Researchers are trying to find out why the Dutch are among the tallest people in the world, news agency AFP reports on Wednesday.

Today, Dutch women are an average of almost 1.71 metres tall and men are 1.84 metres. But 200 years ago, the Dutch were known for being short, AFP says.

Military records show men have gained an average 20 centimetres in height over the past 150 years, but Americans, for example, have only grown six centimetres over the same period.

Some argue the Dutch diet, which is rich in meat and dairy products, is behind the increase. Last year, researchers in Groningen suggested that the Dutch in general were relatively wealthy and this enabled them to have access to good food.

Now, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, have combed a Dutch database for clues.

Database

The database is called LifeLines and contains information about 94,500 people who lived in the north of the country from 1935 to 1967. It found that the people who had most children were tall men and women of average height.

The study did not involve genetic testing, but concluded that natural selection must have played a part and that over time more Dutch had tall genes.

‘Natural selection in addition to good environmental conditions may help explain why the Dutch are so tall,’ AFP quotes the study as saying. The research is due to be published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B on Wednesday.