Yes, food significantly affects height by providing essential nutrients for growth, though genetics sets your potential; good nutrition during childhood helps you reach that potential, while malnutrition can stunt growth, but no specific foods make you taller after your growth plates close in adulthood. Key nutrients like protein, calcium, Vitamin D, and zinc are crucial for building strong bones and tissues, and a balanced diet supports reaching your maximum genetic height.
It's highly unlikely to grow a full 10 cm (about 4 inches) after 18, as most people's growth plates close by then, stopping bone lengthening, but you might gain a tiny bit (1-2 cm) if you're a late bloomer, or appear taller by improving posture, spinal health, and nutrition. Focus on posture, good diet (calcium, Vitamin D), exercise, and sleep to maximize your apparent height and spinal health, rather than expecting significant bone growth.
Stunted height growth is primarily caused by severe malnutrition (especially protein, vitamins, minerals) and chronic illness during childhood, but also by hormonal issues (growth hormone deficiency, thyroid problems), genetic conditions, extreme stress/neglect, and certain medications like long-term corticosteroids, all impacting the bone growth plates. While genetics set your potential height, these environmental and health factors prevent you from reaching it, especially if they occur during the critical first 1000 days (conception to age 2).
Including height-increasing foods for girls and boys, such as beans, chicken, eggs, leafy greens, dairy products, and berries, can provide essential nutrients like protein, calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin C, which support bone health and growth during development.
Scientists estimate that about 80 percent of an individual's height is determined by the DNA sequence variations they have inherited, but which genes these changes are in and what they do to affect height are only partially understood.
Mid-parental method
Another way to estimate your child's adult height is to add together the height of both parents and divide it by two. Then, some methods say to add 5 inches if they're a boy and subtract 5 inches if they're a girl; others say to only add or subtract 2 ½ inches.
The best predictor of a child's height is their parents' height or, more specifically, the mid-parental height. The mid-parental height is calculated by adding the mother's and father's height, adding 13 cm (5 inches) for boys or subtracting 13 cm (5 inches) for girls, and then finally dividing by 2.
Children with the highest intakes of vegetable protein experienced pubertal onset up to 7 months later, and those with the highest intake of animal protein experienced it up to 7 months earlier [9]. A delay in menarcheal age was observed in relation to higher fiber intake in childhood [10].
Food is any substance, usually from plants, animals, or fungi, that provides essential nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals) to organisms for energy, growth, and to maintain life, consumed orally for nourishment, pleasure, or health, with fruits like avocados (🥑) and kiwis (🥝) being excellent examples of nutrient-rich options. It's the foundation of nutrition, supporting bodily functions like breathing and immune health, and plays a big role in culture, memory, and well-being, extending beyond just physical sustenance.
The process of physical development into adulthood generally takes 2–5 years. In most cases, boys stop growing in height around the age of 16 and reach full physical maturity by 18.
Stunted height growth is primarily caused by severe malnutrition (especially protein, vitamins, minerals) and chronic illness during childhood, but also by hormonal issues (growth hormone deficiency, thyroid problems), genetic conditions, extreme stress/neglect, and certain medications like long-term corticosteroids, all impacting the bone growth plates. While genetics set your potential height, these environmental and health factors prevent you from reaching it, especially if they occur during the critical first 1000 days (conception to age 2).
Does delayed puberty make you taller? It's difficult to predict how delayed puberty might affect your child's adult height. Some adolescents reach an adult height that's shorter than expected based on their biological parents' height. But for other adolescents, delayed puberty doesn't seem to affect their adult height.
How to Identify a Growth Spurt
But over the long term, a person's growth may be affected by not getting enough sleep. That's because growth hormone is normally released during sleep. If someone consistently gets too little sleep (known as "sleep deprivation"), growth hormone is suppressed. Lack of sleep also can affect other hormones.
A common misconception about height is that certain exercises or stretching techniques can make you taller. Many people believe that activities such as chin-ups, rock climbing, and swimming can increase height. However, there is no evidence or research on the effects of these exercises on height growth after adulthood.
No, 5'8” is about average for men.
So, at 5'8”, you're taller than about 90% of women and about 45% of men. In other words, you're like most guys. You're not short.
There's no single "number 1" unhealthy food, but ultra-processed items like sugary drinks, processed meats (bacon, hot dogs), deep-fried foods (fries), and refined snacks (donuts, chips, sugary cereals) consistently top lists due to high sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and additives linked to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. These items offer little nutritional value while increasing risks for chronic diseases.
We have shown that consuming 2 green kiwifruits daily is associated with improved laxation and GI comfort in constipated individuals.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J) adds about 33 minutes to your healthy lifespan per serving, according to a University of Michigan study that measured life expectancy impacts of over 5,850 foods using the Health Nutritional Index (HNI). This sandwich tops the list for adding time, with nuts and seeds also being highly beneficial (around 25 mins) and processed items like hot dogs subtracting time.
Most often, children simply develop later than their peers but ultimately develop normally. Sometimes, delayed puberty is caused by chronic medical problems, hormonal disorders, radiation therapy or chemotherapy, disordered eating or excessive exercise, genetic disorders, tumors, and certain infections.
Hot dogs. This cookout staple is a choking hazard due to the tube shape and compressibility. If you do choose to give hot dogs to children, it is safest to cut them length wise and in small pieces.
The 5-2-1-0 rule is a simple guideline for kids' healthy habits: 5 or more servings of fruits/veggies daily, 2 hours or less of recreational screen time, 1 hour or more of physical activity, and 0 sugary drinks, with water and milk being the best choices. It's a strategy to combat childhood obesity by promoting balanced nutrition, activity, and less screen time, often with an added focus on good sleep (sometimes as "9-5-2-1-0").
They knew that about 80 to 90 percent of height is shaped by genetics, with environmental factors playing a smaller role. And by studying family histories, they'd identified hundreds of monogenic traits: single, rare genetic variants that can have large effects on height.
Your biological father can pass on physical traits such as your biological sex, eye color, height, puberty timing, fat distribution, dimples, and even risk factors for certain health conditions.
Try this little formula for yourself with your parents' heights, and ask your friends and family to do the same. Though it's probable that your real height is close to your predicted height, this isn't always the case. It's entirely possible for two short parents to have a tall child, and vice versa.