I can’t think of any good reason to ever starve yourself on purpose — but researchers keep pushing ultra-low calorie diets for everything from longevity to disease prevention.

The latest: A new push to brand these extreme and dangerous diets as a “cure” for diabetes.

Over the summer, researchers claimed that three months of 600 calories a day — mostly in the form of diet shakes — “cured” the disease in seven out of 11 patients.

And now, in a dangerous game of “how low can you go,” a different group of researchers claimed they were able to cure the disease on a diet of just 500 calories a day.

This time, it took four months as researchers put 15 patients with type 2 diabetes onto the strict lifestyle, again based on meal replacement shakes. After the very first day, none of the patients needed insulin — and after 16 weeks, they all lost weight, gained blood sugar control, and had improvements in their overall cardiovascular health.

By some miracle, all 15 dieters managed to stay with the study — and even 14 months after the four months of pure hell, most of the improvements remained (although many of the dieters regained at least some of their weight, of course).

So is there something to all this? Maybe — but why bother with it when there’s a much better way?

After all, you can beat and even cure your diabetes, starting today, and not have to count a single calorie or even surrender all hope of ever eating anything delicious again.

Diets extremely low in carbohydrates have been shown to prevent, slow, stop and even reverse both diabetes and pre-diabetes to the point where even people who were once completely reliant on drugs and insulin no longer need their meds.

And instead of hearing their stomachs growl all day, they get to enjoy grilled steaks, pork chops, chicken wings, real butter and more.

Just last month, I told you how one version of the low-carb diet — an all-natural diet called the “paleo” or “caveman” diet because it’s based on what our ancient ancestors ate — reversed pre-diabetes.

So forget counting calories, diet shakes and any other gimmick that comes along. If you want to “cure” your diabetes — or simply want to slash your risk of getting it in the first place — cut down on the carbs instead.

On the face of it, it hardly seemed fair.

Researchers put women on a low-carb diet up against women on a low-calorie diet — but with a huge catch: The low-carb eaters would stick to the plan for just two days a week… and eat whatever they wanted the rest of the time.

The low-calorie dieters, on the other hand, would commit to their diet 24/7.

Now, it’s been proven in the past that going low-carb is better than going low-cal any day of the week. But two days a week versus seven? How could it possibly compete?

Turns out very well — because after four weeks, the low-carb dieters lost more weight and had better insulin readings.

It’s like winning a fight with both hands tied behind your back.

The study actually involved three groups of women: Two went low-carb for two days a week. One got to eat as much as they wanted as long as they kept the carbs to 50 grams or less… while the other had to practically starve for those two days, eating just 650 calories of low-carb food.

The third group had to stick a version of the Mediterranean Diet every single day, and limit themselves to just 1,500 calories.

Two months later, and both sets of low-carb women lost an average of 9 pounds — while the calorie counters lost just 4 pounds. In addition, the women in both low-carb groups lowered their insulin levels by 18 percent — versus just 4 percent among low-calorie eaters.

And for the cherry on top, the low-cal women were twice as likely to quit the study as those who went low-carb — but that’s hardly a surprise. Nearly everyone has tried calorie counting at some point… and nearly everyone has failed at it.

It’s impossible because it’s unnatural. When you’re hungry, the instinct is to eat until you’re full — and the low-carb diet allows you to do just that.

What’s more, low-carb diets have also been shown to lower blood pressure levels, improve HDL cholesterol, slash triglycerides, and dramatically reduce your risk of diabetes.

The best way to get all those benefits — and more — is to go full time on your own low-carb diet. The women in the study were allowed to eat whatever they wanted for five days a week — but they didn’t.

Instead, their healthy low-carb habits carried over into the rest of the week, on their “off days,” once they realized how much good it was doing them.

Give it a shot yourself and you’ll find out why.

It’s so easy it seems unreal: A key weapon in the fight against diabetes might be hovering right outside your window, right now.

It’s the sun — the primary source of vitamin D, and a new study shows how this pancreas-boosting super nutrient can
help stop the disease before it starts.

Researchers gave 92 pre-diabetics either vitamin D3 supplements, calcium supplements, both, or a placebo for four months — then ran some blood tests and found that patients who took the D3 had slightly better blood sugar levels.

Not that big of a deal.

But this is a big deal: The patients who took D3 had dramatically better pancreas function — with the organ’s beta cells showing improvements of up to 30 percent.

Those beta cells are needed to make insulin — and when they stop doing their job, you get diabetes.

The researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that calcium didn’t make a difference when it came to giving those cells a lift — just the D3.

It’s not the first study to make the link: Research has found time and again that vitamin D can help control blood sugar levels (even more so than in this study) and lower the overall risk of diabetes.

One study last year found that people middle aged and older with the highest D levels had a 55 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes and 51 percent lower risk of metabolic syndrome than those with the least.

That should be enough to entice any pre-diabetic into spending more quality time under the sun, or at least investing in a quality D3 supplement — but while the sunshine vitamin is a great place to start, you’ll need a few more weapons if you hope to win the war against this disease.

Cinnamon — as in the spice, but you’ll want the extract — has shown an amazing ability to slash blood sugar levels and reduce your blood pressure, while the mineral chromium can reduce both fasting insulin and fasting glucose levels.

And if you want to put some punch into your plan, try Popeye’s favorite source of power: spinach. This leafy green is packed with magnesium, which studies have shown can lower your levels of insulin resistance and slash your risk of diabetes. (Read more here.)

Your body also needs magnesium to put its vitamin D to work — so if you’re going to get one, be sure to get the other.

Up next: More on vitamin D.

The mainstream is finally ready to admit you can beat diabetes without meds — too bad they’re still on the wrong
track!

Two new studies point to supposed cures for this disease that involve extreme and dramatic changes: in one case, an
ultra-low calorie diet that borders on starvation… and in the other, a risky surgical procedure.

In the first, researchers put 11 diabetics onto a diet of just 600 daily calories — all in the form of diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables.

After a week, morning blood-sugar levels had normalized — but the torture didn’t stop there. This went on for three
whole months (making me wonder just who they recruited for this study).

In any case, the researchers claim seven of the diabetics were cured, according to the study in Diabetologia.

And if three months of near-starvation isn’t extreme enough for you, another group of researchers is standing by with a study pushing stomach-shrinking surgery.

Their analysis of nine studies finds that 83 percent of gastric bypass patients were able to quit diabetes meds after surgery, along with 62 percent of those who underwent gastric banding.

But here’s the dirty secret about weight-loss surgery: In addition to a high risk of complications ranging from severe bleeding problems to kidney failure, the procedures aren’t very effective in the long run.

Many people who undergo these surgeries ultimately regain some or even all of the weight — even with a surgically
shrunken stomach.

The only reason it looks so good in the new review is that some of the studies in it followed patients for as little as a year — which is no time at all when it comes to diabetes.

Look at the long-term numbers, and it all falls apart: In one study included in the Archives of Surgery analysis, two-thirds of diabetics “cured” through surgery eventually lost control of their blood sugar in the decade following
the procedure.

Luckily, you don’t need to starve yourself or suffer through a dangerous surgery to beat this disease — just a commitment to a sugar-free, low-carb lifestyle.

Many diabetics who make a real and permanent switch dramatically reduce their need for drugs — and some no longer need any meds at all or even insulin.

Don’t wait for a diabetes diagnosis for this cure – make the change today, and you’ll avoid the disease in the first place.

I’m not done with diabetes yet — keep reading for disease risk where you might not expect it.