Fast fasting helps women slow down disease in study

Can you match the following authors – Benjamin Franklin, Plutarch (an ancient Greek moralist) and Paracelsus (one of the fathers of Western medicine) – with their quotes about fasting?

1. Fasting is the greatest remedy – the physician within.

2. The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.

3. Instead of using medicine, better fast today.

Answers: 1. Paracelsus, 2. Franklin and 3. Plutarch.

Now we’re not recommending long-term fasting (that taxes every bodily system). But we agree with a recent study published in JAMA Oncology that reveals fasting for 13 hours between your last meal of today and your first meal of tomorrow is a great health booster.

Researchers evaluated 12 years of data on 2,413 women with early-stage breast cancer (and without diabetes). They found that fasting for 13 hours a night dramatically reduced the recurrence of breast cancer (36 percent), led to significantly lower hemoglobin A1C values (a three-month average of your blood glucose levels) and longer sleep times.

Lower A1Cs and longer nightly sleep patterns also help protect you from prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes, other cancers, cognitive problems and mood disorders.

So here’s a health tip that recommends more time in the sack. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m., eat breakfast at 8 a.m. And if that doesn’t work with getting the kids breakfast or heading to the office, then schedule an earlier dinnertime. Whether you have early-stage breast cancer, are in the early stages of being overweight, have prediabetes or are chronically sleep deprived, this will make you healthier, happier and wiser.

Waist not want not

The “Ziggy” cartoonist Tom Wilson once wrote: “A waist is a terrible thing to mind.” And boy, was he right!

But if you’ve lost your waist and really want to get it back, you won’t mind doing the work. You’ll be wasting belly fat and reclaiming better health. That’s why, despite the challenge, it’s something to embrace.

We’ve long warned about the dangers of having a waist circumference over 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women: It puts you at risk for metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, triglycerides and glucose levels; insulin resistance; body-wide inflammation; and stroke risk).

A new study presents evidence that for folks with Type 2 diabetes, abdominal fat is a bigger indicator of heart woes to come – especially left-ventricle dysfunction – than your weight or BMI.

So if you have major love handles, a bulging belly or both, here are four ways to banish the bulge.

1. Walk 30 minutes a day, heading for a total of 10,000 steps. Make a pedometer your constant companion.

2. Eat five to nine servings of fruits and veggies daily, and nothing but 100 percent whole grains. Ditch processed foods, trans and sat fats, added sugars and syrups.

3. Opt for healthy, anti-inflammatory fats found in salmon, sea trout and omega-3 DHA supplements from algae.

4. Keep blood sugar levels steady in order to stop weight-and-fat-boosting insulin spikes by eating five times (three small meals and two healthy snacks) every day.

Seeking healthy food cultures

Michael Moore’s movie, “Where to Invade Next,” shows the filmmaker “invading” other countries to seize their solutions to social problems for use here at home.

When he looked at school lunches in rural France (they were serving a four-course meal with scallops as an appetizer), it was clear that the French promote nutritious food (with reportedly a lower calorie count than standard American school lunches) as an important treasure to be savored.

That lesson is one that Moore and millions of his fellow citizens should act on, because the standard American diet makes it tough to dodge obesity.

As proof, let’s take a look at the effect of the American diet on folks who come to this country from around the globe. One study found that only 8 percent of immigrants living here for less than a year were obese; but after 15 years the rate hits 19 percent – and that’s not counting folks who are overweight. Take the Pima Indians of Mexico and Arizona; 38 percent of them in the U.S. have Type 2 diabetes, and 70 percent are obese. Their Mexican relatives are thinner and have Type 2 at a rate below 7 percent. And a new study found young Filipinos who immigrate to the New York area pack on pounds. Similar weight gain has been observed in many other groups.

Our nomination for an idea Michael could have brought back here: Eat like traditional cultures. Meat should be an incidental; whole grains and veggies the mainstay; and sweets a rarity.

Hidden sugars aren’t a sweet surprise

Lord Sugar (no kidding) is the star of the BBC One’s version of “The Apprentice.” Sugar Shane Mosley is a three-weight world boxing champ. And WBA guard Ta’Shauna Sugar Rodgers is an up-and-coming star. They’re all upfront about their ability to turn from sweet to ferocious when they’re looking to beat their competition.

But that’s not the style of hidden sugars packed into fruit juices, juice drinks and smoothies marketed to kids. According to a new study out of the U.K., nearly half of such beverages studied contained the maximum daily sugar intake for any child. This puts kids at risk for obesity, diabetes, tooth decay and the health hazards they trigger.

On this side of the pond? They’re just as loaded: A 12-ounce Kids Strawberry Blitz from a national smoothie chain delivers 32 grams of sugar! An 8 ounce tropical juice drink found in grocery stores hits 24 grams! And fruity drinks aren’t the only ones to beware: Sweetened ice teas and coffees appeal to teens. On average, American adolescents consume almost 35 teaspoons of added sugars daily.

Read nutrition and ingredient labels – and keep beverages with added sugars out of kids’ hands (and yours). Helping your kids cultivate a taste for the natural sweetness of fresh fruit, veggies and whole grains is a great way to help make sure they live a long, healthy and happy life!

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 6:52 AM with the headline "Fast fasting helps women slow down disease in study."