11–20 of 48 posts
Great, this article's title suggests that they've discovered a selective pressure on the Dutch to be taller, but then says they have no idea what that selective pressure might be. At the very end of the article, even: > Dr. Govindaraju said it was too early to speculate on why some populations are evolving in different ways. Wtf?
A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?
It seems likely that eastern Europeans suffered much more extreme privations than the Dutch did in this time period, but maybe they also saw a similar effect, it's just less noticeable because those populations were a couple of inches shorter on average anyway. The notable thing about the Dutch is not that recent generations are taller than their forebears -- that's probably true for most all European populations. The really notable thing is that they're also taller than other northwestern populations like the Danes.
The natural selection argument is probably a better and certainly a simpler explanation, though.
http://www.road-care.co.uk/images/bollard1.jpg
They're all over Amsterdam. Strong selection pressure establishing a minimum height for men wanting to father children there.
Is there any other possible reason for such a thing?
Possibly diet. Obviously it's anecdotal but all of the Dutch people I know consume far more dairy products than those from the UK. Edit: Turns out the Dutch are the third biggest consumers of milk per capita in the world[0], looking at the list of "tallest" countries on wikipedia[1], there seems to be a great deal of overlap at the top of the two lists. I wonder if a secondary factor could also be related to vitamin…
> They do not live much on corn, but subsist for the most part on milk and flesh, and are much [engaged] in hunting; which circumstance must, by the nature of their food, and by their daily exercise and the freedom of their life (for having from boyhood been accustomed to no employment, or discipline, they do nothing at all contrary to their inclination), both promote their strength and render them men of vast stature of body.
A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?
Same with S Korea. New generation kids are significantly taller than just 1-2 generations ago.
A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?
In the 1990s, in the midst of the mad cow disease crisis, the European Union banned the import of meat that contained artificial beef hormones. […] Until 1980, the use of growth hormones, both endogenous and exogenous, was completely prohibited in (as noted above) Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Greece.
