Why are Americans and Europeans so tall?
genes aren't the sole reason, but most americans have some or a lot of white in them. and white people are tall, their bone structure being on average the tallest, second to a black person's bone structure. but sure thing, diet has to do with height. a very balanced diet (although i'm not sure if all of america is getting that =p) contributes to a gain in height. the generations are actually getting taller as many of you may have noticed. centuries ago, when nutrition was noticeably poorer, people were shorter, obviously showing that diet does impact your height. but the only reason i question that as a reason for why europeans and americans are taller is that asians eat fairly healthy diets, well can't be much worse than the average american's.
Why are some american girls so tall and big?
Dutch women have the highest average height in the world. Other Northern European people are also just larger from a genetic standpoint.One would imagine its a combination of diet and genetics, Natural selection leading to the genetic factor.In years past, Northern Europe was a rough place indeed to survive and body mass and toughness of the individual gave people a much better chance to survive and have offspring. This goes for style of warfare and prevalence as well as rugged and harsh winters and a necessity to do hard physical work to provide food and shelter for ones family.In Asia massed combat was the rule while in Northern Europe it was man on man in smaller groups and thus the larger individual survived due to his strength and ability to absorb damage and still go on. He had to have the physical mas to maintain a warm enough body temperature as well. In general tough environments yielded tough individuals and contests of strength were often used to prove oneself and a larger stronger man was likely to find more, willing female companionship and thus have more offspring.In Asia it was more often a richer merchant class or those who did well on standardized tests for government positions who had more wealth and thus more wives and more offspring. Delicate women were valued for their grace and beauty while in Scandinavian peoples, women were warriors too.Diet in Northern Europe has always had a much higher proportion of meat.Much of the US was originally populated by immigrants from Northern European countries. In the beginning this was a tough life and favored those strong and hardy enough to survive difficult ocean crossings and harsh weather, conflicts with native peoples etc. Then they still had to hack a homestead out of the wilderness. Diet again has always had a lot of meat in it.Later we had an influx of Africans who were selected for large, strong hard work capable people.The native Americans have also always been a pretty large framed people.Those coming later from Southern Europe or Alpine countries, other places with shorter people have in turn bred into the existing population and continue to eat a higher proportion of meat than the peoples of Asia.There are a number of factors but thats the main crux of it. That and the fact that women tend to like taller more physical men, thus big people in general are still selected for.
Why are Americans so tall? Is it because their vegetables are injected with oxytocin?
Oxytocin is the hormone that is made to make one feel happy. Your brain secretes it when you get rewarded for things, and whatnot. Whenever you feel happy, it is oxytocin.And by this notion, oxytocin really has no impact whatsoever on height. Anyways, like Bob McCown said, it is just ingested or digested when it is in food, we don’t absorb it.Also, height is most affiliated with race. 61.3% of Americans are non-Hispanic, non-Latino, white. 76.9% of Americans are white, including white Hispanics and Latinos(Race and ethnicity in the United States - Wikipedia).And using this data, you can examine this document: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/se...This document shows how on average, white people are taller than all other races. So if over half of your population is white, then you will have a taller population.
Why are Americans so tall and big? is it (being tall) considered a good thing in US? Is being short a bad thing in US?
Comparatively, we are shorter than most other majority white/European nations.Europeans, especially Germanic and Slavic Europeans, are just tall on average.List of average human height worldwide - WikipediaThe US’s average height is lower than most other European nations because we have lots of short immigrants, and many people are mixed ancestry even if they look white (like me). I am part Mexican and part Filipino, and I (at 5′9; 173 cm) am about 5 inches shorter than my dad who is white (at 6′3; 190 cm).Part of it is also nutrition. Africans who grow up in developed nations tend to be about as tall or a bit taller on average than the people of European ancestry in those nations, while Africans in Africa are much shorter on average.Most East Asians though are still pretty short where've they live. Koreans are slightly taller than Chinese and Japanese.
Are native americans tall?
we are tall short small big and everything in between. do you really think you can lump an entire continent worth of people together and make some broad statement? are the africans tall or short? are the europeans tall or short? see the similarities?
Why are some black people so tall and strong while some are just short and skinny?
Why are some white people tall and strong and some small and skinny? The size of a person is not dependent on their skin colour. We all began migrating from Africa as part of a tribe. Each tribe had different attributes to another tribe. Some were taller, some were thinner, some were good runners, some had curly hair and some had straight hair. Some were dark skinned and some were light skinned. The differences in height and size would also depend on where they grew up, i.e. whether they had good agricultural land or did they grow up in the desert or in the mountains. Did they have cattle or sheep, fields full of hardy crops that they could nurture their bodies and grow to be stronger and taller people. We are the same but we are also different. That is what makes life more interesting…
Were Native Americans massively tall strong people compared to the tiny frail europeans they encountered or...?
@Blockhead......the Europeans didn't eat better. They were, in fact, suffering from malnutrition, fetal alcohol syndrome, poor diets and filthy, contaminated water. And just imagine how they looked, getting off a cramped, stinking boat after 2-3 months at sea, eating poorly preserved rationed food and drinking stale, scummy water. No wonder the first tribes to meet them felt so sorry for them, giving them food and trying to teach them how to clean up and live properly. Today, 70% of the world's food crop consists of plants cultivated and developed by native americans. We were fantastic farmers, and ate fresh food, and drank clear, unpolluted water. edit********************* Have you ever eaten any of these? corn, popcorn, chocolate, vanilla, peanuts, pineapple, avacado, tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkins, melons, watermelon, papaya, Turkey, sunflower seeds, lima beans, kidney beans, green beans and a dozen other varieties, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, huckleberries, salmonberries, hickory nuts, pecans, brazil nuts, cashews, agave, passionfruit, pawpaws, and the list goes on.
Why are Native Americans usually portrayed as being tall and large?
On much of the North American continent the natives had a very high protein diet of red meat (the higher iron content, iodine, etc. makes for longer, stronger bones for a 6–12″ height difference over low-protein or fish & fowl protein reliant populations.) Heights at 6′ to well over 6′ were very common, 8–12″ taller than most Europeans who rarely got red meat by the 1600’s. Coastal tribes, particularly on the Pacific coast did live most on fish and shellfish and were half a foot to a foot shorter than the inland tribes living substantially on deer, elk, big horn sheep, antelope, and especially bison (bison meat has 50% more protein than beef.) The tribal elders noticed a drop in height within the first generations born on the reservations with a diet of poor quality beef, pork fat, and mostly carbohydrates like flour and corn meal.Americans after a generation or two also grew many inches taller than their European-born parents, as noted elsewhere, better nutrition especially while the body is forming from the womb to the low 20’s, makes a huge difference in height, bone density, teeth durability, muscle mass, immune system, cognition, etc..Most of the tribes did a great deal of running (hunting, scouting, foraging, traveling, competing in formal races, etc.) which also encourages a tall, lean build (see similar African tribes like the Zulus who’d also run like marathon runners across their plains every day.)If you want big people, don’t feed them fish and chicken mostly or especially not an all vegetarian diet.