this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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You see when those countries started to use growth hormones in swine farming.
As far as I know India doesn’t eat so much pork. US most likely prefers beef.
Btw Asean people born and raised in West Europe grow tall as well. It must be the food. And to lower degree environment.
Honestly not always the case. I find thst they're generally shorter than the white people around.
Ethnic Indians that won't eat pork in india don't eat pork in europe, I find.
Your theory is interesting when applied to chinese people, who famously do love pork. Because the implication is that china is not already using swine growth hormones.
Growth hormones aren't legal in farming in Europe (not Canada).
I'm tall because ham?
Not ham in particular, but high protein availability and nourishment. Not for just wealthy people. For most people. That’s not discounting poverty in any country.
The volume of proteins doesn’t explains it. The US eats by far more meat than durch people: 144 to 91 kg.
Check here https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production You can filter by everthing and select same countries as in this graph.
The dutch heights seem to be a genetic preference as well. Germans eat somehow the same mix with a little less seafood. Btw Germans in the Northern parts - close to Netherlands are quite tall in general. May be seafood.
Production isn't consumption. A lot of that is for export.
Edit: my mistake, they included the consumption graphs further down..
Yes, genetics likely plays a part. However, it would matter more about protein during early years, than average across the whole population. Once people are fully grown, it wouldn’t matter so much any more. American diets tend to be higher in fats and refined sugars, so,perhaps that makes a difference but emricans are also at the higher end of the table, despite having a more diverse population, including races that are stereotypically shorter.
I live in Australia and I know that here they have to use different graphs for different races for babies for normal height and weight. The most common European descent population is shorter and less sticky than the Pacific Islander populations and taller and more stocky than the Asian population.
You mentioned an important thing migration and grow up. I looked at the migration rate of those countries and it turns out the the Netherlands has the lowest rate. So, as migration typically reduces the overall height - if one assumes its the protein volume in your youth - this would explain the graphs much better. It might be the protein volume not the swine hormones.
https://ourworldindata.org/migration