Healthy Eating for Teens Helps in Their Future

New York – A new study reveals teens who eat food rich in fiber are less likely to develop heart disease and diabetes.

Head of Michigan State University's Division of Sports and Cardiovascular Nutrition Joe Carlson and his colleagues looked at the diets of more than 2,000 teenagers between the ages of 12 to 19. They tested to see if the teens had high blood pressure, high levels of sugar and fat in the blood, low levels of “good” cholesterol, and large waistlines. All of them are conditions which make up metabolic syndrome. Six percent of them had it.
Nine percent of the people who ate the least amount of fiber had the risk factors while those who ate the most made up only three percent.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information website, metabolic syndrome is a name for a group of risk factors that occur together and increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. It's not a disease but “a warning” says Carlson.

The study states there's no link between diabetes and heart disease and how much fat or cholesterol they ate. It was based on data the government collected from the periods of 1999 to 2002 for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.