Black Women Getting Shorter: Study

They're the only group to lose height over recent generations
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 26, 2008 1:17 PM CST
Black Women Getting Shorter: Study
The relative prevalence of obesity in America. Among racial groups, African Americans have the highest rates, with 80% of Black women overweight or obese, compared to 62% of women overall.

While most of the American population is slowly gaining in height after a recent plateau, one group actually seems to be shrinking over the decades. Black women have lost about a half-inch on average compared to the previous generation, the exact opposite of the national trend, the Chicago Tribune reports, with a variety of socioeconomic factors seemingly behind the drop.

One big clue is that high-income black women follow the overall growth trend, suggesting that nutrition may play a factor in the poorer women’s shrinking. Compared with the national obesity rate of 62% among women, about 80% black women are overweight or obese. Black children seem to grow faster at first than white kids, likely because of higher-calorie diets. (More black women stories.)

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