the ice storm. In these children, their mother’s objective level of prenatal stress predicted their body mass index (BMI) and adiposity; women who reported greater stress had offspring with a greater BMI and central adiposity. A protective effect of DNA methylation was observed in diabetes-related genes whereby methylation of certain CpG sites negatively mediated the effects of prenatal stress on central adiposity and BMI (Cao-Lei et al., 2016). Because this cohort of offspring is still in their teenage years, future work will be necessary to determine their long-term outcomes. However, the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944–1945 is another example of resource deprivation during pregnancy that has been studied on a long-term scale. During this time, individuals including pregnant women were rationed only 400–800 calories per day. Individuals with mothers who were exposed to famine during pregnancy have increased prevalence rates of schizophrenia and heart disease (Brown et al., 1995; Painter et al., 2005). In these individuals, methylation of the IGF2 gene was found to be decreased in whole blood samples collected six decades after stress exposure relative to their non-exposed siblings (Heijmans et al., 2008). This effect was specific to individuals that were exposed to the famine during periconception (Heijmans
