Short Men Measure up in Athletics, Longevity, Love
 

If you're one of the 33 percent of U.S. men 18 to 74 who are less than 5 feet 8 inches tall or among the 13 percent less than 5 feet 6 inches tall, don't sell yourself short. Short men usually are great athletes and more energetic lovers. They also live longer than their taller counterparts and don't pose the threat to the planet that tall people do. That's according to Thomas Samaras, author of "The Truth about Your Height- Exploring the Myths and Realities of Human Size and its effects on performance, health, pollution and survival".

The San Diego, Calif., engineer says he bases his book on 20 years of research. For the record, Samaras is 5 feet 10 inches tall, so he has no ax to grind when he points out mat being short can be superior. "I'm very confident that I'm right but I know I'm going up against a sacred cow," Samaras says. One study shows that people in high-ranking jobs were about 2 inches taller than those with lower level jobs, even if they had the same educational and socioeconomic status. A 1980 survey found that more than half of the chief executives on America's Fortune 500 list stood 6 feet tall or more. However, there are advantages to being short Samaras maintains. For example, short men in general make great athletes. "In engineering, we know that as with any structure or body, as it gets bigger, its weight increases at -a faster, rate than its strength," Samaras says. "Which is why when you are shorter, you're more nimble and quick."

"Of course, a woman has to be open to a lover, and the ones who have dated shorter men have said they are more dynamic and powerful and eager to please." On average, short men also outlive the big guys. Samara says he did a study of 3,600 deceased baseball players, and the shorter ones had longer average lives than the taller ones. Then there's the threat that taller generations pose to the future of our planet "A bigger body requires more food and water, more clothing, a bigger house and car and larger airplanes, and that increases the consumption of food and raw materials and produces more pollution." In a world with a growing population and dwindling food supply, that could spell disaster, Samaras says If people in the future grow just 20 percent taller, that would mean their bodies would be 73 percent heavier and with 44 percent more surface area, he says. He says that in the United States, assuming we had the same size population we do now — 265 million — we would need 180 million more acres of farmland to grow crops It would double our energy consumption, produce 80 million more tons of garbage and cost the country an additional S3 trillion a year if people maintained their current lifestyles.

 North Hills News Record
 August 27th, 1996

Back to Research Articles