Endymion: General height increases over the last 400 years, and particularly the last 200, have nothing to do with evolution. It's all about diet. Using England as an example here, until the middle of the 19th century most people had a poor diet that was very low in protein. This had the effect of stunting their growth. Remember, they didn't have the refrigeration and transportation techniques for meat and produce we have today. It spoiled very rapidly. As a result, fresh and edible meat and fish was very expensive (and as a result, rarely eaten) for most people.
I've read that there were actually marked differences in height between country and city dwellers, since the farmers had the capacity to provide their own sources of meat and produce, while the city dwellers were not able to. 200 years ago, the average height of a woman in England was about 4'11". Today it's about 5'5". Quite interesting stuff
