THE DEVELOPMENTAL ORIGINS THEORY

The scientific community is showing increasing interest in what is called the “developmental origins theory.” This theory postulates that the nutritional environment in the womb affects not only the risk of defects immediately apparent at birth, but also the lifelong risk of degenerative disease.

Weston Price supported an early version of this theory in the 1930s and 1940s. In Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, for example, he proposed that an increased risk of tuberculosis was largely determined by a deformation of the chest cavity that began taking shape in the womb and paralleled the deformation of the dental arch that causes crowded teeth. He also demonstrated an association between delinquent behavior and deformities of the dental arch and found the same association with non-delinquent but mentally retarded children as well. In one case, he induced puberty and rapid mental development in a teenager by surgically broadening his maxilla to stimulate his pituitary. The maxilla is the upper jaw bone; it is one of the bones of the middle third of the face, which Price so often found underdeveloped in people who grew up on modern foods.⁵⁷

The modern developmental origins theory (described in greater detail in the sidebar on page 34) observes that birth weight is determined in part by embryonic and fetal nutrition; and low birth weight is in turn associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease. To explain these observations, the theory proposes that poor nutrition during pregnancy causes changes in the growth and development of the internal organs, which in turn affects the lifelong risk of degenerative disease. Since poor nutrition during this period can result in lower birth weight, an indirect association between birth weight and the risk of degenerative disease arises.⁵⁸

The ideal birth weight according to these studies appears to be between 8.5 and 9.5 pounds. These figures exclude infants whose birth weights are low because of premature delivery; it is the rate of fetal growth, not the birth weight itself, that counts.⁵⁹ The theory does not suggest that the risk of disease is affected only by the rate of growth within the womb—simply that the nutritional environment during this period makes an incomplete yet permanent contribution to that risk