In 1976, a team of researchers investigated the history of 300,000 Dutch military recruits all of whom showed signs of overweight.

They had been born just after the Second World War when Holland (and their mothers) suffered severe rationing. Researchers discovered that women subject to famine ("maternal nutritional deprivation") before and during the first tri-mester of pregnancy give birth to children with a tendency to put on weight faster, even when fed less than normal amounts of food. 

These children also appeared to have a higher than normal tendency to develop cardio-vascular problems and Type 2 diabetes.

Research into this phenomenon continues to the present day, the results are always the same.

Wherever there is famine, babies are genetically programmed, in the womb, to gain weight (or thrive) on less. The mother's body effectively says: 'There's not enough food out here, if there was, Mom would be eating it, so you, dear baby, must develop a metabolism which allows you to survive on less.' And survival is the name of the game with all our biological systems, it over-rides everything else.

But how is this relevant to us in the affluent northern hemisphere where the numbers of larger children is also increasing?  Richer Moms in the developed world aren't starving are they?

Well, yes they are - and their kids are also programmed in utero with exactly the same genetic message - gain weight fast on less.  But this time it is not through famine or war; maternal nutritional deprivation is produced by the insane social behaviour we call dieting.

These babies, born into a world of plenty with a metabolism geared to cope with famine, have no chance of avoiding weight gain.

According to recent UK government figures, over 80% of women believe it is normal, acceptable, even healthy, to deprive themselves of food in order to lose weight. Many doctors advise patients to diet prior to conception or even when already pregnant if Mom-to-be has gained too much weight.

The body makes no distinction between famine and dieting and in a 1986 study, it was found that genetic changes are not only passed to the next generation but can be cumulative.

So if the child of a dieting mother grows up and also diets, her kids have a double propensity for weight gain.

Because this genetic inheritance also affects boys, father too can adds his genes to that of his kids, increasing even more the childs ability to get fat fast.

Given that dieting as an acceptable practice began with the Baby Boomers, present days children can have an 8-fold tendency for weight gain and sadly, the same predisposition towards Type 2 diabetes and cardiac problems.

But why is this not more widely known and why have we come to believe that fast foods and computers are really at the root of this problem?

Well, if we believe Pizza Hut and Playstation are to blame, we won't look for the real culprit will we?

It's known that organisations with the most to gain financially seek to influence public opinion via blanket coverage in the media. We know that all big business use spin doctors to tell us their version of the story when the truth would damage their profits.  A case in point is the tobacco industry who, for the past 50 years fielded doctors and other experts to tell us smoking wasn't harmful, was chic and sophisticated.  Only when it was too late for millions did we begin to learn the truth.

In a leading article about obesity, women's health researcher Gill Sanson says: "There is a history of pharmaceutical companies hiring PR firms to generate fear about a disease amongst a healthy population, in order to create sales for their drugs."

The diet and drug industries have the most to gain from our fear of fatness. It is they who are behind the hysterical and exaggerated scare stories about obesity, just as they are responsible for the specious 'Junk Food Theory'.

They are also aware of the detrimental effects of dieting on mothers and children in the womb but it's in their best interests to create more fat children and then scare parents into enrolling them in the many weight loss programmes for kids.
We may call it reprehensible, they call it good business.

There are many causes of overweight and obesity, few of them directly attributable to excessive food intake. Too much fast food and time spent in front of the screen is indeed unhealthy, but for everyone, not just bigger kids, who should be encouraged to see themselves as talented, resourceful and marvellous, with every bit as much potential as anyone else.

The war on fat has turned into a war on fat kids - that can NEVER be right.


For those interested in the papers mentioned they are as follows.

"Prevalence and trends of overweight among pre-school children in developing
countries." De Onis, M. and Blossner, M. (2000). American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition 72: 1032-1039.


"Why are nutritionally stunted children at increased risk of obesity?
Studies of metabolic rate and fat oxidation in shantytown children from São
Paulo, Brazil"
Daniel J Hoffman, Ana L Sawaya, Ieda Verreschi, Katherine
L Tucker and Susan B Roberts. Federal University of São Paulo, Escola
Paulista de Medicina, São Paulo, Brazil, and the Jean Mayer US Department
of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University, Boston.

"Obesity in young men after famine exposure in utero and early infancy" GP
Ravelli, ZA Stein, and MW Susser .New England Journal of Medicine Volume
295:349-353 August 12, 1976 Number 7

"Coronary heart disease after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine 1944-45."
Roseboom TJ, Van Der Meulen JH, Osmond C, et al. Heart 2000; 84:
595-8

"Glucose tolerance in adults after prenatal exposure to famine".
Ravelli, Van der Meulen, et al. Lancet 1998; 351: 173-77


"Reduced rate of energy expenditure as a risk factor for body- weight gain." Ravussin, E., Lillioja, S., Knowler, W.C., Christen, L., Freymond, D., Abbott, W.G.H., Boyce, V., Howard, B.V., & Bogardus, C. (1988). New England Journal of Medicine, 318, 467-472.