Stan and I are both sitting on the sofa reading….he is reading a new book….one that arrived today and caused me to roll my eyes upon reading the title….Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. Oh, boy. Guess where he heard about this book? None other than CNN. …which made me think about the other books on our shelf that have been purchased as a result of a guest appearance on that very channel. I asked, “So exactly how many pages have you read in Liberal Fascism? He said he had not gotten to that one….so I picked it up and am reading it. Wow.
Hey, if I have time to read a few pages in Liberal Fascism, I should post part 2 on my world hunger series. So, a few months ago, I mentioned a study that I did based on some data collected in Honduras on children and nutrition. This is where part 2 of the series will focus. Basically, data were collected to assess physical indicators of malnutrition on school children living in rural Honduras. A subset of these children were selected for family surveys. These surveys assessed household characteristics (such as indicators of food insecurity, certain possessions (TVs, refrigerators, etc.), number of children in the household, etc.). We were trying to see if in fact there was a relationship between food insecurity and stunted growth. So, in children, stunting (assessed by comparing a child’s height for age to an international reference population) is an indicator of long-term malnutrition. Wasting (assessed by comparing a child’s weight for height) is an indicator of short-term malnutrition. The ultimate question here is this: are children who are stunted also suffered from other ill effects of malnutrition, or are they just shorter? So we also looked at the relationship between stunting and physical signs of malnutrition (pot belly, eyelid paleness, bleeding gums, etc.).
So, I give all of that background to get to an interesting story. When I first started working on this study, I discussed it with the professor I worked under for my Master’s research. She was very internationally involved, and in fact retired and went to India as a Fulbright scholar shortly after this conversation. So, we were talking about growth stunting, and my professor told me that all children worldwide have a similar ethnic growth potential. (Sounds strange….but research shows that until puberty, children (not individuals…mind you) have similar potentials for height achievement). Then she told me that one case that testifies to this goes as follows: Apparently, after World War II, the Japanese were concerned that their populace was so short. She said that they were upset that the Germans had developed the atomic bomb before they did…and somehow connected this to their short stature. Maybe if they changed their dietary guidance, people would begin to grow taller (and would be smarter, too!) (Sidenote…the idea that a government’s dietary advice could make such a notable change is substantial.) Evidence shows that the Japanese did actually grow taller after World War II (though I can’t find anywhere the changes in dietary guidance….would be interesting to know). I have to admit, after hearing this, I thought the story could not possibly be true. At the time, I did not know about the common growth potential for populations of children. When I think of this study, I often remember this conversation and smile….
I guess I should tell you that our study did not find a correlation between food insecurity and stunting (possibly because a large number of children in the study experienced stunting (around 40%)…and most did not experience severe food insecurity at the time of the study (seasonal variation could play a part here). But we did find a correlation between physical signs of malnutrition and stunting.
And there’s your lesson. 
