Nutritional status of the indian population

J. Biosci. | Vol. 26 | No. 4 | Suppl. | November 2001

Nutritional status of the Indian population

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4. Implications for adult health

The retrospective nature of observations based on which
the fetal origins theory is proposed, overlooks the
confounding effect of life style and environmental factors
in determining the risks for adult diseases. Continuous
exposure to poor environmental conditions, morbidity and
undernutrition in rural India, need investigation of post-
natal influences in determining the risks associated with
adult diseases.

The results discussed in earlier sections clearly indicate

that the majority of rural children continue to grow on a
lower growth trajectory with low attained weights and
heights as compared to their normal counterpart, and end
up as small adults. But there may be some who have the
opportunity for catch-up growth in postnatal life and may

end up as tall or even fat adults. These situations reflect
different interactions of prenatal and postnatal nutritional
experiences and will certainly pose different risks for
adult diseases. How it is possible to model these inter-
actions for predicting risks of adult diseases is a major
area left unanswered by the theory of fetal origins.

4.1 Homeostatic view of adult health

The homeostatic concept of adult health is based on the
evidence of biological individuality witnessed by almost
all physiological processes. For example, an individual is
perfectly normal as long as his blood glucose is within the
homeostatic range. Similar examples are of blood pressure
and body temperature. However, these vital processes are
finely regulated and operate within the narrow range of

Figure 4. Comparison of sitting height (SHT) and leg-length (LEGLN) of Indian rural and well-off boys with British boys.

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