Poor nutrition in school years creats 20 cm height gap across nations, boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985,girls taller than Americans

[beijingwalker]

Poor nutrition in school years creats 20 cm height gap across nations, 19-year old boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985, Chinese girls now are taller than American girls
November 05, 2020

A new global analysis led by Imperial College London, and published in journal The Lancet, has assessed the height and weight of school-aged children and adolescents across the world.

The study, which used data from 65 million children aged five to 19 years old in 193 countries, revealed that school-aged children's' height and weight, which are indicators of their health and quality of their diet, vary enormously around the world.

There was a 20 cm difference between 19-year-olds in the tallest and shortest nations - this represented an eight-year growth gap for girls, and a six-year growth gap for boys. For instance, the study revealed that the average 19-year-old girl in Bangladesh and Guatemala (the nations with the world's shortest girls) is the same height as an average 11-year-old girl in the Netherlands, the nation with the tallest boys and girls.

The international team behind the study warn that highly variable childhood nutrition, especially a lack of quality food, may lead to stunted growth and a rise in childhood obesity - affecting a child's health and wellbeing for their entire life.

The research, which reported data from 1985 to 2019, revealed that the nations with the tallest 19-year-olds in 2019 were in northwest and central Europe, and included the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark and Iceland.

These nations with the shortest 19-year-olds in 2019 were mostly in south and southeast Asia, Latin America and East Africa, including Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala and Bangladesh.

The largest improvements in average height of children over the 35-year period were seen in emerging economies such as China, South Korea and some parts of southeast Asia. For example, 19-year old boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985, with their global rank changing from 150th tallest in 1985 to 65th in 2019. In contrast the height of children, especially boys, in many Sub-Saharan African nations has stagnated or reduced over these decades.


Global height ranking for UK has worsened over past 35 years, with 19-year-old boys falling from 28th tallest in 1985 (176.3 cm) to 39th in 2019 (178.2 cm), and 19-year-old girls from 42nd (162.7 cm) to 49th (163.9 cm).

The study also assessed children's Body Mass Index (BMI) - a measure of height to weight ratio, which gives an indication of whether a person has a healthy weight for their height. The analysis found that 19-year-olds with the largest BMI were found in the Pacific islands, Middle East, USA and New Zealand. The BMI of 19-year-olds was lowest in south Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh. The difference between the lightest and the heaviest BMIs in the study was around 9 units of BMI (equivalent to around 25 kg of weight).

The research team explain the analysis also revealed that, in many nations, children at age five had a height and weight in the healthy range defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, after this age, children in some countries have experienced too small an increase in height, and gained too much weight, compared to the potential for healthy growth.


The team say the most important reason for this is the lack of adequate and healthy nutrition and living environment in the school years, as both height and weight gains are closely linked to the quality of a child's diet.

Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study from Imperial's School of Public Health said: "Children in some countries grow healthily to five years, but fall behind in school years. This shows that there is an imbalance between investment in improving nutrition in pre-schoolers, and in school-aged children and adolescents. This issue is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools are closed throughout the world, and many poor families are unable to provide adequate nutrition for their children."

Dr Andrea Rodriguez Martinez, the lead author of the study from Imperial's School of Public Health, added: "Our findings should motivate policies that increase the availability and reduce the cost of nutritious foods, as this will help children grow taller without gaining excessive weight for their height. These initiatives include food vouchers towards nutritious foods for low-income families, and free healthy school meal programmes which are particularly under threat during the pandemic. These actions would enable children to grow taller without gaining excessive weight, with lifelong benefits for their health and wellbeing."

Poor nutrition in school years may have created 20 cm height gap across nations

www.sciencecodex.com

 

[paritosh]

Poor nutrition in school years creats 20 cm height gap across nations, 19-year old boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985, Chinese girls now are taller than American girls
November 05, 2020
View attachment 686178

A new global analysis led by Imperial College London, and published in journal The Lancet, has assessed the height and weight of school-aged children and adolescents across the world.

The study, which used data from 65 million children aged five to 19 years old in 193 countries, revealed that school-aged children's' height and weight, which are indicators of their health and quality of their diet, vary enormously around the world.

There was a 20 cm difference between 19-year-olds in the tallest and shortest nations - this represented an eight-year growth gap for girls, and a six-year growth gap for boys. For instance, the study revealed that the average 19-year-old girl in Bangladesh and Guatemala (the nations with the world's shortest girls) is the same height as an average 11-year-old girl in the Netherlands, the nation with the tallest boys and girls.

The international team behind the study warn that highly variable childhood nutrition, especially a lack of quality food, may lead to stunted growth and a rise in childhood obesity - affecting a child's health and wellbeing for their entire life.

The research, which reported data from 1985 to 2019, revealed that the nations with the tallest 19-year-olds in 2019 were in northwest and central Europe, and included the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark and Iceland.

These nations with the shortest 19-year-olds in 2019 were mostly in south and southeast Asia, Latin America and East Africa, including Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala and Bangladesh.

The largest improvements in average height of children over the 35-year period were seen in emerging economies such as China, South Korea and some parts of southeast Asia. For example, 19-year old boys in China in 2019 were 8 cm taller than in 1985, with their global rank changing from 150th tallest in 1985 to 65th in 2019. In contrast the height of children, especially boys, in many Sub-Saharan African nations has stagnated or reduced over these decades.


Global height ranking for UK has worsened over past 35 years, with 19-year-old boys falling from 28th tallest in 1985 (176.3 cm) to 39th in 2019 (178.2 cm), and 19-year-old girls from 42nd (162.7 cm) to 49th (163.9 cm).

The study also assessed children's Body Mass Index (BMI) - a measure of height to weight ratio, which gives an indication of whether a person has a healthy weight for their height. The analysis found that 19-year-olds with the largest BMI were found in the Pacific islands, Middle East, USA and New Zealand. The BMI of 19-year-olds was lowest in south Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh. The difference between the lightest and the heaviest BMIs in the study was around 9 units of BMI (equivalent to around 25 kg of weight).

The research team explain the analysis also revealed that, in many nations, children at age five had a height and weight in the healthy range defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, after this age, children in some countries have experienced too small an increase in height, and gained too much weight, compared to the potential for healthy growth.


The team say the most important reason for this is the lack of adequate and healthy nutrition and living environment in the school years, as both height and weight gains are closely linked to the quality of a child's diet.

Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study from Imperial's School of Public Health said: "Children in some countries grow healthily to five years, but fall behind in school years. This shows that there is an imbalance between investment in improving nutrition in pre-schoolers, and in school-aged children and adolescents. This issue is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools are closed throughout the world, and many poor families are unable to provide adequate nutrition for their children."

Dr Andrea Rodriguez Martinez, the lead author of the study from Imperial's School of Public Health, added: "Our findings should motivate policies that increase the availability and reduce the cost of nutritious foods, as this will help children grow taller without gaining excessive weight for their height. These initiatives include food vouchers towards nutritious foods for low-income families, and free healthy school meal programmes which are particularly under threat during the pandemic. These actions would enable children to grow taller without gaining excessive weight, with lifelong benefits for their health and wellbeing."

Poor nutrition in school years may have created 20 cm height gap across nations

www.sciencecodex.com

Such an unfortunate statistic. Asians (Korean, Japs and now the Chinese) have had increasing BMI and heights generation after generation, while south Asians populations have been stunted. Hopefully a lot more resources will be diverted off the plates of the white people, who get fatter everyday, onto the poorest in the world, who can extend their life expectancy and their stature to agreeable standards.

 

[beijingwalker]

On average Chinese girls are taller than American girls but have a much lighter BMIs, hitting the perfect healthy range.

 

[Mugen]

I wonder what kind of effect it has on the IQ.

 

[tower9]

The lower American height is primarily due to the influx of immigration from Latin America, Asia and elsewhere . Native Whutes and Blacks are still among the tallest in the world. I’m well over six feet and when I go to the south or Midwest where there are few immigrants, I’m about average there.

On a side note, Northern Chinese have alwaysbeen the tallest in Asia. I read somewhere that young men there are averaging close to 180 cm now which is comparable to many taller European countries.

 

[beijingwalker]

Yes, Chinese average height is dragged down big time by southerners, Northerners are no shorter than south Europeans.

 

[OppositeDay]

Yes, Chinese average height is dragged down big time by southerners, Northerners are no shorter than south Europeans.

You’re overestimating South Europeans. According to the Lancet data, young Chinese, not just Northerners, are already taller than young Italians.

 

[Cherub786]

When I went to Pakistan, I noticed people in northern Punjab (Rawalpindi area) are quite taller than people from southern Punjab (Multan, where my mom's family is from). I'm 5'11 when I was in Multan I felt like a giant, but in Rawalpindi I felt my height was average or slightly above average.

Malnutrition isn't the only factor for short height. I noticed in Pakistan many young people who are still teenagers are into dieting and want to be as slim as possible. They don't realize that you should eat loads while you're at that age and drink plenty of milk otherwise you won't fulfill your height potential.

Another factor is race, genetics or environment. People from northern part of Pakistan are more Aryan, less mixed with the Dravidians and other southern populations. They are also living in a less polluted climate, mountainous area. But as the study pointed out Bangladeshis are quite short because their environment is the exact opposite. Also, dairy farming isn't as huge in Bangladesh as it is in the Punjab.

Regarding Chinese people, their women may be getting taller, but they still lack the femininity of curves and breasts

 

[beijingwalker]

Free highly nutritious school meals and milk for the students from poor regions paid off.

Full covery of all poor families with education fund in Xinjiang, not one dropout allowed

Even Xinjiang children can enjoy 15 years free eduction from kingdergarten to high school with everything is free, families living in poverty still face difficulties to provide their kids with basic needs, in order to ensure that every single child in Xinjiang can finish at least 15 years...

defence.pk

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

The lower American height is primarily due to the influx of immigration from Latin America, Asia and elsewhere . Native Whutes and Blacks are still among the tallest in the world. I’m well over six feet and when I go to the south or Midwest where there are few immigrants, I’m about average there.

On a side note, Northern Chinese have alwaysbeen the tallest in Asia. I read somewhere that young men there are averaging close to 180 cm now which is comparable to many taller European countries.

Plus there's more to it than just nutrition. Even the poorest inner city black kids are rarely under 5'10".

As somebody over 6ft in the South how often do you walk by short black guys vs tall black guys?

If you grabbed 20 random black highschool boys out of the poorest inner city classroom I guarantee at least 4 of them would be over 6ft and certainly not many Kevin Harts.

6ft Gary Chung in Northern China

BTW now we understand why you use "tower".

 

[52051]

Regarding Chinese people, their women may be getting taller, but they still lack the femininity of curves and breasts

I think the thing is more to do with Chinese, or east asians in general, are more adopted to cold weather, their body fat are more evenly disturbed around the whole body to protect them from harsh cold weather, whilst most of the rest human races, their body fat mostly store in either the stomach region (male) or the hip (female), hence more curve bodies.

 

[tower9]

Plus there's more to it than just nutrition. Even the poorest inner city black kids are rarely under 5'10".

As somebody over 6ft in the South how often do you walk by short black guys vs tall black guys?

If you grabbed 20 random black highschool boys out of the poorest inner city classroom I guarantee at least 4 of them would be over 6ft and certainly not many Kevin Harts.

6ft Gary Chung in Northern China

BTW now we understand why you use "tower".

FME most Whites and Blacks from the heartland average about 5'9 to 6'0. With the average probably being around 5'11. Most heartland Whites are from Germanic/Scando stock in the Midwest and English/Scotch Irish stock in the South so they are among the tallest people in the world. Most African Americans are about 80% West African, who are naturally among the muscular people in the world, and 20% mixed in with Northern Europeans. In addition, the American Indians in the plains are among the tallest in the world. So most of the older racial stocks in the United States rank among the tallest and most robust races in the world. In the large blue cities, many of the Whites there are from Southern European, White Latino or Jewish stock and not as physically robust or tall.

For example, check out this video of "Hell Right". This is pretty representative of a crowd you'd see in the rural Midwest or South. Trace Adkins is a towering 6'6, Blake is 6'5 and Hardy is about 6'0 and he is dwarfed by the other two.

As far as the Beijing video goes, crowds in cities like Beijing are not representative of actual Northern Chinese stock because many of the big cities in China are magnets for migrants and tourists from all over the country so many of the people you see on the streets are not native racial stock to that region. Rural Northern Chinese are similar to these people (definitely not as tall as native American Whites and Blacks, but range about 5'8 to 5'10 on average and definitely taller than other Asians, Latin Americans, many Africans and even Southern Euros). Many are pretty robustly built unlike many other Asian races. Many of these Northern Chinese rural folk would probably get along really well with American rednecks if politics wasn't involved. Similar salt of the earth, tough people worthy of respect.

 

[beijingwalker]

6ft Gary Chung in Northern China

BTW now we understand why you use "tower".

Northern Taiwan= Northern China? You really should study some geography

 

[tower9]

Northern Taiwan= Northern China? You really should study some geography

Oh I thought that video was in Beijing LMAO Yeah Taiwanese are short compared to Beijing and other Northern cities.

 

[beijingwalker]

The report is about 19 years old boys and girls, not general population, Chinese only got a huge boost in height in recent 2 decades, older generations are still relatively much shorter but millenials in general are very tall.