A study conducted on 889 Swedes is helping scientists better understand how what we eat as kids affects our health later in life.

Published in the Journal of Public Health Nutrition, the study, conducted at the University of Umea, zeroed in on the morning eating habits of participants at age 16 and then followed up with them 27 years later at age 43 to see how their health had fared.

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The findings? 27 percent of those who partook in the analysis had developed metabolic syndrome -- a group of conditions (including elevated triglyceride levels, high glucose levels, high blood pressure and abdominal obesity) that contribute to increased risks of developing diabetes and of having a stroke.

Adolescents who ate nutritionally void or no breakfast were 68 percent more likely to have developed any of the metabolic syndromes than those who'd broken their fasts with well-balanced, healthy meals.

"Further studies are required for us to be able to understand the mechanisms involved in the connection between poor breakfast and metabolic syndrome, but our results and those of several previous studies suggest that a poor breakfast can have a negative effect on blood sugar regulation," said the study's primary author, Maria Wennberg.

That sound you hear is the egg farmers of the world rejoicing.

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