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No joke. When I visited Holland (Netherlands) I felt like I was amongst a bunch of clones. For the first time in my life many of the women were at eye level with me. I'm of German descent and also almost 6ft tall. When people see me and my son together they think we're twins, only he's a couple inches taller. I ended up taller than both of my parents by at least an inch. My German grandfather born in the early 1900s was well over 6 feet tall.
Regarding the national averages, it definitely makes a difference to break it down by race. "America" is a melting pot, you can't quantify average weights and heights across all the races and hereditary backgrounds. Breaking it down by race is not racist, it's scientifically data-driven.
Yes, of course there are ethnic differences in height! I flew to Amsterdam a few years ago, my first trip to Europe. I took Icelandair. My plane was landing at Keflavik airport, after which some of us were transferring to Amsterdam and some to Oslo. I got to the gate, and I found to my delight that for the first time outside of family gatherings, I was among people of my own size.
We live in a world built for smaller people. Half a century of stooping over kitchen sinks and countertops, turning one's self into an S to wash your hair under a showerhead, furniture made for people six inches shorter, takes its toll on the body in small increments.
My daughter, who is only 5'8", lived in China for a year. She had a hard time finding shoes in size 9, which is still normal range in the USA. I would have been out of luck with my own size 11 feet!
This is true, and I often refer to normal people as 'midgets'. LOL
My struggle has always been finding pants that are long enough for me. I lived in the Southwest for years where it's predominately Hispanic, where the thrift stores are full of pants sized for 'midgets' but hardly anything for taller/thin women. (I buy most of my clothes secondhand). When I moved to a non-Hispanic part of the country I was elated to find tons and tons of pants that fit me! Sometimes I buy pants simply because they're long enough for me, even if I don't really like them. Pants hoarding? For work I buy men's Carhartt cargo pants because they're long enough.
No joke. When I visited Holland (Netherlands) I felt like I was amongst a bunch of clones. For the first time in my life many of the women were at eye level with me. I'm of German descent and also almost 6ft tall. When people see me and my son together they think we're twins, only he's a couple inches taller. I ended up taller than both of my parents by at least an inch..
My mom was 5'7"+, my dad 6'0. I'm 6'5". Seems that I got my father's relatively long torso along with long limbs from mom.
While visiting Malaysia I befriended a young German couple. She was 6'0", he 6'3".
Walking together around town we really towered over the locals.
I just read a book called "Ultra-Processed People."
It covers the change in our eating of foods that are very processed. High in fat, sugar, salt, chemicals and short on nutrition. In America, many eat 60% of their diet from these foods.
So, the book explores how we're getting heavier, short, and decreased longevity. We're malnourished--and yet overfed on calories/chemicals empty of nutrition.
Makes sense to me.
Read the book and make your own judgement.
Or just Google "hyper-processed foods" and their effect on our health.
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