Malnutrition in childhood can apparently have serious implications later in life --- with it having been found that adolescents who suffer from malnutrition have a notably high long-term risk for developing heart disease as the years go by!

According to the findings of a study - reported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), and published in the European Heart Journal -, the risk of heart disease later in life was 27 percent higher in children who suffered from famine in Holland after the Second World War.

These findings were based on the observation of 8,000 women who were children, teenagers or young adults during the Dutch famine in 1944-45.; and the researchers - from the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands – underscored that under-nutrition, especially during the teen years, is linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in later life.

With the study providing the first direct evidence that acute under-nutrition during adolescence can have an crucial effect on a person’s future health, it is imperative to note that doctors have been recommending that women should eat 2,000 calories per day in order to stay healthy.

Stressing the importance of providing a healthy diet to young people, BHF senior heart health dietitian Victoria Taylor said that though it was not clear as to what changes occur in the body of undernourished children to increase the heart disease risk, there is no denying the fact that “our environment can have a long-term impact upon our heart health”!