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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Jun 4.
Published in final edited form as: Proc Nutr Soc. 2006 Feb;65(1):97–105. doi: 10.1079/pns2005478

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

The thrifty phenotype hypothesis (Hales & Barker, 2001; Gluckman & Hanson, 2004). Exposure of the developing organism to a low plane of nutrition promotes metabolic thrift in order to ensure survival. In a postnatal environment in which nutrients are in short supply this metabolic thrift continues to be a survival trait, but if nutrients are present in excess the thrifty trait will promote the metabolic syndrome.