Oh come all ye newbies!
lurking in your hundreds,
come forth, freck apostrophobia
and say your say!
This is your forum as well!
Does that mean all you hero members have apostrophilia??
Maybe lactose tolerance and tallness are linked - it is very difficult to find dairy products being sold in countries such as China and Thailand and indigenous people of these countries are noticeably more vertically challenged.
Most southern African indigenous ethnic groups have been nomadic cattle herders for several centuries, living off dairy in addition to beef. Their lactose tolerance is hardly in question. Yet, they are on average short and slight peoples by European/US standards with the Kenyan/Tanzanian Maasai being one exception in the tallness department. This seems to run counter to any simple link between lactose tolerance and tallness.
Short breeding short.
Of course there’s a strong genetic component in this. It applies within ethnic groups as much as between them, but the question is how increasing tallness in recent human history is best explained: evolution or improved living standards?
'Luthon64
I wasn't implying the link was simple, just interestingly observable and of course nutritionally speaking would linked to a myriad of factors other than lactose. I think tallness is rather a result of both evolution and improved living standards, maybe the thing that needs clarification and is more difficult to determine is which factor has had the greatest influence.