Height is one of the most sensitive indicators of well-being because it combines the external influences of nutrition, economic wealth, health care, social equality, and other important socio-economic factors. The aim of this ecological study was to compare actual values of male and female height from 152 populations (except sub-Saharan Africa) with the mean supply of 47 food items from the FAOSTAT database (1995-2013) and mean values of seven socio-economic indicators (1995-2013). This comparison shows that economic wealth at the country level is only a mediocre correlate of physical growth because it is only loosely associated with the quality of nutrition and it does not reflect the social distribution of wealth. In a multiple regression model, the best predictors of stature are protein sources of the best and worst quality, and total fertility (which critically influences the amount of resources expended per child). In summary, these findings indicate that irrespective of crude economic statistics, the choice of specific nutrient sources and small family size are crucial factors determining the optimal physical development of children. Based on our data, we also believe that current international dietary recommendations regarding protein intake and protein quality would deserve serious re-evaluation.

中文翻译：

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全球152个人口中成年人身高的营养和社会经济预测指标。

身高是幸福感最敏感的指标之一，因为它综合了营养，经济财富，医疗保健，社会平等和其他重要社会经济因素的外部影响。这项生态研究的目的是将152个人口（撒哈拉以南非洲除外）的男性和女性身高的实际值与FAOSTAT数据库中平均47种食品的供应量（1995-2013年）和7种社会性别平均值进行比较。经济指标（1995-2013年）。这种比较表明，国家一级的经济财富只是身体增长的一个中等水平的关联，因为它与营养质量只是松散的关联，并不反映财富的社会分布。在多元回归模型中，身高的最佳预测指标是质量最佳和最差的蛋白质来源，和总生育率（这严重影响每个孩子所花费的资源量）。总之，这些发现表明，不管原始的经济统计数据如何，特定养分来源的选择和家庭规模小都是决定儿童最佳身体发育的关键因素。根据我们的数据，我们还认为，有关蛋白质摄入和蛋白质质量的当前国际饮食建议应进行认真的重新评估。