Focus on reducing threats to the heart should start much early, as soon as early childhood, U.S. experts said. (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

 LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Focus on reducing threats to the heart should start much early, as soon as early childhood, U.S. experts said.

    If more parents instilled heart-healthy habits from the time their children were toddlers, they could greatly reduce their kids' risk of future problems, the Health Day News online service said on Friday, quoting U.S. experts.

    "The message is that a healthy diet early in life potentially has long-term benefits," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Colorado, and former president of the American Heart Association.

    "The idea that heart disease starts in the 50s has been substantially discounted. Saturated fat is always an enemy to the arteries, at any age," he added.

    The value of adopting a heart-healthy diet early in life is being demonstrated in an ongoing study in Finland, where researchers in 1990 began following more than 1,000 infants who were 7 months old at the time, according to the report.

    Half of the children were allowed an unrestricted diet, while the parents of the other half were directed to feed their children a diet low in saturated fats -- the unhealthy fats that are typically found in foods from animals. Those parents also received dietary and lifestyle counseling twice a year.

    The benefits of the low-saturated fat diets and counseling were revealed in tests done when the children were 11. Ultrasound images of the boys' arteries found that those on the low-saturated fat diets had blood vessels that were better able to widen, allowing blood to flow more freely.

    No such difference was seen for the girls, a finding reported for females in some adult studies.

    "The reason for this is not known, but one explanation could be estrogen," said study co-investigator Dr. Olli Raitakari, chief physician at the Turku University Central Hospital.

    Estrogen, the female sex hormone, influences the number of receptors for cholesterol, the "bad" kind that clogs arteries, he said.

    Still, the findings for the boys were very encouraging, Raitakari said, and the researchers believe the benefits for girls will eventually prove true. The study will continue until the children turn 20.

    The American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children aged 2 to 3 years old eat a diet in which fats make up 30 percent to 35 percent of total calories. By age 4 and continuing through the teens, fats should make up no more than 25 percent to 35 percent of total calories.