For years Scandinavian countries have always boasted of height and of having the tallest adults in the world. According to a study published in The Lancet in 2019 , Dutch citizens were the tallest on the planet with an average of 182.5 centimeters in men and 168.7 in women.
But it has not always been this way. According to a report developed by the Royal Society of London, the Dutch became the shortest in Europe at the end of the 19th century, with an average height of 165 centimeters.
What has happened in subsequent years so that the Dutch are now the tallest in the world?
We are all taller
Expert Melissa Hogenboom told the BBC that in reality “all humans have grown up in the world.” This means that human evolution has worked throughout these two centuries, although it has exploded in places like the Netherlands with respect to growth.
“Humans have actually gotten taller at a record speed in the last two centuries,” explained Eirini Marouli, Professor of Biology at the University of London, who added to the medium: “In total we can say that the average adult today is around 5% higher than their ancestors used to be 100 years ago.
Although at the moment there are no proven causes for this accelerated population growth, scientists believe that improved nutrition, the democratization of wealth and genetic factors have a lot of weight when it comes to obtaining this growth in the world population. .
With this, the experts who developed the study comment that in the Netherlands this growth has been disproportionate to 20 centimeters in the last 200 years. “It is a great example of human evolution,” explains Marouli for the BBC.
Cheese as food to grow
Regardless of the genetic factor, there are other factors that have helped make the Dutch now the tallest people on the planet.
Environmental factors, a leading healthcare system, or low levels of inequality help to make this growth happen so fast.
Other experts such as Louise Barrett, from the University of Lethbrigde, in Canada, also alludes to the diet of the Dutch population. The Dutch feel an almost voracious urge to consume dairy and cheese, “calcium builds bones and growth depends on having a good supply of that,” explains Barret.
Given this, the study also explains that Dutch citizens are probably reaching their growth ceiling, although this, as Marouli explains, “only time will tell.”
