I am trying to understand how different ethnicities keep on increasing in height very gradually. Many sites like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height, account the height increase on nutrition.

 

But if it is just nutrition why is it taking ethnicites so many decades to grow, instead of one or two? And why haven't countries with sufficient nutrition, such as the netherlands, stopped growing? Also, if they are continously growing, does that mean their progenitors had a very high genetic height potential, or are the people somehow surpassing their genetic potential?

 

It's even reported that the Japanese will surpass average american height in 20 years. What is the explanation for this?

 

Thanks, hope you understand what i'm trying to convey.

http://www.wfiu.indiana.edu/amos/library/scripts/height.html

 

during times of food shortage such as war, average height among deprived population tends to decrease. For example, when Germany suffered food shortages during World Wars One and Two, the average height of children decreased. The average increased in the post-war years when food was more abundant.

 

I thought this was an interesting argument. I think nutrition has more to do with human growth then people realize.

It has a lot to do! When people (Childs) are deprived from food, the body shifts the attention towards conserving the energy left. It has been seen on dead bodies or mummies that lines appeared on the bones (especially on the leg bones) which suggested that the growth stopped at one point.

I dont think you can really apply the metabolism of dead bodies to live bodies... the case of the dead bodies might be because...its decomposing?

I dont think you can really apply the metabolism of dead bodies to live bodies... the case of the dead bodies might be because...its decomposing?

I was talking about studies done on dead bodies...those lines were there in their lifetime...