Though a lot of attention is focused on adults and older people staying heart healthy, the best strategy to achieve this may be to start young.

Recently, five nurses from the Florida-based Martin Memorial Health Systems spoke to a group of children who ranged in ages from 9 to 12 about how they can prevent the onset of heart disease, TCPalm.com reports.

Desiree Gruelich was one of the nurses involved in the event and told the news provider that the event was meant to reach out to the community because the children were not being educated about health issues in schools.

“I don’t want to see them in their teens with heart disease,” she said.

Some of the ways the nurses instruct the children to minimize their heart disease risk is by focusing on their diet, such as cutting out foods that have a high fat or sugar content.

This advice falls in line with what the Mayo Clinic urges people to do. Moreover, health experts discourage smoking, recommend getting more exercise and increasing one’s intake of omega-3 fatty acids, which are also available in supplement form.