I am sure that most foreigners in Holland have at one time wondered:

"Why are the Dutch so tall?"

In 2008, the average Dutch man measured 1.843 meters and the average Dutch woman 1.702 meters, making them the tallest people in the world.

One out of every 1,000 men is 2 meters tall.

When foreigners (and short Dutch people) are small like me (1.57 meters), it's pretty hard to live in such a land of giants.

When I go to a cafe or restaurant, it's often impossible to check my makeup in the bathroom mirror that's set at a Dutch height.

As a consequence, I either have to jump up to get a glimpse of my face or stand on a toilet seat to see myself.

I must confess that after years of living here, I have acquired the rare skill of putting lipstick on during three jumps in front of a mirror.

Being the smallest in a crowd can also be life-threatening. I stopped going to nightclubs for fear of being trampled under the massive height and weight of the Dutch. For them I'm like a mouse that's so easy to step on.

But being small can have its advantages. Here, up to 1.74 meters (!) is children's size, so in some brands, I can buy kids clothes that use adult designs for half the price. But since young girls clothes are usually unsexy, I often end up looking like a child as well.

There are many theories as to why the Dutch are so tall.

If you ask the Dutch, many will jokingly say that since Holland is such a flat, low country that is frequently flooded, people had to stretch up to keep their heads above the water in order not to drown, or that they have been stretching upward trying to find the mountains (that don't exist) — and so they grew.

A more convincing theory is the Dutch custom of consuming large quantities of dairy products like milk, cheese and yoghurt. Even company directors can often be seen drinking milk during lunch breaks or at meetings.

Riding bicycles, a national pastime, is also said to help growth because it is a healthy sport that puts little strain on the lower body.

Some say the fact that children are usually in bed by 7 p.m. and adults often as early as 10 p.m. helps them to grow, unlike the Italians and Spanish who are famous "short" night owls. (The latter two will happily tell you that people go to bed so early in Holland because there is no decent entertainment there).

Perhaps it's in their genes? But genes, however, can't explain some cases. A 40-year-old friend of mine was adopted from South Korea when she was just 2 years old. Her genes are standard Korean and so are the heights of her biological parents. But she is more than 1.8 meters tall.

While the Dutch are now the tallest race in the world, this has happened only quite recently. Statistics about troops born in the mid-19th century show that Dutch soldiers were among the shortest in the world, with an average height of 1.64 meters, just above the Spanish (1.62 meters) and Japanese (1.55 meters).

This makes me wonder about the rather spooky but famous theory that Dutch cattle were fed growth hormones in the last decades, which made people who consumed their meat and milk taller.

But that spooky theory aside, there are many findings about the advantages of being tall — which I will write about in my next column.