Baby fat: lost innocence

The discovery that smaller babies tend to deposit more fat around their midriffs as they grow older may help explain the controversial link between low birth weight and heart disease at later stage in life. David Baker of the Medical Research Council's Environmental Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, UK, says that low birth weight is an important factor in heart disease. He argues that poor nutrition in the womb causes a long-lasting physiological shift that predisposes people to heart disease. Scientists agree that fat between the shoulders and hips leads to raised levels of bad cholesterol ( New Scientist , Vol 154, No 2088).