#is that why people are taller today on average
People talk a lot about “today’s terrible eating habits” and “the proliferation of ‘junk food’ today” and it makes me so mad. You will hate to hear this but eating and humanity’s relationship with food has changed for the better. Evidence of chronic malnutrition and starvation is found on so many remains in practically every different culture throughout history. And it wasn’t always a lack of food, it was a lack of understanding of what the body needs. Marasmus was an extremely common cause of death for children, it is a condition caused by severe malnutrition that results in stunted growth and often death. It effected children from affluent families, families that could afford to feed their children and did, not just children who were physically starving from lack of food. Now if we see a baby or a child with failure to thrive, we can supply rich formulas with the vitamins and calories they need to grow. They couldn’t do that back then because they didn’t understand.
We enrich common foods with vitamins and minerals that people are commonly deficient in (iodized salt, fluoride water) and it saves lives. With the invention of mass produced products and safe canning, we can send foods to regions they wouldn’t otherwise be available. It’s fantastic and it’s marvelous. Believe it or not, ‘processed foods’ have been very good for humanity.
