The following is an excerpt from the abstract of a recent journal article entitled "The Effectsof Maternal Fasting During Ramadan on Birth and Adult Outcomes" by Almond andMazumder (2007). Ramadan is the traditional month of daytime fasting by Muslims:

"We use the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as a natural experiment for evaluatingthe short and long-term effects of fasting during pregnancy. Using Michigannatality data we show that in utero exposure to Ramadan among Arab birthsresults in lower birthweight and reduced gestation length. Using Census data inUganda we also find that Muslims who were born nine months after Ramadanare 22 percent (p = 0.02) more likely to be disabled as adults. Effects are foundfor vision, hearing, and especially for mental (or learning) disabilities."

The______________________________hypothesis is most likely to explain these findings.

thrifty phenotype allostatic load productive time direct income income inequality access to care time preference (The Fuchs hypothesis) efficient producer