Humanity loves to make different ratings in all areas of its life. "The best comedies about love", "The most terrible books", "The most reliable brands of cars". We are also interested in any unusual representatives of the human race. The tallest and heaviest, fastest and hairiest, smallest and scariest people on the planet are analyzed, measured and counted.
For example, it is known that the largest people on Earth live in Holland - the average height of the inhabitants of this country is 185 centimeters. But we are talking about a state in which just 100 years ago, when recruiting into the army, every fourth recruit was rejected, as he was below the required 157 centimeters in height. Moreover, even people who immigrated to the Netherlands from other parts of the world were on average taller than their racial groups in their home countries.
True, some sources claim that the largest people live on the African continent: in Kenya, Samoa or Tanzania. But this is true when it comes to certain groups of the population. And if we take the average growth in the country, then the Dutch still have the palm. Scientists believe that the reason for this lies inthe genetics of this people, a high level of medicine and nutrition rich in animal proteins.
Of course, many people in the country are well above average height. There are those who reach 2 meters 13 centimeters in height. In everyday life, such giants experience considerable inconvenience. Therefore, the biggest people in Holland united in a special "party" and made sure that the construction companies increase the doorways, and the car companies changed the standards of car interiors.
In the ancient world, the Romans were the tallest, the last two centuries were held by the Americans, who today grow more in breadth than up. True, the United States cannot be called "the fattest country on the planet". In the ranking in 2010, they took only 8th place in the world. But 79% of the population in the States are overweight. The biggest people (in terms of weight) live in the tiny country of Nauru. 95% of the population of this state have a body mass index of more than 25. This is not surprising, because on a small island in the Pacific Ocean there has long been a tradition according to which girls from noble families were kept locked up and specially fattened. Today, the fat content of the population contributes to the changed nature of nutrition. The islanders used to eat fish and fruits, but now they eat refined and modified foods that flooded in from the West.
So far we've been talking about statistics. And who are the champions in height and weight? What is the largest person to ever live on Earth? ATEnglish-language sources write that it was an American Robert Wadlow, whose height was 272 centimeters. We can be proud of the Slavic giant Fedor Makhnov. A native of a small farm located not far from the Belarusian Vitebsk, he lived in the late XIX - early XX centuries. According to Polish anthropologists, his height was 285 centimeters. The fattest man on the planet weighed 635 kilograms and lived in the twentieth century. It was an American named John Brower Minnock.
Unfortunately, people with serious he alth problems become champions in height and weight. Perhaps they would gladly agree to give up such dubious leadership.
