One day, Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street with his two sons, both of whom were crying. A passerby asked, "What's the matter with your boys?"
Lincoln replied: "Exactly what is wrong with the whole world. I have three walnuts, and each boy wants two."
Fortunately, there are plenty of nuts to go around these days. The U.S. leads the world in production of walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamias, and pecans.
You may already know that nuts are a nutritional powerhouse for everyone. But for women diagnosed with breast cancer, they offer a special benefit.
A steady intake of tree nuts (including peanuts) increases long-term and disease-free survival, according to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer that looked at the nut intake of around 3,500 women for 10 years after their diagnosis with breast cancer.
Women who regularly ate nuts had a 94.1% survival rate, while those who ate no nuts had an 86.2% survival rate.
In addition, a study out of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital shows that over the course of 13 years, sticking with a diabetes risk-reduction diet cuts the risk of dying from breast cancer by 13%.
The diet included increased intake of nuts, cereal fiber, coffee, whole fruits, and polyunsaturated fats, as well as lower (zero is better) intake of trans fats, red meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages.
You'd have to be nuts not to take advantage of those benefits.