Future heart health 'shaped by diet'

Researchers in The Netherlands tracked the heart health of Dutch women who lived through the famine at the end of World War II.

Those living on rations of 400-800 calories a day had a 27 percent higher risk of heart disease in later life. It's the first direct evidence early nutrition shapes future health, they report in the European Heart Journal. The Dutch famine of 1944-45 gave researchers in Holland a unique opportunity to study the long-term effects of severe malnutrition in childhood and adolescence. A combination of factors - including failed crops, a harsh winter and the war - caused thousands of deaths among people living in the west of The Netherlands.