Several previous posts cited research claiming that we are as we are due to what our maternal ancestors ate. You are what your grandmothers and mother ate, or didn't eat.

In the research report, scientists from the University of Utah show that rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition. As a result of this genetic adaptation, the rats were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. At the same time, they were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, such as diabetes, growth retardation, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and neurodevelopmental delays, among others. Although the study involved rats, the genes and cellular mechanisms involved are the same as those in humans.

There have also been quite a lot of studies noting that something of this sort happens with plants too. Drought, nutrient deficiency and even predation induces seeds to "become genetically primed to be born into an environment" with these attributes, and in this way become locally adapted, though not always in ways that well serve human purposes.

They found that the lack of nutrients caused the gene responsible for IGF-1 to significantly reduce the amount of IGF-1 produced in the body before and after birth.

"The new 'epigenetics' has taught us how nature is changed by nurture," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "The jury's in and, yes, expectant moms really are eating for two. This study shows not only that we need to address problems such as preeclampsia during pregnancy, but also that prenatal care is far more important than anyone could have imagined a decade ago."

Well, no more important than anyone imagined, since there have always been those who stressed such factors. Such views were just dismissed as superstitious old wives tales or Lamarkian nonsense.