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Elaine Morgan
Barker was a British medical professor who examined the effect of junk food on epigenetic signals and childhood obesity. He suggested that when mothers eat junk food that lacks nutrients, the embryo may receive signals that it will be born into a “harsh environment.” The embryo then develops a “thrifty” metabolism and hoards energy to help it survive amid scarcity. However, when the child is born and is surrounded by high-calorie junk food, their slow metabolism causes them to become obese.
David Barker Quotes in Survival of the Sickest
The Survival of the Sickest quotes below are all either spoken by David Barker or refer to David Barker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7
Quotes
According to the thrifty phenotype hypothesis, fetuses that experience poor nutrition develop “thrifty” metabolisms that are much more efficient at hoarding energy. When a baby with a thrifty phenotype was born 10,000 years ago during a time of relative famine, its conservationist metabolism helped it survive. When a baby with a thrifty metabolism is born in the twenty-first century surrounded by abundant food (that is also often nutritionally poor but calorie rich), it gets fat.
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David Barker Quotes in Survival of the Sickest
The Survival of the Sickest quotes below are all either spoken by David Barker or refer to David Barker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
According to the thrifty phenotype hypothesis, fetuses that experience poor nutrition develop “thrifty” metabolisms that are much more efficient at hoarding energy. When a baby with a thrifty phenotype was born 10,000 years ago during a time of relative famine, its conservationist metabolism helped it survive. When a baby with a thrifty metabolism is born in the twenty-first century surrounded by abundant food (that is also often nutritionally poor but calorie rich), it gets fat.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
