Growth Hormone and Nutrition: Can Diet Naturally Support Your Child’s Growth Potential?

Growth hormone plays a crucial role in a child’s physical development. However, a growing child needs adequate nutrition to help the body produce, regulate and respond to the growth hormone effectively. Other factors include physical activity, sleep and overall health that influence normal growth and development in children.

Parents may wonder if there are growth hormone foods for kids that can be included in their diet to increase height. But primarily a child’s growth potential (height and overall growth), about 80 % is largely governed by genetics, mainly DNA.¹ Understanding these aspects alongside knowing the essential nutrients for height increase, diet to increase height in children and natural ways to increase child height is equally important. This enables parents to take proactive steps to support child nutrition and development.

Understanding Role of Growth Hormone

Linear growth is regulated by two key growth-stimulating hormones: growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor type 1(IGF-1). The growth hormone induces growth directly by acting on tissues through GH receptors, and indirectly through stimulation of IGF-1 production in the liver.² The growth hormone secreted by pituitary gland in the brain stimulates the growth of essentially all tissues of the body, including bone.³ It is needed for increasing height, building bone density, and promoting muscle growth.⁴ The levels of GH rise progressively during childhood and peak during the growth spurt in puberty. Therefore, an adequate supply of nutrients for height increase in child nutrition is needed for healthy bone formation, muscle growth and tissue repair to support GH function.

Essential Nutrients for Height Increase

A healthy bone development during childhood is crucial for maintaining the mineral integrity of the bone in later life.⁵ The diet to increase height in children should thus provide adequate amounts of calories and the following nutrients:⁶

• Calcium: Growing children and adolescents require adequate calcium to build strong bones and achieve optimal peak bone mass. The recommended daily calcium requirements are mentioned below:

• Vitamin D: The recommended daily intake of vitamin D is 600 IU/day. It supports a child’s bone growth as it is important for calcium and phosphorus absorption. Inadequate intake of vitamin D can impair bone mineralization affecting normal growth and increasing the likelihood of conditions such as rickets.
• Protein: The daily protein requirements of children are as follows:⁶

Protein plays a vital role in linear growth in children as it helps in meeting the metabolic demand for amino acids needed for tissue growth.⁷ Adequate protein consumption also influences growth hormone activity, which collaboratively enhances IGF-1 levels, facilitating bone and muscle growth.⁸ Thus, dietary protein sources may be referred to as growth hormone foods for kids (i.e., foods that support body’s natural growth processes).

Other nutrients such as phosphorus are also required for maintaining healthy bones and energy utilization in the body.

Diet to Increase Height in Children

Children need a nutrient-dense balanced diet to facilitate linear growth during the developmental years. This helps them reach their genetically determined growth potential before their bone growth plates close during later adolescence.

Foods that increase height naturally: The following foods in the daily diet provide an adequate supply of the key nutrients contributing to height growth and child nutrition.

• Among the various foods that increase height naturally are the calcium-rich foods like dairy foods, finger millet (ragi), amaranth (rajgira), sesame seeds, etc.⁵
• Dietary sources of vitamin D include dairy products, fatty fish, egg yolk and fortified foods like breakfast cereals.
• Protein rich foods include dairy foods (milk, curd, yoghurt, buttermilk, paneer, cheese), beans, lentils, eggs, chicken and fish.

Natural Ways to Increase Child Height

Pay heed to the following lifestyle factors in addition to eating foods that increase height naturally:

• Adequate sleep: During deep sleep, the body releases GH in the first few hours, which is important for bone growth, muscle development as well as tissue regeneration and repair.⁹ Inadequate sleep can disrupt the process and suppress the release of GH. This can impact a child’s growth parameters such as height and overall physical development. Children should thus get at least 9-11 hours of quality sleep for healthy growth.¹⁰
• Physical activity: Encourage daily outdoor physical activity as it is one of the natural ways to increase child height by stimulating the growth hormone secretion and facilitating the activation of vitamin D. A study showed that daily outdoor physical activity of 1-2 hours was associated with higher height growth velocity (growth rate) in normal weight children and adolescents.¹¹ Activities such as swimming, cycling, climbing, running, stretching exercises and yoga can contribute to a child’s musculoskeletal development by strengthening bones.

Conclusion

An insight into the aforementioned aspects helps in the understanding that although genetics is the main factor that determines your child’s height, a well-balanced diet can naturally support your child’s growth potential. Since there are no specific growth hormone foods for kids to make them taller, eating a balanced healthy diet is integral during the formative years. It can reduce the risk of nutrient deficiencies, and poor nutrient absorption, which can impact growth and affect child nutrition. In addition, nutritional drinks like Complan with 34 essential nutrients can be included as a part of a child’s balanced diet, as it promotes 2 times faster growth. Complan contains 63 % more protein than other nutritional drinks and also contains nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, and phosphorus that support growth in children. Alongside this, factors such as proper sleep and regular physical activity also aid healthy development in children.

*Growth and cognitive development are influenced by genetic, nutrition and environmental factors. Complan to be taken as a part of daily balanced diet.

*Refer Individual pack for mandatory regulatory & statutory information. Mnemonics are for creative visualization. ® Registered Trademark *Refers to outcome of a clinical study amongst 800 children over 12 months, published in Ind. J. Nutr. Dietet., (2008), 45, 449, 495 comparing kids who consume usual daily diet vs. kids who consume usual daily diet plus 2 recommended serves (2x33g) of complan. Protein in Complan is sourced from milk.

*DAIRY BASED BEVERAGE MIX (1.1.2) PROPRIETARY FOOD.