Why Are Americans Getting Shorter?

Can it truly have to do with environment and what we eat?
I have 3 sons. My oldest are 14 and 16 years old. THe oldest is 5'10". He wears a size 10 shoe. The 14 year old is now 6' tall with a size 13 shoe. He is still growing.
They eat the same, breathe the same air, grew up in the same house with the same lifestyle, they participate in mostly the same activities and sports. They really have not been on many medications.

When you look at countries, it is easy to look at the people as a whole, in the Netherlands do you really have a mixture of Japanese, Egyptian, Brazilian etc..., (I am asking .. as I am not sure) mostly it is Dutch marrying Dutch, right?

Americans have intermarried among cultures so many times (the melting pot)
Can you really believe that it is more the environment and nutrition than genetics?

I think the study to be truly valid would have to look at people in the US with the same genetic make up as the people in the other country. I know it looks like they tried to do that by eliminating American Hispanic backgrounds, but they are not the only ethnicity that is not usually thought of as tall.

I think alot of our "shrinkage" can be explained by immigration. Are multi-generational Americans shorter than they used to be? I doubt it. But is an influx of South Americans and Asians bringing the average height down? Very likely. (Don't get me wrong, I say welcome to America!) No doubt the obesity thing is our own fault, but that makes sense, you can make yourself gain or lose weight, you can't make yourself grow.

I agree that I think one of the reasons we're getting shorter is that we have so many immigrants. Many Mexicans are quite short, and we have a high Mexican population. I for one feel blessed to have so many rich cultures in our land.

I saw that on CNN. My understanding is that we all could have the potential height to be as tall as the people in Scandanavia but don't because of our nutrition or something. It doesn't really make sense though. The Japanese have a reputation of being so healthy, so why are they still so short? Maybe people just used to not measure very well? I mean I guess it could be that the Japanese are getting to be as tall as the Dutch but are taking longer becasue of their genetic predisposition...

*reads Dawn's post*
Good point, good point, the change could be do to the fact that racial mixing is actually socially acceptable now, and that I think we have a much greater Hispanic population than we used to. How tall are the different Hispanics on average? I have no idea.

Alexandra, you posted while I was posting and now my whole comment is useless!

Maybe it has to do with childhood dieting. I skipped lunches in Middle School, trying to be "not a fatty", and now I'm shorter than my dad.

If you look at some of the insane posts by young teen children on this blog, saying "I'm 100 pounds lardo and need to lose weight fast!", it kind of makes you wonder.

Did you people even look at the study?

"Objective. We use the complete set of NHES and NHANES data collected between 1959 and 2004 in order to construct trends for the physical stature of the non-Hispanic white and black U.S. adult population and compare them to those of western and northern Europeans."

It only considered non-Hispanic white and black Americans... No Asians, and no Latinos were included. Just black and whites, which were previously the tallest in the world for over 200 years.

I see that the "do immigrants make the average height shorter?" question has been cleared up, thanks to Kailash, but I just thought I'd add something about immigrants in Holland.

I live in Holland, and I do notice that people are taller here - as a 5'6" female, I am considered to be rather short. But anyways, I just want to point out that the USA is not the only country with "short" immigrants. Western and Nothern Europe has its fair share of Morrocan and Turkish immigrants, among others, who also tend to be shorter than the general population.

According to the Dutch version of the census, 19% of the 16 million people living in Holland are immigrants. (For the specific numbers, you can see the link below, but the website is in Dutch). :-)

(http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/table.asp?LYR=G2:0,G3:0,G4:0&LA=nl&DM=SLNL&PA=37325&D1=a&D2=0-4,136,151,214,231&D3=0&D5=0&D6=a,!0-8&HDR=T&STB=G1,G5)

Woops! My mistake.

Kailash said:
and now I'm shorter than my dad[...]

This is something I can see to be true as the nutrition value of foods out of the home is very low. Our society is eating mostly empty calories that do little for our body. Is this really what we want?

Makes some sense. Though I'm not sure they should be measuring black Americans against Europeans. They're racially different, unless they have stats to say that black Americans used to be the same height as these European people groups

My first thought when I read the headline was immigration. But when I think of it, many people do seem shorter and rounder. It was total culture shock coming back from Europe. The population there may be slowly enlarging too, but it's perceptibly different. It's almost like coming back and realizing that lots of people are, say, blue. That noticeable.

I'm over average height for a woman and well-within my weight category. But then I also grew up with mostly home-cooked meals and still cook for myself, pack lunch, and all that stuff. So I don't fit with the average for eating.

I believe the quality of our nutrition has declined significantly and we may have peaked with respect to a number of variables.

I am always a little suspisious about news reports of research so I took a look at the study. The researcher admits to being unable to say why Americans are shorter now than Europeans. The quotes offered on the site are one speculation.
I think it could be part a different genetic mix, it could be that Europeans overall eat less junk food. It could be our emphasis on dieting, it could be the rate of breast feeding as well.

I think more research could be done. Certainly wouldn't hurt- but who would fund it? No pharmacutical products for heighth yet that I know of....

They say that they measured "Non-Hispanic whites", but some people that are say, 1/4 Asian or Native American may identify themselves as white. My entire family is short and it's pretty much genetics, I'm fairly sure. My sister and I are exactly the same height and we're both taller than my mom and she's only a little taller than her mom. Both of my grandmas are under 5'0" tall, my dad is only 5'7" and my mom is 5'2".

Although, childhood dieting could play a big role as well. I don't think kids these days drink as much milk as kids did in my generation...I think a lot of kids drink soda instead of milk and they aren't getting as much exercise as they should. I suppose that could contribute to being shorter later on in life.

junk food and fast food is starting to take its toll. yea, americans are busy so we tend to grab food on the run, especially because it's fast, cheap, and easily available. but most people don't realize how devoid of nourishment fast food and junk food really is. i only discovered within the past 5 years of my personal experience that fast food and junk food do not satisfy me at all. for example, i would need to eat 3 slices of pizza or 2 big macs in order to feel full. that's 2000 calories in my gut, and next to no fiber and nutrients, so i'd feel hungry again within 2 hours. fast food and junk food do absolutely nothing except make people fat.

but back to height: why is height thought of as an indicator of overall health? like someone mentioned before, the japanese and others from east asia are very short compared to the rest of the world, but they are also substantially healthier.

Randy Smith, MD said:
I believe the quality of our nutrition has declined significantly and we may have peaked with respect to a number of variables.[...]

Japanese and Southeast Asians have historically been shorter because a rice-based diet contains significantly less protein than a wheat based one. They have become taller over the last couple of generations.

Yeah im agree with jb maybe, most asian people are shorten than european or american. Maybe of what we eat

To scathe CNN, there is no hope of Americans becoming as tall as the Scandinavians. Though I may have spent late nights in my pre-teens an sleep in afternoon classes, well my diet gradually changes as I get more used to eating carrots, yogurts, soy milk and steamed vegetables, I think I reached 5"0 one and a half or something (thanks to sleep and changed diets).

I saw this study, and thought-- do they take our "melting pot" into account and the huge influx of traditionally shorter populations?

Interesting post. I think the cause is more genetic than anything else.

I have a couple of points to make,firstly i come from a family of 6 kids, i am the second oldest and i ended up being the shortest out of all of us.I did expect my brother to be the tallest which he was.The heights range from me at 5'2 them 5'4 up to 5'11.Now my mum and dad was 5'7 both of them.I just couldnt work out why i was the shortest out of them all.I mean i used to drinks pints of milk if that was supposed to work i wouldnt have ended up shorter than them.The most annoying thing is my youngest sister who is 10 yrs younger and she is 6 ins taller than me.Have you tried telling your younger sibling off and having to look upright.Even my 2 kids are taller than me and they are 11 and 14.
The other point is that nutrition is the cause of height i read a piece on the difference in height between North and South Korea not many people know that due to different people in charge the North Koreans are actually shorter than their counterparts.I read a family had split up and the mother took her daughter to South Korea and then 4 years later the son had found out where they lived he moved their and the son was older than the daughter he was taller when they left and when they met up again the daughter was around 4/5 ins taller due to the eating habits.The son was hoping to gain this height by eating the same foods.
So i dont put too much into genetics has i would have been abit taller or at least matched some of them in height.It ends up that i am the same height has my grandmother was she started off at 5'3 but due to shrinking with age she is down to just abit shorter than me.Which we will soon be on a par as i am shrinking with age has well.My family are always pointing out that at least someone is shorter than me in our family if only by an inch. So how about that i did actually take after someone shame it wasnt my mother father like the rest of them.

I agree with some of Debbie's comments only i did also read the article on the North and South Koreans.They do put it down to what people eat,which is strange.I also found that milk didnt help me either.I am the oldest and shortest in my family.There are 3 children 2 girls and 1 boy.Our heights are (1) mine 4'10 (2) my sister 5'7 and (3) my brother 5'9.I actually took after my mum she was rather short like me 4'9 this is due to being rather old she is in her 60's. So i just have the edge on her even though i dont shout about it.Possibly because we will end up the same height soon.I remember when we used to go shopping me and mum always headed for the childrens clothing department.Whereas my younger sister could just but off the peg stuff.I used to get so annoyed has i couldnt even share her clothes they were just so long on me.My sister did use to tease me non stop about the height difference we could never go out together has all her friends thought i was younger than her.When we have family photo's taken it is a laugh has me and mum stand infront of my sister brother and dad.I mean dad isnt really tall he reached 5'7 like my sister.Growing up we all used to eat the same and i was always drinking milk to try to help me grow.Apparently me and mum took after her mother in the height department has she was on the short side has well i have seen photo's of my mum and nan has she isnt her anymore.They were like two peas in a pod their height was so remarkable has my mum says she started off at 4'10.So i only hope i dont lose too much height if i shrink to my mums height no problem has then there would have 3 of us being shorter than average if my nan was alive.

Hi i am one of Debbie's sisters and i can vouch for us all eating well balanced meals.I remember Debbie used to drink plenty of milk we were always saying to her why dont you grow up.I know it wasnt fair but being the youngest i could get away with murder. I think the reason she is possibly shorter than all of us was that she had a stomach disease called crohns and it may have been to do with that.The photo's were usually a laugh has she was always on the front.We would always get her to stand near our grandmother has they were both short.Also our granddad was about the same height if i remember has he isnt with us.The 3 of them always stood at the front of photos my granddad possibly even had the edge on both of them has he was about 5'4 if that.

Hi Guys

This is very interesting. I am a white South African by the way. The study mentions the fact that untill middle 1900's Americans were the tallest. This is important because it was then that the food additive monosodium glutamate was introduced. In the 80's the chemical poison ASPARTAME was introduced. These two poisons are found in junk food and Diet Coke etc. With experiments on rats it was shown that the rats fed these 2 poisons it jump a generation the offspring of the 2nd generation was born morbidly obese and short in stature! The same thing that happened to the rats are happening to humans!

Alexandra hit the nail on the head.

We've imported, over the last quarter century, 20 million illegals, mostly Latinos, just counting illegals.

I don't want to bring up the illegal immigration debate - there are good points on all sides. And if that problem is solved, I think it's great that we have an influx of people from such a vibrant culture - Latin music and their love of soccer are wonderful.

But statistically speaking they have an effect - - on average and median height, and, for that matter, on average and median income, and on the number of poor people at any given point. And when you count Latinos as whites in the survey, you mask that. There are independent, valid reasons to want to get Americans off fast food but our averages and median correlate to changes in our immigration trends. If we try to skew the study of the height issue to fit an agenda, even a good agenda, it will backfire.

Patrick, dude - read the other comments (and, if you have the time, the article).

The height decrease has nothing to do with immigration. The study corrected for that.
I am 5'9'' and now 68 years old. When I was young, even poor people ate healthy food. Now even rich people eat bad food. And fat people were a rarity, then.
Added to that, today women are always on diets. Worse, at the nodal growth stages: infancy, ages 6-8 and early adolescence, girls may be calorie restricted so that they can conform to standards of slimness and perkiness.
I am trying to track down an article that claims that women are on average five inches shorter than they were a generation ago. I would not be surprised if that were true. Short fat and wide is becoming the norm.

I have found this rather interesting web site on Standardized Body Proportions at:

http://robyn.faeriemanor.org/BodyProportions.phtml

It’s based on statistics collected by the US Army.

You enter your height in either inches or centimeters, and it tells you how long your legs should be, and your torso length, etc. etc.

Well, I’m 5 ft 6 in, or 66 inches tall, so according to the chart, my legs are suppose to be between 31 to 32 inches long, and my torso length from shoulder to crotch is suppose to be between 22 and 23 inches long. That is according to the Standardized Body Proportions charts.

But when I actually measured my crotch height above the floor, and my torso length, it turns out that my legs are only 27 inches long, about 5 inches shorter than they should be for my height, and my torso length is 29 inches, or 7 inches longer than it should be, so my neck must be about 2 inches shorter then it ought to be for one of my height. My head is the right size though.

I have a larger body, with shorter limbs and a shorter neck. My arms are also a couple of inches too short.

Yes, I’m obese. I weigh about 395 pounds, and I’m somewhat “pear shaped” measuring only 56 inches around my chest, 64 inches around my waist, 70 inches around my hips, with 36 inch thighs.

I’ve been told that I’m built like a Teddy Bear, and my girl friend who likes fat guys says that I look like a fat little Dutch boy.

She prefers to see me wearing shorts because she actually likes my short chunky fat little Dutch boy legs.

I’ve been fat all my life, and I’m perfectly happy with my body.

I have read an article on another web site about us Americans being shorter and fatter, and it was referring our "stature deficit" well, in reference to the “stature deficit”, I don’t consider my shorter then average height to be a “deficit” there is nothing wrong with being short, or even fat for that matter!

In fact, I have even discovered some advantages in the way I’m built. I have a much higher tolerance to cold weather, and having shorter limbs actually conserves energy.

True, I can’t walk as fast as the average person, and I waddle when I walk, and my broad hips proudly swagger and sway, and my big round belly leads the way like the prowl of a mighty ship!

I was once in a motor cycle wreck, and the only injuries I had were cuts and bruises and sore muscles for about a week. But no broken bones. The doctor who examined me actually said that being short fat and round actually saved me from serious injuries. Of course he still said that I needed to lose some weight. Naturally!!!

I even got to see my X rays, and I could see that I have a large pelvis that is slightly wider than my rib cage. I also have really big round knees, and really thick bones in my legs, and a thick spinal column, So I do have a rather unique physique.

Actually, I don’t think that my legs and arms are too short, or my torso too long in proportion to my height. I think I’m just right!

I’m not “too” anything! I’m built the way God intended me to be built!

There is no such thing as being too short or too tall or too fat or too anything!

We are as God intended us to be. When God designed the human body, he didn’t use a freaking micrometer to make sure that everything he designed was within a tolerance of a thousandth of an inch.

We are not machines! We are flesh and blood, bone, muscle, and FAT!!!

We should stop judging people by outward appearances, and stop discriminating against people just for being different.

I have many abilities. Artistic abilities, I enjoy doing oil paintings, and building radio controlled model planes. When I was 13, I scored 150 points on a standard IQ test. As a kid, I was no good at sports, and was bullied around because of it. But I have many other abilities that I believe are much more important.

I have no deficits.

I love my large plump round body, and short chunky limbs. It give me a more relaxed appearance. It’s a nice soft and comfortable body, I think I’m fine just the way I am!

Oh! By the way . . .

I don’t eat a lot of fast foods or junk foods either.

I do my own cooking, and I eat mostly chicken or fish, lots of vegetables, and plenty of fresh fruit when I have a craving for sweets.

I also go out every other day to walk around town for some exercise.

So again, I don’t fit the stereotype of the average American fast food junky and couch potato.

I’m just, short and fat! Unapologetically fat!

I don’t apologize for my size!

I love to sing and dance, and stomp my feet, and really rock your world!!!

Short Fat Man said:

...

You have a great approach to your life, and I'm not asking you to apologize for nothing. Well, unless you sit next to me on an airplane - I think we'd have a scuffle for the middle armrest :)

Be healthy!

Quito said:
You have a great approach to your life, and I'm not asking you to apologize for nothing. Well, unless you sit next to me on an airplane - I think we'd have a scuffle for the middle armrest :)[...]

Thank you very much, and Good bless.

I don't think I'll be flying on an airplane very soon. The last time I flew on a plane, I flew coach, and I had to ask the stewardess for an extension for my seat belt, and I had to put the armrests down, and the tray would not go down because my big round belly was in the way, so I had to hold my drink in my hand.

That was years ago, when I weighed a about hundred pounds less than I do now, so now I would have to fly first class.

I can't drive a car, because if I get the seat back all the way, the steering wheel still rubs up against my belly, and my fat chunky little legs are too short to reach the foot peddles.

I would like to get another motor cycle someday. Motor cycles are made for us fat guys. I think we fat dudes look truly awesome riding a big motorcycle. I once had a Kawasaki KZ 650 with a four cylinder engine.

But in the meantime, I use the city buses to get around town, and yes, I do take up two seats when I'm on the bus.

Anyway, thanks for your emotional support for us big dudes. :)

Now i am what is known as a short arse,that name seems to have stuck with me for years.I have a height of 4'11 and am 45 yrs old.My sister is 5'10 along with my dad 6'2 and mum 5'10.My height i got from my grandmother who is 4'10 now and 88 yrs old.She used to be 5'0 but has we all know we shrink with age.So judging by that in 20 yrs time i will probably be 4'9.I have a 10 yr old cousin who is exactly the same height and he is gonna be really tall.I have been on holiday to Spain quite alot and have noticed that the spanish is rather short.The scandinavian area of europe are all rather rall.I find the sweedish norwegian and dutch are all rather tall well especially to me i suppose.The german are fairly tall but the dutch men and woman are both tall.The last time i met with a dutch family the mum was 5'11 the dad was 6'3 and their 2 kids 1 was 12 and 5'10 and the other was 15 and 6'0.They wwere very nice talking to has theya can talk perfect english they were however shocked at my age and the height has compared to me they were all massive. They couldnt quite work it out has to why they were tall even though their parents were tall has well so they didnt know anything different.I know alot of the reason newspapers or t.v is giving the impression that fast food is the reason which i find nonsense.I still say genetics is alot to do with it you cant even blame older siblings has to why we are shorter than our families.I cant even blame my parents has they are both relatively tall.So i cane even say short parents short kids.NEVER MIND HEY.I just have to live with being this height which i done done so far.

The mechanism is simple: height increase largely stops after puberty, and puberty in the USA is reached significantly earlier than it was.
Two known causes of earlier puberty:
1. increased body weight.
2. longer periods awake each day (watching TV & playing with video games and computers).
QED.

I am below average height and live in England.I have a sister who is 5'6 and brother 5'11.I am only 4'11 whereas my twin sister is 5'8.Apparently she got all the nutrients while we were in the womb.So i possibly missed out on my height.My mum is 5'7 and dad is 5'10.There is no one else in our family has short as me.I was always told at school to drink my milk up now this wasnt a problem has i oved it anyway.This never made me any taller only gave me good calcium.I was brought up exactly the same has all my siblings i just couldnt catch up to them.We are all fully grown adults so we all have our own lives now.I found a wonderful woman who i married she was a little older than me by 3 years and she is 5'9 tall.Now i fully expected to have problems dating but i found out that the woman loved my sense of humour and my height.It took my wife's family abit of accepting me but we brought them round in the end and got married.We have 3 children 2 boy who are 19 and he is 6'2 and 17 he is 6'0 followed by our wonderful daughter she is 16 ans she stopped growing at 11 she only managed 5'0.Her height doesnt bother heronly that she wishes she was abit taller like her mates.Apart from that she is happy has at least she has something in common with her dad.She loves being able to wear high heels and be able to make herself that bit taller when going out.I used to always say how funny it must look when we go out for a meal has me being the shortest i cant hardly make it to 5'0 with shoes on and the rest are between 5'2 and 6'2.Of course i get looked at when we are out people used to mention to my wife why she liked the shorter guy this used to always make them blush when she told them.

I think that the problem is that the U.S always thought they were one of the tallest nations but didnt take into consideration the european countries.Now it is a well known fact that the Dutch have always been very tall followed by Denmark Norway check out the skandinavian countries if you know where they are.I can also tell you that the U.S tends to get these tall nations people and get them to play basketball.How many tall basketball players are in the U.S and how many have been given Citizenship i bet alot.So that is a way of bringing up the inches to catch up with the dutch never mind.

Some people can it is all the takeaways they are chucking down their necks.I dont know though.I think that things are changing and soon you will have the Chinese reaching heights og 6'2 for males and females.IT IS JUST NOT GONNA HAPPEN

I think you all missed one important factor - climate. Asian people are shorter, so are a lot of asian animals. For example, asian tigers and elephants are shorter/smaller than their counter parts in Africa or Europe. The climate influence probably requires hundreds, if not thousands, of generations to significantly impact our physical height. Diet/food does make some difference, maybe for a generation or so, as discribed by a number of people earlier. Due to our modern life, e.g., heating/air conditioning, I speculate that after 50,000 more years (modern people evolved from Africa about 150,000 years ago), all current peoples/races on earth will become one race with no significant difference in their mean height.

It most likely could be a nutrition issue.
I'm living in Japan at the moment, and a lot of individuals have grown quite taller than usual. I, too, have grown past the average american hight. All of my "short american" friends have been eating pizza/junkfood regularly, and so have their parents. Of course, not all of my american friends are short, because some of them are pretty tall. They haven't tried out for volleyball, nor do they exercise alot. All they had to do to keep growing vertically would be to continue eating their daily veggies. (Especially since not all of us are rich, and junkfood is extremely expensive here in japan.)

Oh, and Wayne, stop comparing us to animals. If you looked outside of your corrupted textbooks, you would find that we have nothing in common.
But you do have a point, for Climate is definitely the culprit, but it isn't heat that affects "species". Different climates provide different resources, so I'm sticking to my junkfood theory.