Height turns out to be an artifact of diet at three points in the life course - nutrition for the pregnant woman, nutrition in infancy through age three, and then again in late adolescence. In the US, average height for the generational cohort born in 1940 was significantly higher than those born in 1930. And the 1950 cohort was taller still. A similar pattern emerged in the rest of the industrialized world. That pattern no longer holds for the US, where the generation born in 1990 is actually slightly shorter than the 1980 cohort, though still notably taller than the 1930 cohort.
However, this pattern continues in the rest of the industrialized world (which have much better social welfare programs supporting infant nutrition among other things.) Thus another thing Steve would notice is that German crowds, for instance, are taller than American crowds. This was not always true.
no subject
Height turns out to be an artifact of diet at three points in the life course - nutrition for the pregnant woman, nutrition in infancy through age three, and then again in late adolescence. In the US, average height for the generational cohort born in 1940 was significantly higher than those born in 1930. And the 1950 cohort was taller still. A similar pattern emerged in the rest of the industrialized world. That pattern no longer holds for the US, where the generation born in 1990 is actually slightly shorter than the 1980 cohort, though still notably taller than the 1930 cohort.
However, this pattern continues in the rest of the industrialized world (which have much better social welfare programs supporting infant nutrition among other things.) Thus another thing Steve would notice is that German crowds, for instance, are taller than American crowds. This was not always true.