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Body Mass, Nutrition, and Disease: Current Net Nutrition during US Economic Development

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  • Scott A. Carson

Abstract

When other measures for material welfare are scarce or unreliable, the use of average stature and body mass index (BMI) values is common. BMI reflects the current difference between calories consumed, calories required for work, and to withstand the physical environment. This study evaluates 19th century macro-level nutrition and diseases associated with US BMI variation. Body mass was positively related to calories from dairy products and inversely related to malaria, which had a larger effect on net-nutrition than cholera. After controlling for nutrition and disease, black BMIs and weights were greater than whites, indicating that 19th century social preferences are an unlikely explanation for taller, fairer complexioned whites.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Body Mass, Nutrition, and Disease: Current Net Nutrition during US Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 8464, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8464
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott Alan Carson, 2018. "The weight of nineteenth century Mexicans in the Western United States," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 1-12, January.
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      • Floud,Roderick & Fogel,Robert W. & Harris,Bernard & Hong,Sok Chul, 2011. "The Changing Body," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521879750, September.
    6. Roderick Floud & Robert W. Fogel & Bernard Harris & Sok Chul Hong, 2011. "The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number foge10-1.
    7. Carson, Scott Alan, 2019. "Late 19th, early 20th century US, foreign-born body mass index values in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 26-38.
    8. Gaynor, Martin, 1994. "Adam Smith as health economist, redux. Professor Smith on the market for physician services," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 119-122, March.
    9. Komlos, John & Carson, Scott, 2017. "The BMI values of the lower classes likely declined during the Great Depression," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 137-143.
    10. Komlos, John, 1987. "The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(4), pages 897-927, December.
    11. Haines, Michael R. & Craig, Lee A. & Weiss, Thomas, 2003. "The Short and the Dead: Nutrition, Mortality, and the “Antebellum Puzzle” in the United States," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 382-413, June.
    12. Carson, Scott Alan, 2008. "The Effect of Geography and Vitamin D on African American Stature in the Nineteenth Century: Evidence from Prison Records," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 812-831, September.
    13. Carson, Scott Alan, 2009. "Racial differences in body mass indices of men imprisoned in 19th Century Texas," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 121-127, March.
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    18. Scott Alan Carson, 2018. "Black and white female body mass index values in the developing late 19th and early 20th century United States," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 309-330, October.
    19. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1999. "A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(4), pages 972-996, December.
    20. Coelho, Philip R. P. & McGuire, Robert A., 2000. "Diets Versus Diseases: The Anthropometrics of Slave Children," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 232-246, March.
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    23. Bogart, Dan, 2009. "Nationalizations and the Development of Transport Systems: Cross-Country Evidence from Railroad Networks, 1860–1912," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(1), pages 202-237, March.
    24. Scott Alan Carson, 2013. "The Significance and Relative Contributions of Demographic, Residence, and Socioeconomic Status in Nineteenth-Century U.S. BMI Variation," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 67-76, June.
    25. Scott Alan Carson, 2020. "Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 77-98, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    nineteenth century US health; BMI variation by characteristics; malnourishment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

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