“Are we becoming obese today?” “Is it colder than usual this year?” These questions, so common today, are not new. This table is from a journal written by a New Jersey housewife in 1831, apparently to keep track of the weight of her family members.
Woman 43 years 216 pounds
Man 37 years 150 pounds
Child 20 years 154 pounds
Child 14 years 81 pounds
Child 5 years 40 pounds
Years later, in February 1856, the housewife noted that she got weighed “at the mill” and was 206 pounds. Then she went fishing through 14-inch-thick ice on a nearby pond. She wrote that the temperature had been 8 below zero in January.
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