How much is height to do with diet?

[Lunasun]

Obviously it's mainly hereditary how tall someone grows in height. But how much do you think diet has to do with it? How bad does a child's diet have to be to effect their end height. I remember by brother being really fussy as a child/teen but he ended up growing really tall. Yet, I always heard that if your diet is really restricted as a child then this can stunt their growth?

are you talking about a truly awful diet as in third world countries or a child who doesn't eat a "normal" diet?

in well nourished populations like ours, what I notice is that fat kids are often very tall at young age & may have especially large feet.

Yes A Lot of the world's children are stunted & the main effect is not so much short stature but reduced cognitive abilities. 😟

I think it would have to be seriously restricted to affect height. The body shuts down non essential systems first (reproductive system in anorexia for example).

I have really big feet. My mum always said I'd eat anything as a child!

Ohhhh I have a smaller and more petite than average child.

The amount of uneducated people try to intimate he may be a fussy eater, not a great appetite etc etc.

You can't feed a child tall. I have been told and researched it many, many times.

You would need a massive neglect, illness for food to impact a child's growth

Oh and our DS is neither he eats fine BTW.
Common sense workday show where he gets his height from I'm 4"10 DH is 5"8

"You can't feed a child tall. I have been told and researched it many, many times."

Totally agree with this.
I do think a child can have stunted growth due to poor diet and fussy eating though.

If you go to secondary schools in wealthier areas and poorer areas of the same city you do notice that the young people are taller and more muscular overall in the wealthier areas. Massive generalisation and obviously due to a number of factors but its true. Maybe a good/more varied diet in childhood and better maternal diet during pregnancy has some impact?

I lived in Japan in the late 80s, when I was early 20s. I'm 5'7" and people of over maybe 30, including men, were rarely much taller than me. Under 30s were noticeably taller than the older generations - that's obviously diet related rather than genetics.

Try watching and see just how short people were in this country in Victorian times.

The Japanese eat alot healthier in general than the western society on the whole I would think, Don't they have the lowest rate of heart disease and cancer. They don't have a lot of dairy though, is that right?

DC2 is under investigation for restricted growth and has been referred to a dietician (although that was nearly a year ago and they’re still not accepting referrals so that’s helpful!) so it must have some impact, but she’s also had a tonne of blood tests to look at hormones, genetic issues, liver function, immune problems etc.

I do think a child can have stunted growth due to poor diet and fussy eating though.

They need sever malnutrition for it to stunt growth.
Fussy eating does not effect height unless it falls into malnutrition.

Diet will have a long-term effect on average heights of a population. I'm average height for my age group but my grandmother and her generation only came up to my shoulder

"The Japanese eat alot healthier in general than the western society on the whole I would think, Don't they have the lowest rate of heart disease and cancer. They don't have a lot of dairy though, is that right?"

Very little dairy - the land is not great for cows, and Japanese people have quite high lactose intolerance. Very little obesity too. Over the years meat consumption has increased though, due to increasing affluence and western influence I think.

My eldes was an extremely fussy eater as a child, an is now over 6 ft tall. My middle son has always been a good eater, and is taller. I was anorexic as a teen and early 20s, now taller than my sister who always had a bog appetite

I’m the shortest of my siblings by far and there’s quite an interesting story to it

big brother - 6’4
little brother - 6’6
little sister - 5’9
me - 5’5

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease at 16 after a long period of “we don’t know what’s wrong with her?” And apparently I’d had it since birth. No usual symptoms whatsoever though apart from being “naturally skinny” (sadly not true!) and very pale.

Anyway they were worried about my bone density so do a bone scan and I have 3 inches of ungrown bone in all my long limbs.

The doctor explained it as - I should have been taller but my body was basically starving due to not absorbing nutrients so it got me to an ‘acceptable’ height and then re-routed it’s efforts elsewhere.

Nature is clever

Poor you, having to wait so long for a diagnosis. I bet you felt so much better after you were diagnosed.

As pp have said, generational differences in height are due to diet (and reduced illness actually) and these differences are tens of centimetres.

So yes it matters.

It's not only about having sufficient calories, but protein and other nutrients that affect height.

I've seen a few reports that being obese as a child can affect your final height because obese children are more likely to have an earlier puberty, and therefore stop growing earlier, thus not reaching their full potential height.

I don’t know because my husband was literally raised on cheese sandwiches (his parents are stingy not poor) and he’s a whopping 6’7

However my son is autistic and WAS tiny for his age with very thin hair etc and didn’t eat anything substantial for years. The minute he started eating properly he shot up, hair became shiny and thick.

As far as I know, leftover calories go into the non essential bodily processes but my husband was raised in crap and it’s not affected him a bit!

My triplets were 7 weeks prem and small for dates when they were born. All 3 are shorter than average as adults, and had a good diet growing up.

Im significantly taller than my mum and slightly taller as my dad. Both my parents were war / post war babies on rations, with fathers who had died when they were very young. They were both underfed, my dad far worse and would pass out from hunger. My dad has a long body and looks like he should have been taller.

I guess although it's not varied, cheese is full of protein, calcium, calories!

It also probably depends on what types of foods fussy eaters will tolerate. Protein is used for growth and repair so if they eat meat and other protein sources it'll have less of an impact.

Not so applicable in the UK nowadays but years ago I read an article that talked about women who were pregnant with daughters in times of famine (in particular it was talking about POW camps and similar) had smaller granddaughters because the egg that would eventually become that granddaughter had been produced during a time of poor diet. Which was quite a sobering. Thought, that things could have such a long, ongoing impact.