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Undoing 100 Years of Physiological Progress From the December 2002 Issue of Club Business International (CBI) Magazine: |
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Poor nutrition and lack of exercise are having a negative impact on evolution The grim news: Despite the fact that research continues to confirm the importance of eating well and exercising often, and that, each year, more people come to understand and accept that notion, the population, as a whole, seems set on pursuing an overweight and sedentary lifestyle. This development, researchers suggest, could conceivably undo gains in longevity achieved during the past century, leading to a situation in which parents routinely outlive their children. One new study, supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), discovered a dramatic decline in physical activity among adolescent girls, with the most disturbing drop occurring among African-Americans. Dr. Sue Kimm and her colleagues, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, found that, by the time they reached 16 or 17 years of age, 31% of Caucasian girls and 56% of African-American girls report that they have no regular leisure-time physical activity. Among the factors contributing to higher levels of decreased activity were low educational levels among parents, higher body mass index (BMI), and pregnancy. The study followed 1,166 Caucasian and 1,213 African-American girls for a period of nine years; the results were published in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Professor Andrew Prentice, a nutritionist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, notes that obesity, which now affects 28% of Americans and 20% of Europeans, is taking a particularly heavy toll on the young. Adolescents are becoming obese at a younger age, precipitating Type II diabetes and other weight-related illnesses, which, formerly, occurred much later in life. The culprits, he indicates, are too many fatty foods and a reduction in physical activity. The result: a dramatic shift in human evolution and body shape. “We’ve spent 100 years doing marvelous work in terms of increase longevity and improving human health,” he told Reuters Health, “and now there are a few things that threaten that . . . Obesity is massively implicated, and it’s likely to tend to reverse all those gains we’ve been having.” |
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