> Simply being tall requires a higher caloric intake, and thus puts tall people at a disadvantage This is assuming that food intake is the only factor contribu

> Simply being tall requires a higher caloric intake, and thus puts tall people at a disadvantage This is assuming that food intake is the only factor contributing to fitness. There are other possibilities. E.g. taller (larger) males may have advantages in competing with other males for mates, and thus be better at spreading their genes. Females who preferred such males would thus be better at spreading their genes down the generations. > Evolutionarily, being tall means a lifetime of above-average access to food, and while that's desireable in a mate, it's just as much about the environment one lives in as it is the genes one's born with. Evolution doesn't only concern the genes, as if environmental factors were distinct from evolution. Fitness is always a function of both genes and the environment.