Many parents pay special attention to the height of their children, but there are many sayings that height depends on heredity, causing many parents to give up the management of their children's height. In fact, this is unscientific. In fact, the factors affecting height include genetic factors. , There are also acquired environmental factors. Let’s have a good chat today about how this height is affected.
1. Inheritance is not the only determinant of height-acquired development is very important.
Taking genetic factors as an example, I believe many people will realize that there are differences in height.
, for example, studies the average height of different ethnic groups in China, and there are indeed differences in height [1].
This means that genetic factors are of great significance to height, so what proportion do genetic factors account for? Through the study of twins, it is found that height accounts for about 60-70% of genetic factors [2]. The influence of acquired factors accounted for the remaining 30-40%.
Height change is a developmental process, and the developmental process is affected by the acquired environment such as diet, habits and many other aspects. If these factors cannot reach the ideal state, then the result is that the height cannot reach the ideal state.
For example, in the past two thousand years, human height has remained stable, fluctuating around 170 cm. With the beginning of modernization, the height of developed countries has risen sharply.
[4]
The global average height of men has increased from 162 cm to 171 cm. Female, increased from 151 cm to 159 cm. The average height of today’s young people is 8 or 9 cm taller than their ancestors 100 years ago, or about 5%. This trend of
is consistent with the overall improvement in health and nutrition during this period. The rapid development of productivity brought about by the second industrial revolution has greatly improved people's living standards. Starting from the basics of having enough food, to eating well, eating scientifically, and improving the knowledge of dietary nutrition, people today are on average higher than their ancestors 100 years ago.
It can be seen that the influence of acquired factors on height is also very obvious. After the baby is born, his genetic factors are determined. The existing technology cannot operate on the genetic level, but different nutritional status can easily lead to a gap between the final child's development and the ideal height.
2. Does your child have "invisible hunger"?
Many parents may think that, logically speaking, the standard of living is not bad, how can children lack nutrition? In fact, some malnutrition is caused by "hidden hunger"
. There are two factors that may cause the baby to appear "hidden hunger"
. On the one hand, family eating habits are not necessarily suitable for children's tastes, causing children to be picky eaters and other factors that affect nutrition. . Family eating habits are indeed the culprit for many family diseases caused by nutrition. It can be said to be another kind of "heredity" besides DNA. In many cases, children's food is food that "parents think is delicious". Not quite in line with the taste of children.
On the other hand, the child's digestive system is in the process of establishing, so it also affects the absorption of nutrients. The development of the digestive system does not happen overnight, especially children’s intestinal microbes are an acquired process of gradual establishment. In this gradual establishment process, their digestion is not as complete as adults, so absorption will also be affected.
3. Supplement comprehensive nutrition and solve "hidden hunger".
Because of this, in order to ensure the child's comprehensive and balanced nutrition, especially for the child's height and physical growth, special attention should be paid to the following aspects of nutrition.
1. Core nutrition for height: Calcium and vitamin D
. Calcium is a basic component of bones. Once calcium is lacking, it will easily lead to imperfect bone development, which will not only affect height, but also cause pathological symptoms such as O-legs. . Vitamin D is an important hormone precursor for calcium metabolism in the body, which can promote the deposition of calcium on bones, thereby promoting bone development.
2, protein: animal and plant proteins need to be supplemented in a balanced manner.
protein is an important structural material that constitutes human cells, tissues and organs. The human body needs to be supplemented with protein every day to maintain the health of the body, which is important for rapid growth.It is more critical for infants and young children in the developmental stage. They need a lot of protein in their bodies. In this case, they are more sensitive to the lack of protein intake. The lack of protein will not only affect the physical growth of infants and young children, but also affect them. Physical condition, such as insufficient immunity.
protein itself is also divided into animal protein and plant protein, the former such as whey protein and casein commonly found in milk, and the latter such as protein isolated from soybeans [5]. Different protein sources and different coding genes naturally show differences. The following figure shows the research on the release rate of the amino acids, the three amino acids (leucine, glutamine and arginine) and antioxidant activity of animal protein and plant protein. It can be seen that there are differences between animal protein and plant protein. Especially soy protein, which is the only high-quality protein with PDCAAS=1 among plant proteins[6], can meet the body's essential amino acid requirements and help growth and development. Therefore, from the perspective of baby's growth and health, increasing the intake of plant protein on the basis of animal protein can optimize the intake of key amino acids such as glutamine and arginine for growth.
3, a comprehensive variety and rich content of other vitamins and minerals
For growing children, in order to seize the 30%-40% of the part that can grow taller with acquired efforts, we must give timely and comprehensive nutritional supplements , So that the child can develop to the ideal height. Of course, there are also many products, such as complete nutritional formula products, which contain a variety of vitamins and minerals, which are specifically aimed at this point, especially for children who are malnourished due to hidden hunger or insufficient digestion and absorption. Good coverage of children's daily needs.
In addition, the familiar mineral elements such as iron and zinc in the complete nutritional formula are also critical to the growth and development of children. Iron is an essential nutrient that promotes immune and nervous system development and cell growth, and regulates energy metabolism and exercise. Zinc plays an extremely important role in the biological processes of cell growth, differentiation, and metabolism, and also plays a role in maintaining the appetite of children. . [7]
It can be said that today with the increasing living standards of the people, we have the ability to allow our children to receive scientific and complete nutritional supplements in terms of acquired nutrition, so that their height can be as close to the ideal genetic height as possible.
[1]Xiang Xiaoxue,Zheng Lianbin,Song Qingyang,Yu Keli,Zhang Xinghua.The body characteristics of 14 unidentified populations in China[J].Acta Anatomy,2020,51(05):802-808.
[2]Li , Miao-Xin, et al. "A major gene model of adult height is suggested in Chinese." Journal of human genetics 49.3 (2004): 148-153.
[3] Max Roser, Cameron Appel and Hannah Ritchie (2013) – "Human Height". Published online at OurWorldInData.org
[4] The data is based on a global study released by the NCD Risk Factor Cooperation (NCD-RisC) in 2016.
[5] Paul GL. The rationale for consuming protein blends in sports nutrition. J Am Coll Nutr. 2009 Aug, 28 Suppl: 4645-4725
[6] is an evaluation index for the quality of protein digestion and absorption rate correction scoring, by Measure the digestibility of protein and whether it can meet the body's amino acid requirements and score different proteins. In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization began to use PDCAAS as the preferred protein quality evaluation standard.
[7] World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/elena/titles/iron-children-5to12/zh/https://Oh.WHO.int/Elena/titles/BBC/zinc_stunting/this/at 1 in
