Now it is official: Americans have lost their first place as the tallest people on Earth.

This place has been taken by the Europeans, nations like the Dutch, Norwegians, Danish and Germans presenting much higher average values.

The United States have detained the height primacy for the last 200 years, as signaled by the Annals of Human Biology. The current average height in US is 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 m) for an adult male and 5 feet, 3 inches (1.6 m) for an adult female, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For instance, in the Netherlands, men average 6 feet (1.82 m) tall while the average woman is 5 feet, 7 inches (1.7 m), according to the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Amongst many other suspected factors, the Annals of Human Biology shows that the shift in growth trends could be linked to the Americans' addiction to junk food compared to the Europeans. Many specialists believe that eating habits bias the growth patterns. "We (Americans) eat a lot more preservatives and additives (than Europeans), and the food is processed differently here," said Jennifer Snyder, a marketing specialist at the University Health Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Another reason why Americans are on average shorter than Europeans could be the result of more pollution in the air," added Snyder.

There are some ways through which Americans are trying to combat shortness. The Food and Drug Administration approved in 2003 the employment of the synthetic growth hormone for teens with idiopathic short stature (shortness for no apparent medical reason). The patient must inject daily for many years the hormone, but this treatment is expensive and not usually covered by insurance companies.

Moreover, it frequently does not provide the expected results, and the measurements showed an average height increase with roughly two inches (5 cm).

Being too short can result to be a handicap in everyday life, but not everyone who uses growth hormones really need it. "For some people, taking it is more of a self-esteem issue," said Snyder.