Why are northern Europeans so tall?

[Anonymous]

My friend who is from china asked that recently. We were watching the world and she noticed in some games such the Netherlands vs. Argentina/ Costa Rica or Germany vs. Portugal/ Algeria the northern Europeans were visibly taller and broader

And as a matter of fact it does reflect in those countries national average heights.
Looking at a map of average heights, it's a clear trend that people in the north get taller.
livedoor.blogimg.jp/.../f10aa092.png

So she asked why that is. Now being from Norway myself, I have no idea

Thinking about it, I came up with some crazy theories, but I don't think any of them is quite right.

Like is that the weather is harsh and sunshine rare so you needed to be tough to survive and height is an advantage. You know how tall flowers get more sunshine?

I was thinking nutrition. But as I said, fairly harsh climates, I'm throughout history countries like Spain or Italy and much better nutrition.

My boyfriend something about the Vikings being a very conquerors people that would sometimes bring back women from their raids as trophies and he said they'd probably only bring back the pretty ones, which would then pass on their superior dna to their children who would be taller and stronger...
I don't know though, the same could probably be said about the Romans and french too.

So what is it?

I know the map only includes Europe but even looking at the whole word, Northern Europe is among the tallest regions.
And the map obviously is in meters. 6'0 ft is roughly 1.82 m

[wölfin-fräulein]

height has two factors and always will have, one Genetics and two the environment and nutritions. but the heritability is near to 80 percent while environmental effects like nutritions are 20 or less percent. and heritability among whites have even more percentage. but it is different between different races. specially with those who had and has problems the factor of nutritions and providing it. for example Africans, they percentage of heritability is less than whites and there are more variety between heights between a family and relatives. it's also related to being mixed and what genetic background you have. the more mixed the more you'll have variety. Northern Europeans are by far less mixed than already many other races. the others for example in the middle east they are mixed with already more than half of the races and ethnicities that exist. so when you see them they don't even have an actual average in the whole area, you have to measure them independently. The last reason is diseases and Genetic and problems in hormones that can again be an individual reason related to environment or Genetics.

This is what height is related to. but the actual Genetic Reasons you want are not very clear. it is made in a process for sure. but we cannot have the assumption of "getting taller" because some of our ancestors were taller than us. and yes it is not 100%, but not completely true that "all" of our ancestors were shorter than us. some of us have a shorter Average now. The whole subject is more complicated, and needs knowledge to have theories about it.

[Lazar]

This map is so wrong on so many levels. For example you made major fuck up with the Balkan countries that I was shocked. It would be tolerable if you did it with some middle of the bunch countries but to actually make the tallest population shortest is a major fuck up. Average male height in Serbia is 1.82 metres not 1.72 (was it a typo?). It is one of the few things commented by foreign people who come here, the tallness of general population both male and female. I also highly doubt Bulgarians or Romanians are shorter than Russians and Spaniards who are considerably shorter. Don't believe me, I'm 182 and in high school class out of 13 boys only two were shorter, the tallest one was 196 and he would be considered tall but not freakishly tall. Montenegrins are by far the tallest nation you'll ever encounter, in my opinion considerably taller on average than Dutch. Average male in height in Bosnia is 183. This map basically fucked up major characteristic of regional populations and I have no idea where they got data since even on wikipedia chart Serbian average height is 182 cm

[Anonymous]

I've heard the worlds healthiest diet for men according to all studies is the mediterranean diet which is ideal for hgh in men. Soy is a common ingredient of many Asian dishes which contains substances that mimic female hormones that tend to not allow men to reach their full potential in height.

[Opinion Owner]

I think it could have something to do with europeans generally having really long torso/upper bodies too, it allows for the legs to have more support to grow long and also be good for weight lifting
s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/5119429/1/

[Anonymous]

Do some girls think the guys are attractive?