A study hypothesizes that abdominal obesity associated with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease evolved from the need to mitigate the effects of early-life malnourishment, given that obesity is common in adults who suffered from poor fetal nutrition; the hypothesis is supported by the fact that a hallmark of obesity, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), defends the body against abdominal infections, and thus, VAT could be beneficial to the immune system of malnourished individuals.
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Article #18-09046: "Nutrition, the visceral immune system, and the evolutionary origins of pathogenic obesity," by Mary Jane West-Eberhard.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, PANAMA; email: <mjwe@sent.com>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences