So many things surely are going on: (1) As you note, there is much speculation about how chemicals interfere with hormones. (2) The age profile of the population will have changed a lot over time. (3) Our work has become more sedentary. (4) Our play has become more sedentary ...
One of the contributing factors might be the amount of television watched. Not just the time spent sitting around but also all those adverts for snack foods.
I read somewhere that before farming the human diet was enormously varied. I did see an estimated figure for the number of different types of plants, animals and insects consumed. I can't remember what the figure was but it was far higher than that for farming societies. When farming started the range of food types in the human diet contracted greatly. It would be interesting to see how the average height of humans changed over that period.
Interesting findings. Perhaps the proliferation of certain drugs and chemicals is a factor.
So many things surely are going on: (1) As you note, there is much speculation about how chemicals interfere with hormones. (2) The age profile of the population will have changed a lot over time. (3) Our work has become more sedentary. (4) Our play has become more sedentary ...
One of the contributing factors might be the amount of television watched. Not just the time spent sitting around but also all those adverts for snack foods.
I read somewhere that before farming the human diet was enormously varied. I did see an estimated figure for the number of different types of plants, animals and insects consumed. I can't remember what the figure was but it was far higher than that for farming societies. When farming started the range of food types in the human diet contracted greatly. It would be interesting to see how the average height of humans changed over that period.
Thanks for a very interesting article.
It IS more complicated. And it's also time-dependent. And trajectory-dependent. None of which are easy to get at using a straightforward regression. https://empathy.guru/2017/09/17/weight-loss-by-the-v-memes-iii-whats-the-v-meme-stack-look-like/