Eating in Bratislava, Slovakia. PHOTO - MIROSLAVA CIBULKOVÁ

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch, already the tallest people on the planet, are still growing in height while also packing on the pounds. The market research organisation GfK said that data collected over the last seven years showed increasing demand for larger clothing sizes in the Netherlands, where the average man is about 185 cm (6 foot 1 inch) tall. "The Dutch are growing," said GfK spokesman Koen Snoeren. The Dutch are nearly 10 cm (four inches) taller on average than the British and Americans, and almost 15 cm (six inches) taller than they were four decades ago.

GfK's analysis supports recent studies, including one by Professor Robert Fogel for the Pan American Health Organisation, that ranks the Dutch as the tallest people on the planet. Fogel and other researchers put it down to affluence, a diet rich in dairy products, and good hygiene and health care.

Studies by the Health Council of the Netherlands suggest the Dutch could grow another 10 cm (four inches) in the next few decades. But some data, including GfK's, also suggest junk food is limiting the health advantages that wealth has brought. Nearly half of the population are overweight, and the council says that in a decade it could be two-thirds, around the level of the United States.

Reuters