Shyam, a 10-year-old boy, loves eating chips, tikki, and chaat. He avoids vegetables and pulses. His mother says: “He is just a child; disease happens in old age.”

Question: Do childhood habits lead to disease in adulthood?

Answer: Risk factors for NCDs accumulate and progress into disease conditions across the entire life course. This means habits and exposures in childhood and adolescence directly influence disease risk in adulthood.

“Today’s risky behaviours are tomorrow’s risk factors. Today’s risk factors are tomorrow’s diseases.”