Diablo IV, Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 Forums - Diabloii.Net

Steckel has found that Americans lose the most height to Northern Europeans in infancy and adolescence, which implicates pre- and post-natal care and teen-age eating habits.

As America’s rich and poor drift further apart, its growth curve may be headed in the opposite direction, Komlos and others say. The eight million Americans without a job, the forty million without health insurance, the thirty-five million who live below the poverty line are surely having trouble measuring up. And they’re not alone. As more and more Americans turn to a fast-food diet, its effects may be creeping up the social ladder, so that even the wealthy are growing wider rather than taller.

Click to expand...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3625031.stm

He discovered that, at the time of the American War of Independence in 1775, the average American man was 5ft 9 - about two inches taller than the average British man.

Now, the tables have been turned - with the British around half an inch taller than the Americans, who have now reached an average height of 5ft 10.

But Dutch men have an even bigger height advantage over the Americans - they reach an average of 6ft 1.

Click to expand...

Pretty interesting stuff. I'm about 5" 8 1/2 and I consider myself very lucky. When I was little I lived in Romania and I dont think communist countries tended to have good pre-natel care [my mother actually died while having an abortion ]. My dad was also shorter then my mother and since I've moved to America, I outgrew them both - or just about almost anyone in my original biological family I guess....

Anyways, I attribute this to my parents at least mostly eating at home, with moderately decent food cooked at the table. Still, if I HAD gotten better pre-natel care I wonder if I would've added a few inches to my height. I so want to be 5"11 or something. Oh well, its interesting that this study shows that pre-natel care can be just as important as having a balanced meal as a kid and teenager to growing up to a decent height.

I guess this also smashes the popular belief that Americans are the tallest in the world. We used to be at at one point, now we've been outstripped and the Japanese are gaining on us. Uh-oh.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...