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We Are Getting Larger and Eating More Food
As people around the world get bigger — both heavier and taller — a troubling result is that global demand for food and resources also increases.
Research carried out as part of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Industrial Ecology Programme looked at changes in the adult population of 186 countries between 1975 and 2014.
The study is the first to analyze “the role of human populations’ physical characteristics from a longitudinal perspective, beyond mere population numbers, as a driver of global food demand.”
The research found that the average global adult is 14 percent heavier, 1.3 percent taller, 6.2 percent older, and has 6.1 percent higher caloric requirements than the average global adult in 1975. Some of the highest and lowest increases were found in countries in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East — showing the great disparities between some nations in these regions. And while height increased globally overall, 65 out of the 186 countries included in the research showed declining average height.
