The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700

by Roderick Floud , Robert W. Fogel , Bernard Harris , Sok Chul Hong

• ISBN13: 9780521705615
• ISBN10: 0521705614
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, diet and the disease environment in Europe and the United States since 1700. It examine how we define and measure health and nutrition as well as key issues such as whether increased longevity contributes to greater productivity or, instead, imposes burdens on society through the higher costs of healthcare and pensions. The result is a major contribution to economic and social history with important implications for today's developing world and the health trends of the future.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. xviii
List of tables	p. xxi
Acknowledgements	p. xxv
Our changing bodies: 300 years of technophysio evolution	p. 1
A schema: technophysio evolution	p. 3
The ôstandard of livingö and ônutritional statusö	p. 6
Understanding technophysio evolution	p. 15
Investigating the interaction of biological, demographic, and economic variables from fragmentary data	p. 41
Food consumption (diet) and energy cost accounting	p. 41
Size distribution of calories	p. 49
Waaler curves and surfaces	p. 57
Scenarios of the possible distribution of the calories available for work in Britain	p. 72
A theoretical model of the interaction of biological, demographic, and economic variables	p. 77
Lognormal distribution	p. 85
The analysis of long-term trends in nutritional status, mortality, and economic growth	p. 89
Estimating the income distribution of households and identifying the location of the ultrapoor and the average income of households in England for 1759 and 1801	p. 89
Problems in estimating the income elasticity of demand for food from cross-sectional data rather than longitudinal data	p. 97
Assessing the productivity of food production in France, 1705 and 1785	p. 105
The nature of European famines	p. 116
How variations in body size brought the population and the food supply into balance and affected the level of mortality	p. 119
Contribution of improved nutrition and health to the growth of labor productivity	p. 125
Some implications for the theory and measurement of economic growth	p. 128
Estimating the effect of changes in stature and weight on the discounted present value of the difference between earnings and maintenance over the life cycle	p. 131
Technophysio evolution and human health in England and Wales since 1700	p. 134
Height, weight, and body mass	p. 134
Mortality	p. 145
Wages, nutrition, and the standard of living	p. 151
Diet, nutrition, and work intensity	p. 164
The contribution of other factors to the decline of mortality	p. 170
Morbidity	p. 180
Cohort factors and mortality change	p. 186
	p. 195
Height, health, and mortality in continental Europe, 1700-2100	p. 226
The anthropometric history of continental Europe	p. 226
The decline of mortality in continental Europe	p. 242
Economic and social change in continental Europe since 1700	p. 258
Health and economic development	p. 278
Future prospects	p. 284
	p. 290
The American experience of technophysio evolution	p. 296
Elimination of chronic malnutrition	p. 300
Changing bodies and the escape from premature death, sickness, and poverty	p. 330
Recent trends and future prospects	p. 350
	p. 362
Conclusion	p. 364
What has been achieved and is now in prospect?	p. 365
Will these improvements continue?	p. 368
What is still to be achieved?	p. 370
Possible constraints	p. 372
Conclusion	p. 374
References	p. 376
Index	p. 423
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