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The benefits and precautions of intermittent fasting
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Fasting with religious purpose is an ancient practice. But going without a few meals to improve your health is a recent trend gaining attention. Be aware of the pros and cons before committing to an intermittent fast. - photo by Aley Davis
With four decades of soccer under his belt, Mark Torbett's always been in shape. But things started to change when he turned 40 and started packing on some weight.

I tried more soccer, I tried more cardio, I tried more water, I tried more organic chicken, he said. Nothing seemed to work until Torbett decided to ditch a couple meals each week.

Ive been doing intermittent fasting almost every single week for at least one day, he said. Torbett has done this for the last three years. On fasting days, Torbett limits his diet to about 100 calories each day.

Theres not a whole lot of calories that Im taking in, he explained.

Within a very short amount of time, Torbett lost over 40 pounds. Naturally, he gets hungry, he admitted, but said it helps him lose weight, focus better, sleep more and even helps him perform better on the field. Torbett also credits his diet for reducing inflammation in his knee after being injured in a soccer game last year.

Torbett relates his fasting experience to going to the gym.

You kind of drag yourself to the gym, but once you get there and once youre going, you feel like a million bucks, he said.

Intermountain Healthcares Dr. Benjamin Horne said intermittent fasting has shown to have many health benefits. He said it can help improve things related to insulin resistance, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure and coronary disease and so forth.

Horne said fasting one to two days a week is relatively safe.

The risks to an apparently healthy individual are pretty minimal for a one- to two-day fast, Horne said.

But Horne said there is very little scientific evidence on fasting for longer than five days at a time. He warned individuals to drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration.

Horne thinks intermittent fasting may find its place with people who arent really healthy anymore, but are not on the cusp of chronic illness.

Horne also encourages young children, elderly individuals, pregnant or nursing mothers and even immune compromised to not fast without talking to their doctor.
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From the book 'Outliers' comes proof that good health is more than just genetics
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Friends Jim Young, left, Mike Natale, Jeff Natale and Ryan Kiernan were on Greenwich High School football team together and Jim and Mike were captains. Jim, who was the youngest in Sherry Young's family, was welcome in the homes of the other three boys who still had siblings around and grandparents near. - photo by Sherry Young
As I look back on my life and the lives of others, both personally and in the reading I have done, I am convinced of the necessity of positive human contact in our lives. We are doubly blessed when we are able to make good friends or are a part of a family where we are accepted and loved.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers tells of a time in the 1950s when Dr. Stewart Wolf met a physician who practiced in the area of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Roseto was settled by a group of Italian families from Roseto, Italy, who re-created their life again in America.

This was in the 1950s before drugs and measures to prevent heart disease became important. In their conversation the physician said, You know, Ive been practicing for 17 years. I get patients from all over, and I rarely find anyone from Roseto under the age of 65 with heart disease.

Wolf was surprised by these words as, It was impossible to be a doctor, common sense said, and not see heart disease.

Wolf enlisted the aid of a sociologist and friend John Bruhn to help him. They found, There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didnt have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didnt have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. Thats it.

They checked into diet, genetics and possibilities of something in the foothills of eastern Pennsylvania but nothing made sense.

What they found was that Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. (Researchers) learned about the extended family clans that underlay the towns social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted 22 separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2,000 people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.

What they found eventually convinced the medical establishment to look beyond the individual and understand the culture people are part of their friends, families and town they came from. They determined that the people we surround ourselves with and the values of the world we inhabit have a profound effect on who we are.

Likely, this study could have been done with other ethnicities. However, my family's experiences with the Italian families in Connecticut ring true to the study. Our hungry and growing sons, especially our youngest son, Jim, who was left home alone with two beady-eyed parents, all had some memorable experiences being fed and loved in the Cos Cob multigenerational families. Proof of the African proverb, It takes a village to raise a child.

We live in an age when the contact we have with people often is on the internet, and many of us live among strangers. Unless we make the effort to reach out, we will become isolated, especially as we age. The Rosetan study is proof that reaching out and communicating may be good for our health.
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