Hormonal
Fetal growth restriction (thrifty phenotype) combined with a transition to an energy-rich urban lifestyle causes insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in adulthood, whereas maintaining a traditional frugal lifestyle prevents these outcomes despite early malnutrition.
If you were small for your gestational age, your body is biologically programmed to store energy efficiently. Moving to a modern, high-calorie environment triggers this programming into metabolic disease. To mitigate this, you must prioritize a lifestyle that mimics your early-life constraints: high physical activity and controlled energy intake, rather than assuming standard dietary advice applies equally to everyone.
It is this rapid transition within a single lifespan that is implicated by many researchers as a crucial causative agent in the explosion of non-communicable diseases in many such urban areas.
Why this rating
Based on observational cohort studies in The Gambia and India showing strong correlations between birth size, lifestyle, and metabolic markers.
Source
Insights from the developing world: thrifty genotypes and thrifty phenotypes
Andrew M. Prentice et al. · Proceedings of The Nutrition Society · 2005
DOI 10.1079/pns2005421
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