performance. However, with the same opportunity, shorter or smaller people can do very well in the achievement arena. For example, Samaras points out that some of the world’s greatest achievers have been on the shorter side of the fence. He gives a small sampling, such as Voltaire, Michelangelo, Mozart, Beethovan, Andrew Carnegie, Onassis, Audie Murphy, Joan of Arc, Einstein, Magaret Mead, Bruce Lee, Ben Gurion, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Alexander the Great.

The obesity epidemic also parallels our encouragement of faster, greater growth through abundant nutrition. Studies show that bigger infants that experience accelerated growth are more likely to become overweight or obese in adulthood. The present childhood trend towards obesity and type 2 diabetes is a serious concern for the health and economic viability of the future world. The idea that less food may be beneficial was demonstrated during the Great Depression when individuals exposed to the depression during gestation grew up to have the greatest jump in life expectancy compared more prosperous periods of the 20th century. Infant mortality, as well as mortality for most ages, also declined.

What is the solution? Samaras recommends that nutritionists should develop lower calorie, moderate protein diets that produce healthy but slower growing children. These diets should be started in early childhood to be effective, and mothers should attend free nutrition clinics for training in proper nutrition and portion control. This process will greatly reduce the costs of medical care in middle and older ages. Samaras realizes that implementation of these recommendations is difficult but failure to correct our nutrition problems will result in an unsustainable economic burden due to health, resource and environmental costs
Author’s background

The author has researched the ramifications of human body size for over 35 years and has published in dozens of medical and scientific journals and six medical/nutrition books. He is also the editor of the book: Human Body Size and the Laws of Scaling, 2007, Nova Science Publishers, NY. A book reviewer described the work as a Herculean accomplishment. An editorial by the World Public Health Nutrition Association (World Nutrition) reported that Samaras’s work represents an epic vision. He has also published in the books: International
Encyclopedia of Public Health and Epidemiology and Demography in Public Health.

Links to Samaras’s commentary and website

Original commentary

http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn3_comm_small.htm

Commentary available in 22 languages

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110315/Human-growth-height-size-Reasons-to-be-small.aspx

Editorial on commentary

http://www.wphna.org/2011_mar_wn2_editorial_size.htm

Samaras’ website (includes list of his publications)

wwwhumanbodysize.com

Thomas T. Samaras, Director, Reventropy Associates, San Diego, Ca. USA

Email: samarastt@aol.com Tel: 858 576 9283

As a scientist by training, I would logically posit an experiment in which one puts a European in the care of Asians from start to finish and do the reverse, Even a small sample size I think would warrant ample conclusions about the matter. However, I don’t think any European parents would be cruel enough to put their newborn children to be raised in a poverty stricken third world country. I’ve seen enough cases of adoption by European and American parents of Asian children to come to my own conclusions about the issue of race and genetics. I think there is a strong correlation between poverty and lack of height if everything else is controlled for (including type of diet).

Notice I don’t rule out genetics completely as I know intra-population height varies with genetics more so than inter-population height, which has more to do with diet and relative wealth of a country.

In the end, everything plays a role in human development. Genetics, environment: habits (sleep, exercise, food) and access to resources, stress levels.

Sorry for the long response, I just think that you are making a very general claim about something so very complex as human development where most trained scientist, endocrinologist, geneticist and nutritionist would spend a lifetime studying and still have a hard time coming to verifiable conclusions.