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When I was in Japan someone offhandedly told me that too, and I thought it was strange. They said it as an explanation of why there aren't massively muscular Ja
by chanind 11y ago
When I was in Japan someone offhandedly told me that too, and I thought it was strange. They said it as an explanation of why there aren't massively muscular Japanese men walking around everywhere like there supposedly are in the US (it's probably just because weight-lifting isn't as popular in Japan as in the west).
- JDiculous 11y ago> it's probably just because weight-lifting isn't as popular in Japan as in the west Don't discount the role of genetics. Some people are just naturally larger, others couldn't get large even if they tried. Although Japanese people would no doubt be bigger if there was more of a weightlifting culture, they'd still be slimmer than the average American.
- sliverstorm 11y agoA photo from an event at the Korean DMZ: http://i.imgur.com/aHsayNH.png http://i.imgur.com/aHsayNH.png From left to right, American, North Korean, South Korean. A empirical illustration of both the role of genetic factors (American vs. South Korean) and the role of non-genetic factors (South Korean vs. North Korean)
- jrochkind1 11y agoI don't believe empirical means what you think it means. Perhaps you mean 'anecdotal'.
- sliverstorm 11y agobased on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation... It's a tiny sample of empirical evidence to be sure.
- mkempe 11y agoThe US army specifically picks tall soldiers for the DMZ. I heard about it in the 70s.
- sliverstorm 11y agoIn the context of this discussion, it's really the NK vs. SK soldier that is interesting. The people of both N. & S. Korea are pretty close genetically, and presumably NK does not send their shrimps.
- goodcanadian 11y agoIt would not surprise me if the South sent tall soldiers as well for such visible duty. While not directly relevant, it was slightly disorienting at the Forbidden City in Beijing when a group Chinese soldiers jogged by, every one of them well over six feet tall . . . absolute giants compared to the average people I saw around.
- coralreef 11y agoDiet probably has a role to play as well. Western diets generally seem to have more protein.
- gertef 11y agoEastern vs Western diet is far less relevant than Bodybuilder vs non-Bodybuilder diet.
- BlytheSchuma 11y agoAnd Japanese diets tend to have more soy which could lead to the explanation as to why Japanese men on average have more feminine characteristics. Studies have gone either way in suggesting this.
- notNow 11y agoSumo wrestlers, hello? That's so easy man!
- chillacy 11y agoMaximum size for bodybuilders at least correlates to wrist circumference, so that could be true.
- magic_beans 11y agoGenetics determine phenotypes. Simple as that. Various groups of human populations will have varying sorts of phenotypes, depending on the original conditions of their population. The 'long Japanese colon' may be related to the fact that Japanese are also better at digesting seaweed than other populations: http://www.wired.com/2010/04/sushi-guts/ http://www.wired.com/2010/04/sushi-guts/
- jrochkind1 11y agoIt is, in fact, hardly as simple as that.
- rblatz 11y agoI would assume that a longer intestine would be better at absorbing nutrition from your food. So this explanation is actually the opposite of what I would expect. It really seems like they've switched cause and effect around, they eat a less energy dense/harder to absorb diet, and their intestines get longer to compensate, also they don't buff up as much, because they have to work harder for their nutrition.