They are not talking about individual or even small subsets as examples -- "some people with poor diet are still smart" or "I know some tall dumb people" but an overall average of a large sample.
sorry, but I think that's just a load of crock. Why are Shanghai people on average taller than Cantonese people? They're both cities that have had a history of prospering because they're port cities.
meat for one - protein. i cant remember where i read it, but i recently saw an article talking about the differences b/t peasants and upper class/royalty in medieval times - b/c the wealthy lords and kings had horded all the meat they were on average much taller and bigger than the serfs, who were living on a very meager diet.
i can attest to the tallness of the dutch as well as the west germans - im 6'2'' and felt like i was average height at best in holland. the tallest people i have ever seen were in cologne, in west germany - seriously, the average dude there had to be 6'5'' - i felt like a little girl - a little girl with a mouthfull of delicious apple strudels! mmm apple strudel!
well that has to be because of the large immigration of asian and hispanic peoples to america because they are shorter than most whites and blacks and i know for sure whites and blacks are not getting shorter over the years but a lot bigger.
Even on an overall average I don't think this is necessarily the case. Most Chinese and Japanese have historically had protein deficient diets yet population wise haven't showed less intelligence than societies that have traditionally had high protein diets. Consider that even as recently as 30 years ago most Chinese weren't getting enough protein since the Great Leap Foreward ended up bringing more misery than it helped yet that generation of Chinese isn't less intelligent than comparable generations of people from other countries. Also if diet and protein was the key to intelligence then Eskimos and Masai tribesman should be the most intelligent people in the world since their diets are almost all protein.
the protein thing might make some sense, but cantonese peopel eat more fish than any other groups from China and they're still shorter than most.
Height certainly correlates to diet particularly protein and calcium more than genetics. The tallest people in China have traditionaly been Manchurians and Mongolians who as herders have very protein heavy diets while the shortest people have tended to be from Southern provinces heavily rice dependent. Not knowing enough about what sets Shanghai apart from Canton its hard to say which factors make people taller in Shanghai but I wouldn't put it down as being that Chinese are genetically predisposed to be shorter and Cantonese more so than other Chinese.
if SiShir's right about the protein thing then I blame all the tree hugging hipies in NY who refuse to eat meat. They're bringing us down...literally!!
Except that its not just protein but calcium and a few other nutrients. Seafood is a great source of protein but not nearly as good for calcium and iron as red meat. Southern Chinese both eat less red meat but also drink far less milk than Northern Chinese so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Northern Manchus and Mongols who have traditional ate a lot of red meat and drank a lot of milk end are traditionally taller.
