Nutrition, growth, and body size in relation to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes

Nutritional and genetic factors interact in the etiology of type 2 diabetes. Undernutrition followed by overnutrition increases adiposity and the risk of diabetes. The thrifty hypotheses suggest that the nutritional challenges could have happened thousands of year ago (thrifty gene selection) or during one's intrauterine life (thrifty phenotype). Current strategies for the prevention of diabetes are related to avoiding overnutrition.