Recent research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association showed that eating fruits and vegetables at a young age is a major factor in preventing heart disease.
For 27 years, researchers at University Hospital of Tampere, Finland, tracked 1,622 patients aged 3 to 18, measuring pulse wave velocity (PWV) to determine arterial stiffness – a stiffening of the arterial wall that plays a major role in the development of cardiovascular disease.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables as a child is associated with a healthier high pulse wave velocity as an adult. The association remained significant even when adjusted for traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
“These findings suggest that a lifetime pattern of low consumption of fruits and vegetables is related to arterial stiffness in young adulthood," said senior study author Professor Mika Kähönen, M.D., Ph.D."Parents and pediatricians have yet another reason to encourage children to consume high amounts of fruits and vegetables."
The study concluded that although there were study limitations in that the diet was self-reported and participants were mostly white Europeans, this is the first time that a link has been established between childhood diet and cardiovascular health.