Nutrition, Health & Child Growth

Question 1

what is the Environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA)? example?

Answer 1

• the ancestral environment to which a species is adapted.

- Paleolithic foragers

Question 2

how did agriculture impact health and diet?

Answer 2

• Health and diet decline with transition to agriculture
○ Ie. The first epidemiological transition
○ Paleopathology

Question 3

what is the oseteology paradox? how are contemporary dietary patterns flawed?

Answer 3

• concept that those who exhibit pathological lesions on the skeleton are a biased sample - had to live long enough for the disease to progress to the bone
  • Contemporary dietary patterns at odds with those typified most of our evolution as a species

Question 4

how do diets in wealthy countries differ from hunter-gatherer diets?

Answer 4

• Diets in wealthy countries deviate substantially from hunter-gather diets
○ e.g. less micronutrients, over consumption of carbohydrate rich (ultra) processes cereals
○ Higher risk of chronic illnesses

Question 5

why are certain chronic illnesses not selected against?

Answer 5

• Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and cancer typically cause morbidity and mortality later in life
○ Therefore not selected against

Question 6

how has nutrition changed globally?

Answer 6

• The nutrition transition (popkin):dietary, physical activity, and body composition changes occurring at great speed+ at earlier stages of economic and social development.
- the obesity and diabetes epidemics

Question 7

how big of an issue is obesity? what is the double burden of malnutrition?

Answer 7

• Obesity as an issue of global proportions

○ Coexists with undernutrition (the double burden of malnutrition)

Question 8

are all obese people at risk of disease? is BMI a sure indicator of health?

Answer 8

• Not all obese bodies are at risk (ie fat patterning)
○ Some people with obesity are metabolically healthy
○ Both high and low bmi associated with risk - not a sure indicator

Question 9

what other factors contribute to risk of obesity?

Answer 9

Mortality risk changes by age and differs by gender

Question 10

why does BMI differ globally?

Answer 10

○ Pop. Differences in meaning of bmi
§ Thin-fat phenotype
• Thiness and fatness as social and biological categories - they are subjectiveChanging views of fatness as wealth, thinness as health

Question 11

how is the global epidemic of diabetes distributed? what group is at highest risk?

Answer 11

• The global epidemic of diabetes is not evenly or uniformly distributed
○ In developing countries - the newly prosperous groups
○ in the developed world - the socio-economically disadvantaged
○ Indigenous peoples are at highest risk globally

Question 12

who postulated the thrifty gene hypothesis?

Answer 12

• Neel (1962) postulated the existence of metabolically thrifty genes

Question 13

describe a “thrifty gene”

Answer 13

○ More efficient food utilization, fat deposition and rapid weight gain at occasional times of food abundance (feast)
Making the gene bearer better able to survive famine

Question 14

what do thrifty genes cause in the modern world? why? what is the coca-colonization?

Answer 14

• In our modern world, “thrifty” genes lead to obesity and diabetes due to a change in lifestyle
○ Spread of this lifestyle to the developing world = coca-colonization

Question 15

how does the thrifty gene foster a racialized view?

Answer 15

○ Race becomes a biological entity and independent risk factor
- No account of socioeconomic status, history, or culture

Question 16

what is the thrifty phenotype hypothesis?

Answer 16

• Exposure to nutrient scarcity during the fetal and infant phases of development results in metabolic programming for thriftiness
○ Developmental rather than evolutionary adaptations

Question 17

describe the DOHaD

Answer 17

he developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD)
○ Maternal undernutrition and the dutch famine
○ Expanded to explore a variety of adverse life experiences
• Epigenetic changes
○ e.g. Y chromosome and civil war POWS - the draft, intergenerational trauma transferred paternally

Question 18

how is life history shaped?

Answer 18

• Constraints of time and energy shape life history evoution in all organisms
○ Growth and maturation
○ Reproduction

Question 19

two ways socio-cultural phenomena influence human life history process?

Answer 19

1. Economic conditions

2. Socio-cultural norms (e.g. childhood feeding, birthspacing, gender biases)

Question 20

what is the most critical window for growth and health?

Answer 20

• Conception to 2 yrs is the most critical window for growth and health

Question 21

how is breast milk tailored to infant growth?

Answer 21

○ Key nutrients, hormones, antibodies (igA) to help protect from infections
○ Not high in energy: designed to be consumed frequently

Question 22

what are our traditional infant growth standards based on?

Answer 22

• Traditional growth standards based on formula fed infants

○ Grow differently from breast fed

Question 23

what is WHO’s biological norm for growth? shown by?

Answer 23

• WHO: breast-fed infant as biological norm for growth

○ Growth curves and virtually identical from various participating countries (in optimal health conditions)

Question 24

what are the main contributors to poor growth? what kind of relationship is it?

Answer 24

Under-nutrition and infections are main contributors to poor growth (growth deficits)
• Synergistic relationship

Question 25

what are wasting or stunting? what is the biological standard of living

Answer 25

wasting - low height for child’s weight
stunting - low weight for child’s height
○ Height as the biological standard of living

Question 26

describe Bogin and colleagues findings with mayan children in guatemala and in the US

Answer 26

stunting in guatamalan children

Growth is extremely sensitive to social conditions

Question 27

what are secular trends? example?

Answer 27

• Secular trends: changes in growth and development across generations
○ e.g. increased average height over 20th century
- Noticeable differences between rich and poor

Question 28

how do economists view stunting?

Answer 28

• stunting as “adaptive” in resource scarce environments - ignores
underlying cause of growth deficits and the negative health consequences

Question 29

3 criticisms of economist view of stunting?

Answer 29

1. Adaptations are not “good” but a trade-off between size and survival (developmental adaptation)
   
   2. Assumes stunting is solely the effect of food shortage - ignores the synergistic relationship with infectious disease (especially diarrheal) and psychosocial stress
   3. Why people live under such conditions not addressed

Question 30

how does rapid growth impact puberty?

Answer 30

• Rapid growth accelerates reproductive development leading to earlier puberty and age at menarche

Question 31

is the age of menarche standardized worldwide? associated trend?

Answer 31

○ Age at menarche varies around the world

○ Secular trend in downward age at menarche

Question 32

describe menarche in the bundi of new guinea - was it high or low? how did it change with changed conditions?

Answer 32

○ Had the highest reported age at menarche (18 years)

○ Rapidly declined with increased access to energy-rich foods and health care

Question 33

what disconnect exists between social maturity and reproduction maturity? result?

Answer 33

• Declines in the age of biological reproduction maturity do not match declines in the age of social maturity
○ Disconnect results in novel health issues (e.g. teen pregnancy)