Fact Check: Can onion-jaggery mix increase one’s height?

Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing an Instagram post claiming that an onion-jaggery mix can help in increasing height.

The same was also seen on YouTube as well.

According to the viral post, jaggery and onion trigger the hormones that increase height.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

Your height more or less depends on your genetics. A person reaches their potential height at adulthood at 18 to 20 years and then stops growing. Eating certain foods will not make them taller. However, good nutrition during growth and development can help a person reach their full height, says MNT.

According to an article on Healthline: “Genes largely determine your height. You may get taller by eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep, staying active, and having good posture, but there is no guarantee.”

Several factors contribute to your overall height. It’s thought that genetic factors account for about 80% of your final height. Certain environmental factors, such as nutrition and exercise, typically account for the remaining percentage, they added.

Another research on Healthline suggests: “The reason why your height stops increasing is your bones, specifically your growth plates. The growth plates, or epiphyseal plates, are areas of specialized cartilage near the end of your long bones. Increases in height are primarily due to the lengthening of your long bones, as the growth plates are still active or open.”

Near the end of puberty, hormonal changes cause the growth plates to harden or “close” and the lengthening of bones to stop. Growth plates close around age 16 in women and somewhere between ages 14 and 19 in men, they said.

Moreover, we could not find any scientific evidence to prove jaggery and onion to potentially aid in increasing height.

We further reached out to Prof. Dr. S. Vijay Mohan, Senior, Consultant Physician, Care Hospitals & Professor & HoD, Internal Medicine, to debunk the claim.

“Wrong! If it is true, I want to take daily and give to all, so that there will be no short people in the world. Growth stops at a particular age for males and females, so f somebody is short and has a growth hormone deficiency by giving these hormone injections the height may increase, only till a particular age. Height is genetically pre-determined and cannot be manipulated generally," he said