RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Constraint and trade-offs regulate energy expenditure during childhood
JF Science Advances
JO Sci Adv
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP eaax1065
DO 10.1126/sciadv.aax1065
VO 5
IS 12
A1 Urlacher, Samuel S.
A1 Snodgrass, J. Josh
A1 Dugas, Lara R.
A1 Sugiyama, Lawrence S.
A1 Liebert, Melissa A.
A1 Joyce, Cara J.
A1 Pontzer, Herman
YR 2019
UL http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaax1065.abstract
AB Children’s metabolic energy expenditure is central to evolutionary and epidemiological frameworks for understanding variation in human phenotype and health. Nonetheless, the impact of a physically active lifestyle and heavy burden of infectious disease on child metabolism remains unclear. Using energetic, activity, and biomarker measures, we show that Shuar forager-horticulturalist children of Amazonian Ecuador are ~25% more physically active and, in association with immune activity, have ~20% greater resting energy expenditure than children from industrial populations. Despite these differences, Shuar children’s total daily energy expenditure, measured using doubly labeled water, is indistinguishable from industrialized counterparts. Trade-offs in energy allocation between competing physiological tasks, within a constrained energy budget, appear to shape childhood phenotypic variation (e.g., patterns of growth). These trade-offs may contribute to the lifetime obesity and metabolic health disparities that emerge during rapid economic development.