Table 4.

Consequences of under nutrition during in-utero period.

Consequence	Discussion
Reduced BMR (basal metabolic rate) and growth	Lack of availability of essential nutrients may slow down BMR resulting in lowered cell division of tissues and growth of vital organs. This may have long term implications in later life.
Redistribution of blood flow	Brain being a larger and important organ for survival, in starvation condition growing body may maximize blood flow towards brain and not to other body tissues.
Reduced abdominal circumference at birth	Under nutrition may lead to low birth weight infant having lower abdominal circumference. This also may indicate impaired growth of liver during critical period of growth and as an adult may have reduced functional ability, hence liver and other metabolic disorders.
Endocrine changes	Since vital organs are poorly developed due to under nutrition, there may be permanent programming of endocrine system affecting body homeostasis, leading to NCDs in later life.
Reduced capacity of primary adipose tissue: “The adipose overflow hypothesis”	Primary adipose is the first superficial adipose tissue to develop and mature present all over the body, in undernutrition, it has reduced capacity to store excess fat. So, this may cause higher storage of fat in secondary depot (deep subcutaneous and inta-abdominal tissue) which is more metabolically active and present majorly in abdominal area leading to abdominal obesity in adult life and along with other metabolic disorders.