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One of the funny things about this study is that many people already suspected a possible link (though it has been proven yet). Some of the tallest average height nations (Netherlands, Scandanavia) are also the ones with the highest per capita dairy consumption.
and I still say any study can prove what they aim to prove. I do not think for one minute there is any correlation between drinking milk and height. all one has to do is look at their own family. I am guessing how tall we grow has more to do with heredity than anything else. I had a good friend growing up. She lived for her daily milk and also wanted to be as tall I am was. She ended up 5ft 3 in and I who wasn't a lover of mlk am 5 ft 9 inches or was. I can sight many stories like this. My favorite aunt was 4ft 10 in and the family lived on a ranch. They drank milk more than anything, but her dad was only about 5 ft 5in.
We can find a link to almost anything if we try hard enough.
OK, if we're talking anecdotes, my father-in-law was born in Germany in 1940. He remembers having little to eat as a small child, and almost no milk or meat. Milk was only available by prescription for the sick. (Once he saw a small jar of white paint, and took a sip, thinking, or hoping, that it was milk!)
He moved to a farm in the south of Brazil when he was 9 years old. There was plenty to eat there. As an adult, he reached about 5'9".
Both of his sons were born in the US and grew up drinking milk and eating plenty of other dairy products. One is 6'0", the other is 6'2". In other words, they grew 3-5" taller than their father. Their mother was also on the short side.
Heredity would say the boys should have been about the height of their father, BUT his height may have been stunted by the poor diet (lack of milk and other foods high in protein) in his early childhood, in war-torn Germany. Apparently he had the genetic potential to be taller, and his sons inherited those genes.
In the same time period of 25 years after WWII, Japanese women have also grown more than 4 inches in height. Their weight increased by nearly 10 kg in the same period. Many scientists attribute this growth to the fact that Japanese consumption of dairy products now amounts to more than 50 kg per year, including cheese, milk, butter etc.
The increase in height is probably due to a combination of factors, as the article points out, but change in diet is surely the most important one.
and I still say any study can prove what they aim to prove. I do not think for one minute there is any correlation between drinking milk and height. all one has to do is look at their own family. I am guessing how tall we grow has more to do with heredity than anything else. I had a good friend growing up. She lived for her daily milk and also wanted to be as tall I am was. She ended up 5ft 3 in and I who wasn't a lover of mlk am 5 ft 9 inches or was. I can sight many stories like this. My favorite aunt was 4ft 10 in and the family lived on a ranch. They drank milk more than anything, but her dad was only about 5 ft 5in.
We can find a link to almost anything if we try hard enough.
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And whats that got to do with anything?
Population studies can give insight into correlations and sometimes to the level of causation. Your granddad could have smoked 20 packs a day until he was 99 and not got lung cancer. So what? Inidividuals tell us mostly nothing.
As you are referring to hereditary factors - those are already known. As for your friend - how tall would she have been if she didn't drink milk at all? Shorter? We can't tell - but that would have been the test.
Population studies can give insight into correlations and sometimes to the level of causation. Your granddad could have smoked 20 packs a day until he was 99 and not got lung cancer. So what? Inidividuals tell us mostly nothing.
As you are referring to hereditary factors - those are already known. As for your friend - how tall would she have been if she didn't drink milk at all? Shorter? We can't tell - but that would have been the test.
i think you answered your own question: it shows there are many reasons for our size, Who knows how tall people would be with or without milk but I just don't happen to think drinking milk has a lot to do with one's height. BTW when we were growing up, possibly before you were born the milk industry had a campaign pushing for every child to drink a qt of milk a day. I know several kids who did, including my husband. I doubt any of them were any taller because of the milk. but who knows? I am really sorry you took offense to my comment. I was simply giving my opinion.
I am 6'1" and grew up drinking milk. My mother didn't have milk growing up because they were too poor. That's probably why she was only 5'11". Now she is 88 and has shrunk to 5'9".
We all know that Calcium builds bones so it's a safe bet it couldn't hurt your growth to drink more milk.
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