50 BC: the tallest men a Roman legion ever faced were the Germans and the Celts, and they lived on the herd. Caesar wrote it down through gritted teeth. 800: the tallest people in Europe were the Norse, and they lived on butter, cheese, fish and salt meat. 1850: the tallest people on earth were the Cheyenne and the Sioux, and they lived on bison. 1899: the shortest men in the British army came out of the mill towns, and they lived on bread, tea and jam. 1954: the shortest people in the developed world were the Japanese. Milk went into every school lunch that year and they grew 10cm inside a generation. 2000: the two Koreas shared a language, a border and a set of grandparents, and the south, on beef and eggs, stood up to 8cm above the north, on rice. 2026: the tallest people on earth are the Dutch, and they drink more milk per head than any nation alive. Height is the only nutrition survey that cannot be funded, fudged or reworded by a committee. It is taken against a wall, in front of a mother, and it has returned the same verdict on every continent for 2,000 years. The tall ones had the herd. The short ones had the field.