Fascinating. Also entirely consistent with genetic determinism by the usual natural selection story - 9 year olds who survive starvation have bad-ass genes, etc.
Dying vs. merely damaged is a red herring. Interesting fact re: 9 yo => making eggs/sperm - good comment overall. "Effect wouldn't be as strong" why?
Re: 'regardless of age': you can't rule out genes that influence near-starvation thrive/fail differentially at young vs teen ages. Nevertheless I agree that this is suggestive evidence for "it's not just regular genetics". Good analysis if it indeed applies to this case!
