Britain gets that shrinking feeling

Experts blame poor dietary habits and ‘half-baked’ school meal provision for slide down league table

Britain is falling down the league table for average height as a study reveals that UK teenagers are not growing at the same rate as those in other countries with poor diets blamed. Men aged 19 have dropped from 28th tallest in the world, with an average height of 176.4cm (5ft 9in) in 1985, to 39th in 2019, with an average height of 178.2cm. Women dropped from 42nd, with an average height of 162.7cm (5ft 4in) to 49th at 163.9cm. Belgium, France and Poland overtook the UK.

BRITAIN is falling down the league table for average height as a study reveals that teenagers are not growing at the same rate as those in other countries with poor diets blamed.

In the first study of its kind, researchers found that the global height ranking of British 19-year-olds has fallen over the past 35 years.

Men have dropped from 28th tallest in the world, with an average height of 176.4cm (5ft 9in) in 1985, to 39th in 2019, with an average height of 178.2cm.

Women dropped from 42nd, with an average height of 162.7cm (5ft 4in) to 49th at 163.9cm.

In Europe, 19-year-old men in Belgium, France and Poland have, on average, become taller than their UK counterparts over the past three decades, while Irish women of the same age have overtaken British women in height rankings.

China saw the biggest improvement in average height worldwide, recording the largest gain for men and third largest for women.

Researchers behind the study, published in The Lancet, pointed to poor diet and high body mass index (BMI) as factors that have hindered the growth rate of British teenagers. “It really comes down to nutrition,” Prof Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London, the study’s senior author, told The Daily Telegraph.

“Height is about the availability of good things – sufficient animal protein, dairy, milk, legumes and vegetables, which all help with growth.

“These things are affordable in this country but presumably children aren’t getting enough of it.”

Prof Ezzati said the “very successful” school meals programmes in other European countries, including the Dutch free milk scheme, had helped children grow at a faster rate.

He called on the UK Government to improve “our half-baked” school meals programme and said the recent campaign by Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United footballer, for free school meals outside of term time was “indirectly relevant” to his research.

“Putting aside the politics of this and thinking of it as strategic, it’s outrageous to be a wealthy country where kids are going without food,” he said. “Strategically, we should want children who are healthy and well-nourished because they develop a lot better.

“Our health and nutrition is very important to be a successful and productive country. It’s not just an aesthetic issue, it’s a good measure of their future health and education.”

The study analysed data from more than 65 million children and adolescents aged five to 19 from 2,181 studies, estimating trends in height and BMI in 200 countries from 1985 to 2019.

It explored the BMI of the UK, which “stands out as doing badly” compared with other first world countries.

The average BMI of a 19-year- old British woman increased from 22.5 to 23.8 from 1985 to 2019. This compared with a growth of 21.8 to 22.6 among Germans and 20.9 to 21.7 among the French.

For British men, the average BMI has increased from 22.3 to 23.5 over the same 35-year period, compared with an increase from 22.1 to 23.3 in Germany and a 21.8 to 22.5 jump in France.

A spokesman for the National Obesity Forum said that the research revealed that the UK was “still in the dark ages” when it came to children’s health and wellbeing.