The diabesity epidemic in the light of evolution: insights from the capacity-load model.

ABSTRACT: The global nutrition transition, which embraces major changes in how food is produced, distributed and consumed, is associated with rapid increases in the prevalence of obesity, but the implications for diabetes differ between populations. A simple conceptual model treats diabetes risk as the function of two interacting traits: 'metabolic capacity,' which promotes glucose homeostasis, and 'metabolic load', which challenges glucose homoeostasis. Population variability in diabetes prevalence is consistent with this conceptual model, indicating that the effect of obesity varies by ethnicity. Evolutionary life history theory can help explain why variability in metabolic capacity and metabolic load emerges. At the species level (hominin evolution), across human populations and within individual

SUBMITTER: Wells JCK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6731192 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature