Question for tall people

noowaseem13579 · February 2017

I wanted to ask, in your growing years, did you eat a lot and get hungry often? What foods did you eat generally to grow tall?
I know it has to do with genetics, but nutrition plays a part in it.
Poor nutrition can also stunt growth.

julie_broadhead · February 2017

I'm not sure where you read or heard that poor nutrition can stunt your growth, maybe it does if you suffer from starvation, but it is not true. I am 5'9". And I ate a steady diet of fast food throughout my growing years. My mom is 5'9" and my dad is 6'4". Genetics.

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

Nutrition plays a large part in height. Science.

That being said... it definitely helps to start young. Um, as in... in utero (or even before that with your mother's nutrient stores.) How old are you now? I'm guessing your height has already been set.

I do know some exercises as you're growing can have a (very small) influence on height. If I remember correctly... jumping is good

Something about how the body allots the human growth hormones.

But it's been a while since I last read about that. Don't quote me.

Unknown · February 2017

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Unknown · February 2017

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Unknown · February 2017

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MrsDan1667 · February 2017

My kids pediatrician said to increase protein, fwiw

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

Wow. 4'10??

How old is she? Has she hit puberty?

steph_runn44 · February 2017

i really think that most of height has to do with genetics. I know plenty of people who are tall and have a short sibling who ate the same things. I am 6'2 and was a really picky eater. I rarely ate vegetables and ate tons of carbs. I have a sister who ate much more well rounded and she's around 5'10. My parents are both tall so I think that's why we are. I really don't think you can eat certain food to get taller.

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

First borns tend to be taller. (Nutrition stores in mamma helps.)

Nutrition definitely plays a part in height. For example, after WWII Japan started eating more protein from fish and their population grew as a whole by about 3 inches.

Just look at immigrant families. The parents who came here from ______ country are usually a few inches shorter than their children who grew up here. (Excluding the Nordic countries and those damn Danes.

)

alyssa0061 · February 2017

My siblings and I, in order, oldest to youngest:

Brother 5'11"

Brother 5'11"

Sister 5'6"

Sister 5'4"

Me 5'10"

Sister 5'4"

Same parents. Same food.

Dad 5'8"

Mom 5'7"

TonyB0588 · February 2017

I know a family where the eldest is the shortest, and the youngest is the tallest. I don't think it had anything to do with what they ate somehow.

__TMac__ · February 2017

My husband is 6'1". His ex-wife is 4'11". I'm 5'10". I've raised my stepson since he was a toddler. He is now 20 and is 5'5". My bio-kids are on track to be 5'10-6'2". Same foods. Same environment. Different genetics.

postchrysalis · February 2017

I'm 5'9", which is tall-ish for a female, I suppose. As a kid/teen, my diet consisted mostly of meat, simple carbs (pasta/rice/bread), fast food, junk food, candy galore, and fruits. I've always had a tendency to skip breakfast and eat a medium-sized lunch, colossal-sized dinner, and enough sweets to put a diabetic in a coma.

My mom is 5'1" and my dad was 5'5". I have 5 siblings and I'm the tallest of all of them--my second-oldest brother comes close at 5'7". Apparently I get my height from my great-grandfather as my other grandparents were super short.

postchrysalis · February 2017

SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »

Wow. 4'10??

How old is she? Has she hit puberty?

You weren't asking me, but my eldest sister is 4'11" and she's a grown woman.

amyinthetardis1231 · February 2017

SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »

First borns tend to be taller. (Nutrition stores in mamma helps.)

Nutrition definitely plays a part in height. For example, after WWII Japan started eating more protein from fish and their population grew as a whole by about 3 inches.

Just look at immigrant families. The parents who came here from ______ country are usually a few inches shorter than their children who grew up here. (Excluding the Nordic countries and those damn Danes. )

You are so right about the Danes. My husband's maternal family is Danish and he's 6'4", and his mom and sister are 5'11" or so.

violetta5345 · February 2017

I am the youngest in my family and I am taller than my sisters and my mom at 5'10". My maternal grandfather, however, was about 6'4". He was from northern Germany.

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

Ya'll would be surprised what's really influenced by nutrition and environment.

I have a good friend who is a genetist and it's quite encouraging.

For example, intelligence. Intelligence! Not really genetic. It's almost exclusively the based on what's going on in utero and the first couple years (if not the first couple months) of life.

Oxygen is insanely important. Vitamin D is insanely important.

For example, people born during summer months are generally taller than those born in winter months. People born in fall tend to suffer more from brain disorders. Those born in the winter tend to have higher risk of heart issues.

All of this is chalked up to the amount of sun the mother receives during pregnancy.

There's loads of very interesting statistics out there ready to be googled.

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

Sigh... I'm a terrible speller. I meant "geneticist".

Please excuse this double post. I felt compelled!

ccsernica · February 2017

In a Western country where protein is readily available and food scarcity simply isn't an issue for folks in ordinary circumstances, there's no reason to think you can alter your growth by eating any differently than you do now.

I'm a hair taller than my father -- well, a hair taller than he was; now that he's well into his 80s he's shrunk a bit -- and I ate nothing special as a kid. In fact I was a very picky eater. There were lots of foods I could hardly even gag down. In elementary school when they did the sort of height and weight check that passed for screening in those days, they'd always note me as being underweight. (Not a problem these days!)

As others have noted, there are factors other than genetics that might affect your height, but you can't do anything about any of them now.

HM2206 · February 2017

I'm 5"9. My dad was 6"2 and my mom is 5"8. I am also taller than my older sister, so the firstborn thing is not true for me.

I never had junk food growing up. I was a chubby baby and then had a growth spurt around 10-11, when I became long ang lean. Didn't eat anything different, I think in my case it's just genetics.

HM2206 · February 2017

SierraFatToSkinny wrote: »

Ya'll would be surprised what's really influenced by nutrition and environment.

Oxygen is insanely important. Vitamin D is insanely important.

For example, people born during summer months are generally taller than those born in winter months. .

I find this a little hard to believe. The variations between countries are more significant than the variations in season.

I am from Norway, and like the rest of the Scandinavian countries, it is dark and cold for a large part of the year. And people living here are among the tallest in the world.

rachelr1116 · February 2017

I'm 5'11", the oldest and only girl. My mom is 5'9" and my dad is 6'. My brothers are all 5'10" to 6' 2". The tallest is also the youngest. Growing up I was an extremely picky eater and wouldn't eat red meat except for the occasional hamburger and the only vegetables I liked were corn, carrots, and potatoes. I preferred pasta and hot dogs. As a teenager I survived mostly on fast food, Slim Jims, and Dr. Pepper. I was anemic and had to take iron and vitamin D supplements but I was still 5'11" by the time I was 15. So, in my case, I'm going with genetics as opposed to nutrition

Heartisalonelyhunter · February 2017

I'm 5'9 and spent my teenage years drinking 8 cokes and day and eating chocolate, chips and iced buns. That was basically all I ate. I was skinny (and anemic). So I'm going with genetics over nutrition.

f0liot · February 2017

I'm 6'4, My mom is 5'4(Her Siblings all 5'11+), dad is 5'11 and I did not and still do not eat vegetables. I grew up on lots of junk food and pop.

Fruit By the Foot
Hostess Cupcakes
Skittles
Coke
Grape Crush
Orange Crush

The only consistent thing I would eat daily would be baby carrots (Cold) at dinner. Going with Genetics over Nutrition here

castlerobber · February 2017

Jtalaskamom wrote: »

I'm not sure where you read or heard that poor nutrition can stunt your growth, maybe it does if you suffer from starvation, but it is not true.

How about from pediatric endocrinologists? "Your growth-hormone deficient child has to eat more, or GH therapy won't work. We're not going to treat them until you put some weight on them." Which is entirely backward in most cases; replacing the missing hormone will make the child hungry, and they'll eat like crazy because they're growing.

Spliner1969 · February 2017

Unless you're starving/malnourished then your DNA determines your height potential, not the foods you eat.

castlerobber · February 2017

noowaseem13579 wrote: »

I am 5'9

My mom is 5'4" and my dad is 5'11"

My sister in her growing years refused to consume many food groups (no meat, fish, vegetables, whole grains, vegetables or fruit) and basically grew up on refined flour products, chips, and white rice. She is 4'10"

It's more likely that your sister had growth hormone deficiency or a genetic syndrome, than that her poor diet caused her not to grow. The expected height for your parents' female offspring would be 5'5", plus or minus 2". Your going above that to 5'9" isn't out of the ordinary, but your sister's height is way below the expected range.

Mid-parental height calculator

chriswat1976 · February 2017

I'm from Australia. I'm 5'10(female). My older brother is 6'3 and my younger brother is 6'6. We have the same parents. Dad was 5'11 and mum is 5'9. My older brother lived with my dad from when he was 15yo and my younger brother and I lived with mum. Older brother ate a lot of crap food, younger bro and I ate healthier not too much junk or sweets and only had meat 3 or 4 times a week. I think it's a lot more to do with genetics than anything else, I have a cousin who is 6'8, lived in a different state, his dad was the tallest of my dad's family.

SierraFatToSkinny · February 2017

Everyone... nutrition definitely plays a part.

You're free to google several of the items I've mentioned if you don't believe me.

Also, "height" isn't a single gene. There's a lot that goes into determining if a person is tall or short. We're talking femurs, tibias, spine... other stuff. I'm not a doctor, I just play one on the Internet.

There's "genetic potential" and then, yes, environment comes into play.

Who your parents are, what age they are when they conceived, the frequency of children (mom's nutrient stores), the month they conceived, if it was natural or in-vitro, if mom was short (smaller women tend to have a higher likelihood of premature birth), what mom ate while pregnant, if baby was breastfed, and yes... what the child ate while growing. All of that goes into height.

Genes are often influenced by your environment.

Nutrition 100% plays a part in helping to set a child's height.

... I'm now going to unsubscribe from this thread as the anecdotal evidence is driving me a tad bit nutty.

Unknown · February 2017

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Question for tall people

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