Our obsession with height

Size has always been a Filipino obsession. It permeates everything we do.

From the most public of figures to the ordinary Joe, if you want to attract attention, you should be tall. Models, actors, politicians, everyone wants to tower over the field. Some theater companies in Europe, in fact, only hire actors of a certain height so they won’t have to have new costumes made.

Of course, basketball is not the only sport where height makes a difference.

Sprints in swimming, for example, favor taller players. Taller golfers generate greater centrifugal force on their swings, and theoretically drive the ball longer distances. And many of the world’s top tennis players are over six feet tall. And China is recruiting (and some would say breeding) players according to height. When you think about it, Houston Rockets center Yao Ming’s father and mother are 6’7’’ and 6’3’’, and his girlfriend is 6’3’’. The sky’s the limit.

Studies (including one by the University of North Carolina) have shown that tall people tend to make more money than people of average height. In the United States, some studies estimate that every extra inch of height is equivalent to an additional $789 to $1,000 in income every year.

Of 43 American presidents, only five have been more than a little below average height, and the last was Benjamin Harrison, elected to America’s heighest office in 1888. The taller candidate has won 10 of the last 12 American presidential elections. The tallest American presidents have been Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Roosevelt — which suggest that height not only matters, but predicts electoral success, too. Lincoln stood 6’4’’; Johnson, 6’3’’; Clinton and Jefferson, 6’2 1/2’; Roosevelt, 6’2’’; and Chester Arthur, George Bush, Sr. and George Washington were all just a hair shorter than Roosevelt.

Some historians believe that our reverence for height actually is a relic from pre-historic times, when size was an important factor in survival. The bigger, stronger cavemen outlived the smaller, more frail ones. Some researchers suggest that we subconsciously carry those beliefs and oversized respect even today. There are, believe it or not, clubs for exceedingly stratospheric people. At the Washington and Baltimore Tall Clubs, women have to be at least 5’10’’ and men at least 6’2’’ to join. And yes, they actually make you take your shoes off and test if you literally measure up.

A study done in Poland found that taller men were more likely to marry and have children. On average, bachelors and childless men were about an inch shorter than married men with children.

Five years ago, a San Francisco-based Bay Area biotech start-up started comparing the DNA of 50 diverse individuals for clues about what makes some people tall, short, sickly or strong. Perlegen Sciences Inc. was an ambitious attempt to create new tests to diagnose diseases and, in the future, new drugs to treat them. By studying the entire human genome — the road map of who we are as human beings—they hoped to find out what exactly makes people tall, among other things.

Ironically, the urbanization of many civilizations — building larger, more crowded cities — may be causing people to get shorter. Studies in the United States have shown that Americans, in general, are not getting any taller. Other research says that the Dutch are, on the average, inches taller than Americans. Ironic, when you consider how "small" Holland is compared to the US. And yet, the Netherlands has a lot of open space, is not congested, has low crime rates, rich natural resources and strong national pride.

Strangely enough, Filipinos are practically the same average height as Americans, roughly around 5’8’’ to 5’9’’ as some research indicates. But can you really do anything to become taller?

Dr. Benjamin Frank, author of the book The No-Aging Diet, suggests that human RNA/DNA production slows down more and more as people get older, resulting in increased vulnerability to disease. Frank recommended a diet rich in nucleic acids to counter this "aging" process. One substance found in plants fits the bill perfectly.

Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF) is a hot water extract of chlorella, which is supposedly responsible for amazing growth rates of various plant life. With plenty of sunlight and proper growing conditions, chlorella reproduces itself by cell division at the rate of 4 new cells every 17 to 24 hours.

People have claimed that it increases their ability to grow, especially if consumed beginning at a young age. It has also been said to aid digestion and improve overall health. ALlthough it is over two and a half billion years old, it was only discovered in the 1890’s.

On Monday, more on chlorella and studies on what may help people become taller.