• Question: how in the past 100 years we got substantial taller

    Asked by tree42gas to Sudhin, Sergio, Katie, Frances, Diarmuid, Aoife on 11 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Frances Shiely

      Frances Shiely answered on 11 Nov 2019:


      That’s a great epidemiological question! There is general agreement that our increase in height and foot size is as a result of better nutrition. The evidence for this is the fact that, we didn’t increase in height since homo sapiens (first humans) walked this earth, but only since the middle of the nineteenth century. The other reason we know this is that in developing countries, some children have slow growth because of malnourishment. However, when you bring them to a developed country where they have proper food and nutrition, then that slow growth is reversed and they catch up. I hope this answered your question!

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