Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#1

Post by kazuya » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 10:24 AM UTC

Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage
mobile.nytimes.com

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#2

Post by chrismealy » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#3

Post by thisjepisje » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

chrismealy wrote: post #2

A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?

Sounds like a monkey sandwich story to me.

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#4

Post by fragsworth » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

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?

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#5

Post by pbreit » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC

Is there any other possible reason for such a thing?

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#6

Post by phpnode » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:29 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #5

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 D exposure, but I couldn't find a data source for that.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_milk_cons...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Average_height_around...

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#7

Post by scarmig » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:30 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #5

Is there any other possible reason for such a thing?

Genetic drift? Sexual selection? Excess height as a spandrel that comes with improved nutrition?

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#8

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #7

pbreit wrote: post #5

Is there any other possible reason for such a thing?

Genetic drift? Sexual selection? Excess height as a spandrel that comes with improved nutrition?

[deleted]

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#9

Post by return0 » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

phpnode wrote: post #6

pbreit wrote: post #5

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…

But the dutch don't eat so much. What about people of dutch descend living elsewhere?

Re: Natural Selection May Help Account for Dutch Height Advantage

#10

Post by iagooar » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 5:46 PM UTC

chrismealy wrote: post #2

A Dutch friend tells me it's all the hormones Dutch farmers use. Anybody know if that's the case?

I am not saying I believe in it, but in the past I heard more than once that Dutch were one of the first nations to add more additives to their food and that's why they are this tall.

Also, Dutch people are not the only ones to get taller and taller: even in southern European countries the young generations are experiencing a huge height boost.