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Ezekiel
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 Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:28 am Post subject: America no longer the tallest! |
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So, for a while sometimes, Americans on average were the tallest in the world. We've been beaten by the dutch, who have an average height of 6 feet tall. Compared to America's 5'10", they take the trophy. Sure, this seems like useless information, or a reason for Dutch people to party, but is there more to this? What can this change be linked to?
What if the Dutch don't stop growing!? :-p
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Onimaru
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:49 am Post subject: Re: America no longer the tallest! |
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| Ezekiel wrote: |
What if the Dutch don't stop growing!? :-p |
Oh...my...god. I'm building a bomb shelter now to save us all from the Dutch-Zilla's.
Oh well, fine! They can have our trophy, we were done with it anyways. Who wants to be the tallest anyways. Hmph.
Honestly though, a number of factors could play into the growth spurt. Things like this are determined socially, isn't evolution great? My first guess would be that Tall is considered an attractive physical trait to the dutch, this could be influced by the media over there. It seems to be a physical trait that has fallen out of the limelight in America, no longer are tall women considered attractive - the classic figure has gone out of style in favor of a more domestic one in America. Or it could be that America has dropped our sense of biasm when looking for a mate, we're just not as picky anymore so there's no realy "survial of the strongest" here anymore, not saying that short Dutchmen are starving because only their taller brethern can reach the fruit high in the trees or anything. But if being of admirable hight is a quality found attractive to the Dutch and one that's not so important to Americans then the continued growth of the dutch can be expected while in America it would level off and lead to a lack of growth.
Or the Dutch could be eating healthier, that's a possiblity. America is known as the unhealthiest nation in the world, we're prone to obesity and have bad eating habits. A healthier diet could promote higher rates of growth among children. Oh well, no matter..
Just out of curiosity what is the shortest nation in the world?
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Vextor
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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According to wikipedia's article on human height (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height), China has the shortest average height, but the article isn't very accurate either, and only includes a handful of nations.
Also, USA lost the "tallest in the world" title a while ago. Finland, Sweden, Norway and a number of other nations have had taller average heights for a while. |
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Ezekiel
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Vextor wrote: |
According to wikipedia's article on human height (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height), China has the shortest average height, but the article isn't very accurate either, and only includes a handful of nations.
Also, USA lost the "tallest in the world" title a while ago. Finland, Sweden, Norway and a number of other nations have had taller average heights for a while. |
Damn you morning news, making me believe this is recent >.>
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Shad
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I actually read the title and immediately thought "how is it possibly not the Netherlands"? Every Dutch person I know, at least who I've seen a picture of, is a damn giant. I would never expect America to be at the top of the list, or even on it really, considering all the Hispanic and Asian people living here. I would guess the Netherlands > Norway > Sweden as the top 3 on the list, with maybe some goofy country in Africa coming in fourth. |
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ard
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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Fear our skyscraping tallness and all that!
America has been the tallest country in the world before? That's a bit surprising to me.
I guess i'm an exception on this giant thing, i'm only 1.75m and always have been one of the shortest persons in any of my classes. |
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Vextor
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I think the USA was tallest for a while, especially like back in the 50s. They were considered giants back during WWII. Back then, the average height for the dutch were like 5 feet 7 inches or something. It's the effect of better nutrition or something. |
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HarmonianHiccup
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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Better nutrition may be a factor, but consider also genetics.
In the Western United States, at least, there was a HUGE amount of Dutch, Danish, Finnish and other Scandinavia immigrants who came to settle the frontier. These people have always had a tendency towards the tall end of the spectrum. A great deal of the stock from which the modern American population came was from these big blond "viking" types ;), and so the average heights were taller than the "norm."
Take the state of Utah, for example. I have never seen so many tall people in my life! It's because a whole bunch of the high mountain valleys were populated in the late 1900s by Danish folks who were quite extraordinarily tall compared to their neighbors.
Also, consider the East Coastal area of the States. As far as I know, the average height there is less than it is out West, and this is because these Eastern areas were populated mostly by the smaller European stock--the Irish, English, Italian, Welsh, etc.
Now consider the most recent wave of genetics from South America into the states. The body type tends to be small and lean or medium and stockily built--most of the people coming from the south are not tall in any notable way, and their addition to the population is certainly going to bring the mean height down. Also, they're adding their genes to the pool and their contributions are likewise going to lessen the mean height.
Wow. I'm lecturing. Did any of that make sense? O_o
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ferrouslupusrex
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| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:20 am Post subject: |
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You can blame migration to that because the surveys do include second generation individuals. Now, if you only chose to sample 'older' strains of 'americans' (caucasian descent, with ancestry that goes back as far as the 1800s) you just might get a different result. Heck, America might retain or reacquire their 'world title'.
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