ATLANTA, June 15 (UPI) -- The dawn of agriculture about 10,000 years ago took its toll on the health and height of early farmers, a U.S. researcher reported.
Amanda Mummert, an Emory graduate student in anthropology, led the first comprehensive, global review of literature about stature and health during the agriculture transition, the Atlanta university said last week in a release.
"Many people have this image of the rise of agriculture and the dawn of modern civilization, and they just assume that a more stable food source makes you healthier," Mummert says. "But early agriculturalists experienced nutritional deficiencies and had a harder time adapting to stress, probably because they became dependent on particular food crops, rather than having a more significantly diverse diet."
Growth in population density spurred by agriculture settlements led to an increase in infectious diseases, she said.
Her research said the trend toward shorter stature reversed, and average heights for most populations began increasing, especially in the last 75 years since the industrialization of food systems.
While the review supports the link between early agricultural practices and declining stature and health, Mummert said data must re-evaluating as more studies are completed.
The way the human body adapted to changes we made in the environment 10,000 years ago could help us understand how our bodies are adapting now, she says.
"I think it's important to consider what exactly 'good health' means," Mummert says. "The modernization and commercialization of food may be helping us by providing more calories, but those calories may not be good for us. You need calories to grow bones long, but you need rich nutrients to grow bones strong."
