Why are people getting taller?
In: 5
Basically, because we are eating better and have better medical care.
Human growth depends a lot on nutrients we get between birth and around 16-19 or so. As weve learned what our bodies need for optimum growth, we have enriched foods, like bread, with vitamins and minerals we need, but don’t get often in our diet.
With our availability of food, and things like antibiotics and vaccines, we are able to provide our bodies all we need, and protect it from disease
We may be getting taller because we’re eating better as kids.
If you have a very nutritional diet as a child, you have a better chance of growing big, strong and tall. Overall, most places in the world have much better childhood nutrition than in the past.
There is some evidence to suggest this but it’s not absolute by any means. Just a theory.
Humans were getting shorter for thousands of years since the farm food we ate lacked nutrients. Since the industrial revolution humans started to mass produce food and since in most western countries people are well fed since child hood the average human has become taller. Tldr: More food means humans grow taller.
Your height is 80% genetics and 20% nutrition ([https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/height/](https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/height/)), but nutrition is what’s improving here. Studies have shown that men of average height are more likely to reproduce than men that are tall or short ([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277695/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277695/)), even though you would assume that taller men are more likely to reproduce based on current trends, that’s not what’s causing this. If there was more long-term partner selection based on taller men or women, then we would also see people getting taller on average (due to natural selection) apart from their nutrition.
Nutrition in the early years is enabling adults to grow to their maximum potential height a slight nutritional issue as a child can result in stunted growth. Low levels of protein, calcium and vitamins A and D will restrict growth. https://youtu.be/ZGXa3Oj-sGE
Latest Answers