The Flat Belly Diet

One thing I’m always interested in is losing weight and being able to keep off that lost weight.  So, every new thing that comes along, I’m on it like white on rice!  In the past month, I’ve seen a lot of magazine articles about eating your way to a flatter belly.  Well, my belly is my most prominent feature.  I have had a goal, although it be one that I haven’t pursued that diligently, for the past few decades to have my bust protude further than my belly does.  In all fairness, I should mention that my bust is small.  It’s the smallest part of my figure, which might be a complaint for some, but I relish having anything small these days!  So, with my goal in mind, I’ve really been sucked into all these articles about flat bellies.  Plus, I’ve read and heard that abdominal fat is the most harmful fat of all, linked to heart disease. 

It seems the various articles while taking different slants on the issue have all had one thing in common:  a discussion of magical MUFAs (pronounced moo-fahs).  Magical MUFAs sounds like some kind of fantasy creatures that might live with Willy Wonka in his chocolate factory, but what the acronym stands for is monounsaturated fatty acids.  These magical MUFAs are supposed to not only protect you from heart disease, but (here’s the real magical part) are supposed to help you lose belly fat.  How cool is that.  Eat fat to lose fat!  French fries, here I come! 

Not quite.  These magical MUFAs are not found in French fry oil, that is unless you fry your French fries in olive oil, and then only if you don’t actually fry them because frying takes the magic out of the olive oil.  But if you drizzled your potatoes with olive oil, then you’d be on the right track.  Disgusting, right?  Yeah, me too.

According to Prevention magazine, “There are five major categories of MUFAs: (1) oils, (2) nuts and seeds, (3) avocada, (4) olives, and (5) chocolate.  Eating one serving of any of these foods at every meal will help reduce your accumulation of dangerous belly fat; control your calorie intake and you’ll lose inches and pounds, too–especially around your waistline.” So, I can eat Almond Joys to my heart’s (and belly’s) content, right?  Oh if it were only true.

But that’s not how it works.  And it seems that refined sugar turns out to be one of the most toxic and inflammatory ingredients we can put into our bodies.  So, stop thinking of those delicious Almond Joys or even the Mounds (dark chocolate; gotta be good for us, right?) because they’re also full of refined sugar.

So, how can you get the MUFAs if not in French fries and candy bars?  It turns out you can get them by incorporating a serving of any of these things into your daily meals and snacks:  canola oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, peanut oil, pesto sauce, safflower oil, sesame oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, walnut oil, almonds, almond butter, Brazil nuts, cashew butter, chunky natural peanut butter, dry-roasted cashews, dry-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, macademia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, roasted pumpkin seeds, smooth natural peanut butter, sunflower seeds, sunflower seed butter, tahini (sesame seed paste), walnuts, Florida avocado, Hass avocada, Black olives, black olive tapenade, green olives, green olive tapenade, Dark or semisweet chocolate chips, shavings, or chunks. Whew!

If you want some good recipes to use some of these ingredients, you should check out Prevention’s online site and find the article on MUFAs and enjoy!  That’s what I intend to do.

Here is the link to the Web site.  http://www.prevention.com

However, I think there has to be something more to this flat belly thing than just adding some olives to my cheeseburger.  So, I’m going to keep reading and watching and listening until I find out a way that this will work for me.  (And just in case you think I really don’t know whether candy bars and cheeseburgers are the ways to losing weight or not, I really do know.  So, don’t feel too sorry for me.  I was just having fun.)

I’m reading a fascinating book written by a medical doctor who has devoted her life to spreading the word about physical fitness and health.  More on that later on.  (She knows about magical MUFAs, too!)

Diana