Harvard Magazine has an outstanding cover story about the way we eat now. It’s long, but well worth the time investment.

Everywhere in the world, the richest people build the biggest homes, but as the world’s wealthiest nation, the United States is also building the biggest bodies. It’s hardly cause for patriotic pride. “We’re leading a race we shouldn’t want to win,” says associate professor of pediatrics David Ludwig. Many foreigners already view Americans as rich, greedy over-consumers, stuffing themselves with far more than their share of the planet’s resources, and obese American travelers waddling through international airports and hotel lobbies only reinforce that image.

Also, it emphasizes that the only time to grow bone is during adolescence; anything you do after that is just trying to stem the loss. So, teenagers, drink your milk!

Weight-bearing exercise only slows the rate of bone loss for adults; pre-adolescent bone growth is far more important to long-term skeletal strength. Hence, the sedentary lifestyles of today’s youngsters—and the cutbacks on school physical-education programs—may be sowing the seeds of widespread skeletal breakdown as their cohort matures.

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