The thrifty phenotype hypothesis suggests that offspring of poorly nourished dams are predisposed to the various components of the metabolic syndrome due to adaptations made during fetal development.As we previously reported,pre-pregnancy maternal obesity and overnutrition in the ewe increases fetal plasma glucose,insulin and adiposity,predisposing offspring to metabolic syndrome (Ford et al.,2009;Am J Physiol Reg Integ Comp Physiol 297∶835).