General Discussion

LeftyMom

(49,212 posts)

14. In school I was usually one of the tallest girls in my class. I'm 5'2".

Tue Jul 8, 2014, 10:35 PM

Jul 2014

My classmates weren't malnourished, they were southeast asian- mostly Vietnamese. The average Vietnamese adult woman is 5'. Yes, that's measuring postwar populations who presumably aren't deprived.

Population height is a bad measure of health. It's only suggestive at all when the population is static- shifts in ethnic composition render it useless. It's somewhat useful when looking at a large sample of historical skeletal remains (for example we can compare the average height of pre-Roman Brits to the Romano-British to see the effect of the invasion on their access to food, or pre- and post- agrarian peoples in the Middle East to see what effects farming had on food security) but any more we have better ways of looking at a body's diet by looking at the chemistry of bones and teeth.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

28 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

USA used to be Tallest country in the world--but is now one of the Shortest of all developed nations [View all] kpete Jul 2014 OP

At 6'2" I'm doing my part Travis_0004 Jul 2014 #1

Hey... 5' 10.5" Here... WillyT Jul 2014 #2

Sorry. I ate a lot of spam and peanut butter as a kid. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jul 2014 #3

6'4" here! conservaphobe Jul 2014 #5

The ethnic makeup of our nation is changing LittleBlue Jul 2014 #4

My Hispanic relatives are all very short mwrguy Jul 2014 #9

That's the first thing I thought of. Growing Latino population here. Comrade Grumpy Jul 2014 #15

agreed. europeans, african americans taller than avg. Liberal_in_LA Jul 2014 #16

You can see this in the SF Bay Area Retrograde Jul 2014 #19

If the Netherlands has the world's tallest people, keep an eye on Colorado and Washington. Uncle Joe Jul 2014 #6

sweet response kpete Jul 2014 #10

LOL malaise Jul 2014 #11

5'7"- but I have a 6'2" son. cali Jul 2014 #7

HHhmm...when donco Jul 2014 #8

It's Genetics and Nutrition and Environment Demeter Jul 2014 #12

there could be many reasons for this including things like immigration, europe was also at War JI7 Jul 2014 #13

In school I was usually one of the tallest girls in my class. I'm 5'2". LeftyMom Jul 2014 #14

Same here. In high school in Hawai'i I could look out over a sea of shorter girls, so I felt tall Hekate Jul 2014 #23

Still the fattest though. KentuckyWoman Jul 2014 #17

Nope. Jenoch Jul 2014 #24

i think Mexico has beat us in this JI7 Jul 2014 #25

haha KentuckyWoman Jul 2014 #28

I think it's because we're not getting any new Dutch blood anymore MisterP Jul 2014 #18

Well it ain't my fault Cali_Democrat Jul 2014 #20

Reich is wrong to make this an issue. joshcryer Jul 2014 #21

As mentioned in this thread, much of it is tied to the demographic changes of the US over the years Drunken Irishman Jul 2014 #22

6' 1" Rex Jul 2014 #26

Same here. TexasTowelie Jul 2014 #27