by Credo Buffa » Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:33 pm
I think it's an acknowledged combination of all those factors, Saturn, that have made people in the industrialized world become physically larger over the years. We have greater access to care and a wide variety of foods (many of which are enriched, as you say) during those critical years of development than people did before the 20th century, and that has no doubt contributed to our growing more "robust" than our earlier ancestors. My mother's cousin has an interesting point about that, noticing that her own children--who were raised in Hungary--look physically smaller and younger than children their own age in the States, despite how tall their parents are, suspecting that the nutrition available to them over their youth has been less saturated with all of the things that affect our growth and development here.
Another aspect to consider is that people in Keats' day simply did a lot more physical labor as a part of everyday life. People didn't have cars to get around or computers on which to get all the information they needed or jobs that entailed a lot of sitting down. A simple task such as doing the laundry, which today involves little more than pressing a few buttons and letting a machine do the work, was a very physically-demanding job back in the day, as were most things that we take for granted today. So not only did people not have access to huge supermarkets full of ready-made food, but they were working a heck of a lot harder than most of us do now.
"Holy Kleenex, Batman! It was right under our nose and we blew it!"