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Being taller has advantages including greater social status. While your height is dependent on your genetics, there are ways you can increase the height of your children. Once you have stopped growing and your growth plates have fused, there isn’t much you can do to get taller.
For children and teens, increasing the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) can make them taller. There are foods that you can eat that will help stimulate the body’s production of HGH.
The most important steps are to eat a variety of healthy food, avoid sugar, and keep weight at proper levels.
So… what foods will boost HGH?
Melatonin
Before bed, snack on pineapple. It contains serotonin, a hormone that is synthesized into melatonin. Melatonin helps you sleep better and your body produces more HGH.
Other melatonin rich foods include tart cherries, peanuts, corn, asparagus, tomatoes, grapes, pomegranate, olives, broccoli, cucumber, rice, barley, rolled oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and flaxseed.
These foods are also good for you. Just remember that nuts are high in healthy fats and calories, so don’t go overboard or you will grow out as well as up.
Arginine
Arginine, an amino acid, increases HGH. Studies indicate that you need about 15-20 grams per day. That is quite a bit, so choose foods carefully. Turkey breast is the highest in arginine, at 16 grams per breast.
Other foods high in arginine include pork loin, chicken, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, and peanuts. In order not to gain too much weight, you may need to supplement your arginine rich foods with a supplement.
Protein
If you want to grow, you need protein. The amino acids in protein are used by your body to create all the tissues from organs to bones. Beef has been shown to help you synthesize L-orthinine, an amino acid that plays a role in healthy cells.
Eat grass-fed beef, coconut meat, pasture raised chicken and omega 3 enriched eggs.
Plant based proteins are as healthy as meat proteins, so don’t worry that your teen vegetarian will necessarily be short.
Vitamin D
You need vitamin D to keep bones healthy and functional. We have to get vitamin D from specific sources, including sunshine. Vitamin D is extremely important to your health. Try eating foods like tuna, mackerel, salmon, fortified milk, beef liver, cheese and egg yolks.
Vitamin D can be toxic, so don’t start supplements without a doctor’s advice. You shouldn’t overdose on vitamin D from eating food.
Vitamin D protects against cancer, high blood pressure, and type I diabetes while deficit leads to soft bones.
Calcium
Calcium is extremely important if you want to grow taller. It is the base of your bones, teeth and helps maintain communication between your brain and the rest of your body. Your body uses calcium to regulate muscle contractions, so it is very important for your heart.
Your body can not efficiently absorb calcium without vitamin D.
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Eat calcium rich foods like milk (often fortified with vitamin D), yogurt, nuts and seeds, beans, dark green leafy vegetables, and sardines.
Magnesium
Your body needs magnesium to properly process calcium and vitamin D. If you are eating calcium and vitamin D rich foods, make sure you are eating magnesium rich foods.
Magnesium rich foods include dark chocolate, avocados, nuts, salmon, and legumes like lentils. Magnesium also help regulate blood pressure and heart rhythm. Even if you don’t grow any taller, you will be healthier.
Raw Chocolate
Raw chocolate is similar to dark chocolate but hasn’t been heated. Dark chocolate is healthy for you in reasonable amounts. Raw chocolate is even better. It contains enzymes. Raw chocolate is far lower in sugars and added sugars and doesn’t contain any milk.
Chocolate stimulates the pituitary gland to produce more HGH. It also contains tryptophan. This amino acid is eventually converted to melatonin. Melatonin is important for better sleep and more HGH production.
Coconut Oil
One way to increase HGH is to lose weight. Cooking with coconut oil or adding it to a smoothie will help your body burn fat. Add one gram coconut oil per two pounds of body weight to boost your HGH levels of up to four hours.
Coconut is a saturated fat like meat fat but coconut oil is a medium chain triglyceride that is far healthier for you. These MCTs increase the number of calories you burn, compared to larger chain fats.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is important if you want to grow healthy bones. Your body uses vitamin C to build collagen. Collagen is the fibrous part of bone and cartilage.
Humans are the only mammals that can’t synthesize vitamin C so we need to eat vitamin C rich foods. These include oranges, watermelon, strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and cantaloupe.
Again, eat the fresh variety over canned or juices. You’ll get less harmful sugars and more healthy nutrients in the real thing.
Iron
Iron is part of building your red blood cells. You need iron so your blood can carry oxygen throughout your body. If you want to grow taller, support your body’s need for oxygen.
Check with your doctor before taking iron supplements. Males can overdose on supplements. Menstruating women normally do not have issues with too much iron.
Eating iron rich food shouldn’t be a problem. Foods high in iron include shellfish, spinach, liver, legumes, red meat, and quinoa.
Glutamine
Glutamine is an amino acid that is used to build protein. You normally have enough glutamine in your system unless you are under stress. Studies have shown that 2 grams of food high in glutamine can raise your HGH production.
Snacks on these foods to increase your glutamine levels: raw leafy green vegetables, animal protein and eggs, milk, yogurt and cheese. Goat’s milk has higher levels of glutamine!
Conclusion
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Increasing your body’s production of HGH may help you grow taller – at least if you are a child to early 20-something. If you can eat balanced meals built around these foods, you may grow taller. IF you don’t, you will still be healthier from eating a diet rich in the nutrients that your body needs and probably doesn’t get.
Eating foods with substances that are transformed into melatonin will help you sleep and sleep is important to growing taller and staying healthy. Lose weight if you need to, as HGH is increased by the process of losing weight.
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