I read an article years back that stated one of the reason for their height was a calorie-stuffed diet rich in meat and dairy products.
BTW, I have a lot of Dutch in my background. Unfortunately they were short Dutch.
Posted on 04/09/2015 5:21:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
DUTCH men are towering over their global rivals by growing at the fastest rate in the world – but why?
The average male in the Netherlands has gained 20cm in height over the last 150 years, according to military records.
In comparison, the height of the average American has risen only 6cm in the same timeframe.
The reason may be down to taller Dutch men producing MORE children than their shorter counterparts - meaning the tall gene is being rapidly passed down through generations.
According to a snapshot of the last three-decades, the most fertile men were those above the average male height in the Netherlands.
Statistically, tall men are having 0.24 more children on average than the last fertile men, who were about 14cm below the average height.
Natural selection in addition to good environmental conditions may help explain why the Dutch are so tall Taller women also reproduced more in the Netherlands, compared to counterparts in other countries.
The study, led by Gert Stulp, was based on the lives and health of more than 94,500 people who lived in the northern Netherlands from 1935 to 1967.
While it did not involve genetic testing, researchers concluded from observations that natural selection must have a part to play.
Other explanations have claimed the Dutch are so tall due to a diet rich in meat and dairy.
"Natural selection in addition to good environmental conditions may help explain why the Dutch are so tall," said the study, which was published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.
Mr Stulp, a specialist in population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AFP: "Height is very heritable — taller parents tend to have somewhat taller children than shorter parents."
"Because taller individuals would have more offspring in the next generation who would be taller, the average height in that generation would a bit taller on average than the preceding generation, if all else is equal."
The average height of men in the Netherlands currently stands at 6ft, while the average woman is almost 5ft 6ins tall.
Davy Jones, Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy
Probably all nice guys, but not overly tall.
Girls in the 70s wanted those kind of guys.
No wonder I catch so much flak around here...I didn’t know what my relatives were up to.
In the book “John M. Browning, American Gunmaker” there is a photo of him taken in Liege, Belgium. He is standing with the managers of Fabrique Nationale.
Browning looks to be about 6 o 7 inches taller than them.
My dad was 6’5”. He was stationed in Iceland at Keflavik. He had been stationed in England, Germany, Japan and Korea also. Said that the Icelanders were the tallest guys he had seen. Commented that there were some men in the far north of Japan who were bigger than their average.
I remember reading that on Guadalcanal, the Japanese had an elite unit of marines who were all over 6’ tall.
Excess viagra? ;-P
it just seems the average woman is tall is there because of all the dykes
Wish the two guys I used to work with who were there were still alive so I could ask them about that.
BTW, if you look closely at aerial shots near Henderson Field the palm trees are seen in rows. One told me that after the war the US gooberment paid Lever Brothers a hundred dollars for every lost tree.
I’m mostly Norwegian, and I’m 6’6. All of my close friends are from Norse/Dutch/German stock. My Texan-Irish wife is 5’10, My little tow headed boy has been taller at every age marker so far. Northern Europeans are generally tall.
So they can see what the Walloons are up to.
Dairy products, and not the fat free kind. The Dutch consume a lot of dairy products.
“...Davy Jones, Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy...not overly tall.”
Whoa! now that’s an overstatement. Davy Jones loved horses and was the right size to be a jockey and he lamented not training/working more as a jockey. He may have been a great one if he hadn’t been a Monkee pop star.
TO keep from drowning as the waters rise.
To keep the woodpeckers off their heads !
Leni
“dairy products”
Cheese, chocolate, milk: all Dutch products which produce ... mucus.
Have you ever seen a Dutchman eat a wheel of gouda cheese? Or drink a glass of milk?
No. They drink protein shakes made from soy milk and export all of their dairy products to America.
Why? (cue minor chord)
Obviously ... to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids.
I read an article years back that stated one of the reason for their height was a calorie-stuffed diet rich in meat and dairy products.
BTW, I have a lot of Dutch in my background. Unfortunately they were short Dutch.
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