Nutrition

     In a land of wealth and plenty that dominates many aspects of the globe, the United States' three-hundred million citizens spend less of their annual income on food than ever before. Because of the incredible monetary and caloric wealth, the average adult American gains seven pounds during the holiday period in December. This land of plenty has seen its population increase in weight throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as have many European countries.
     At the end of the seventeen hundreds, much of the world was the same height at just under 150cm (5 ft). With the agricultural revolution in Europe and America that mechanized food production, the populations gained access to a rich, steady food source. Human height is controlled by genetics but growth only comes from nutrition. Nutrition for growth is most important during childhood, and starving children will not grow as tall as ones that are well fed.
     The height of people worldwide has increased significantly in the last 150 years. As countries develop and gain access to more reliable food supplies, nutrition, and medical care, those populations grow in number and size.
     By World War I, the average American doughboy was 167cm (5ft 6in) compared to American men now at 180cm (5ft 11in). Most Western European and industrialized nations have similar proportions. World War I saw the industrial might of the world directly compete against itself, and much of the socioeconomic and nutritional gains of the previous century went unnoticed between men of similar size.
     The Eight Nation Alliance that besieged China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 demonstrates the height differences between wealthy  and developing nations. Because the forces involved were composed of nations around the world, a direct comparison of the size of citizens and subjects of different nations can be made.

Left to right: Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan.

     Britain and America had a strong industrial-agricultural complexes that nourished growing populations better than any other in the world. Germany and France were rapidly industrializing and quickly caught up to the sizes of the wealthier nations. Russia and Italy, two of the poorer European nations at the time, are on the smaller side because of the less diversified agricultural sector while Japan's rocky soil restricted large, rich diets until trade developed to significantly increase food access to its people.

     Industrialized nations' tourists to poorer regions of the world today still notice the smaller height of poor nations, but as globalization fuels the world's economy, agricultural production increases, and the world's population stabilizes, the height of men throughout the world will level off: For all men are created equal in every culture, race, sect, and nation.

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Agatha Tyche