Foreign Media: A large Lancet study tracked the height of 19-year-old males across 200 countries from 1985 to 2019. Chinese young men grew by over 8 centimeters during this period, with an average height of 175.67 cm—8 cm taller than their grandfathers and approaching the average height of Americans. What caused such rapid growth? The answer might surprise you.

Over those 35 years, China began adding meat, eggs, and dairy products to the average meal. As GDP grew, so did per capita intake of animal protein, coinciding with a surge in height increase. This is one of the coolest natural experiments in modern nutritional science.

Why are the Dutch so tall? The average height of 19-year-old Dutch males is 183.79 cm. In the 1800s, the Netherlands had an average height comparable to that of Europe as a whole—so what changed? The answer may be that the Netherlands is among the world’s largest consumers of dairy products, eating cheese, milk, and yogurt nearly at every meal.

Original Source: toutiao.com/article/1865790883068937/

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