WASHINGTON ,Oct 03 (INP): People who skip breakfast or eat poorly to start the day are twice as likely to develop hardened arteries, which can lead to deadly heart disease, researchers said Tuesday. The study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology uncovered signs of damage to the arteries long before symptoms or disease developed. Researchers said their findings could offer an important tool in the fight against cardiovascular disease, the world’s top killer, which took 17.7 million lives in 2015, according to the World Health Organization. “People who regularly skip breakfast likely have an overall unhealthy lifestyle,” said study author Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. “This study provides evidence that this is one bad habit people can proactively change to reduce their risk for heart disease.” The report was based on 4,000 middle-aged office workers in Spain. Participants were followed for six years. About one in four ate a high-energy breakfast, which included 20 % or more of the day’s calories. Most people in the study - 70 % - ate a low-energy breakfast that gave them 5- 20 % of their daily calorie intake. Around 3 % said they skipped breakfast altogether or ate very little. This group “tended to have more generally unhealthy eating habits and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors,” said the report. People who skipped breakfast also “had the greatest waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, blood lipids and fasting glucose levels,” it said. Researchers used ultrasound technology to scan participants for signs of fatty deposits in the arteries, or early evidence of disease. INP/SA/AH