Trying To Grow Taller? Here’s What I, A 1.78m-Tall Girl, Ate Growing Up

Foods that make you taller, according to a very tall girl

I have been “the tall girl” my entire life. From kindergarten to secondary school, I was the tallest student in class. Yes, even when you include the boys. As an adult, nothing much has changed as I’m still the tallest among my colleagues!

Whenever I meet someone for the first time, the conversation will almost always start with “Omg! You’re so tall!” It’s also common for random aunties or uncles to strike up a conversation with me starting with “小妹你很高 hor” (girl, you are very tall). I would always reply with a fake polite laugh and say “Yeah, too tall already.” 

The height obsession doesn’t stop there. People want to know what I did to become so tall! No, I did not play basketball nor did I eat long beans to have long limbs. Here’s what I actually ate growing up. Bear in mind, these food items may or may not have helped with my growth.

Lots of carbs

I am the queen of carbs! It probably takes up 90% of my diet. Scientifically, carbs aren’t known to contribute to height. Yet, somehow, they’ve worked for me. In the past, I would always ask for more rice or noodles whenever I ate any dish. 

Everyone around me knows that potatoes are my absolute favourite. My grandma would always prepare a potato-based dish whenever I visited. I love potatoes so much that I am willing to walk away from A-Grade mala if that store didn’t have potatoes.

Salmon

I’ve loved salmon ever since I was a kid. Salmon sashimi, baked salmon. You name it, I love it. Some salmon enthusiasts might be triggered by this but I especially love my mum’s signature sliced salmon noodle soup. When I was in Australia for a month, this simple bowl of warm soup with bouncy bee hoon and melt-in-your-mouth salmon slices was what I missed the most.

Looking back, salmon probably did contribute a lot to my height. After all, it’s chock-full with Omega-3 fatty acids which are crucial for bone health, growth, and development. So if you want your kids to be giant skyscrapers like me, time to stock up on that salmon!

Desserts

Okay, these definitely didn’t contribute to my height but I’ll just leave it here in case, After all, how can a meal be complete without desserts? 

Cakes, tarts, ice cream, doughnuts. I loved them all. My parents would always hide desserts as I would want to have them before dinner. All that sugar made me a really active and hyper kid.

Ironically, that’s probably what made me super tall. You see, to drain my energy, my parents signed me up for lots of enrichment classes such as ballet, swimming, piano, and drama classes.

All these physical activities helped me develop my bones and muscle which eventually led to my tall height. 

These days, I love indulging in a scoop of creamy gelato with freshly made waffles or Saizeriya’s chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream!

Soup

My family has a strange obsession with soup. We will have it for almost every home-cooked dinner. Especially traditional Chinese soups such as ABC soup and lotus root soup. 

Occasionally, my mum will boil herbal soup to 补补身体 (nourish your body). Unlike typical soups which usually were just accompaniments to the meal, my mum’s soups were the star of the show. 

Fun fact: our soup bowls were roughly three times bigger than a normal bowl. I never thought that it was weird until I had a meal at a friend’s house during my polytechnic days. I remember asking my friend “ That’s your soup bowl?” as it was the same size as a small rice bowl. It was shocking to me that people drank so little soup!

Milk

Perhaps this really contributed the most to my towering height. Milk is known to provide your body with calcium which builds strong bones. Research has shown that drinking cow’s milk can stimulate increased growth in children by supporting weight gain and building muscles.

I drank milk every single day till I was 16. According to my mum, my milk powder was from Abbott’s GROW series. Maybe that’s why I grew so much! 

Even though I don’t drink it every day anymore, I still love it and will have milk from time to time. These days, I enjoy going to the supermarket to try out different flavoured milks such as soy, almond, and oat!

Bonus: I hated vegetables

This deserves its own para because I can’t emphasise enough how much I hate veggies. I hated them so much I often cried at the dinner table.

When I was younger, my tolerance for vegetables was terrible. It reached the point where I would take the time to pick out every piece of carrot and every pea from my plate of fried rice.

So to anyone saying that eating vegetables helps with height, I respectfully disagree. 

What I, a 1.78m tall girl, ate as a child

So the cat is out of the bag. There is no secret to my abnormally tall height! My advice is to embrace your height and love what your mama gave you! Stop asking your tall friends what they eat. It’s probably nothing special.

I’m a 1.78m-tall girl and this is my story. Now tell me yours!