Healthy Topic Blog

Though there are numerous books and diets touting various ways to get a flat belly the truth is that you need to lose your belly fat in order to have a flat stomach, and certainly to showcase your abdominal muscles. Though making choices like healthier MUFAs (mono-unsaturated fatty acids) can help you to get healthier – they do not promote a flat belly. All fats have 9 calories per gram so if you eat too much of even healthy fats – you will gain weight or keep that belly pooch. A balanced diet, low in sodium, added sugars and unhealthy fats is your best bet, couple with daily exercise.

Some easy tips to help you shed extra pounds:

• Drop all beverages that have calories 
• Measure your whole grain portions (drop the white processed breads and grains) and know how many servings you should have daily in a balanced diet 
• Eat high fiber fruits and vegetables to fill up 
• Drink adequate water daily 
• Finish your last meal by 7 pm and only allow yourself tea or a piece of fruit at night – creating a mini-fast till the next morning will help you stay on top of calories 
• Do calorie burning aerobic exercise daily and do crunches correctly ( a certified personal trainer can show you how)

The average medium corn-on-the-cob has about 110 calories. Grill it with a bit of calorie free/low calorie olive oil spray and you’ll have a healthy carbohydrate serving chock full of fiber and folate. A neat trick is to then squeeze a bit of fresh lime over the grilled corn for some tart to accompany the natural sweetness of corn.

Another grilling tip – Pre-cook meats in the oven and finish them on the grill. Continue to marinate and turn the meats to avoid charring and creating dangerous nitrosamines, cancer-causing compounds. Never burn the meats.

Need some low calorie snack ideas? Here are a bunch of choices, most under 130 calories:

• 1 cup frozen green grapes or blueberries 
• 1 stick of low fat string cheese plus ½ a banana 
• Half an English muffin with a tablespoon of tomato sauce and 1/8 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese 
• ¼ cup of hummus dip plus a cup of cut up carrot/celery sticks 
• 1 hard-boiled egg plus 4 medium size strawberries 
• 1 cup of skim milk, ¼ cup of orange juice, ¼ cup berries and ice blended up 
• 1 - 8 ounce glass of skim milk + 1 teaspoon Hershey’s chocolate syrup 
• 1 small non-fat 5 ounce yogurt plus 2 tbsp. Bare-Naked granola 
• ½ cup portion of most sorbets (check the label) 
• 6 ounces of low fat (1%) chocolate milk

Rinse berries in very hot water in order to reduce the possibility of mold developing quickly in the refrigerator.

Free antibiotics are available at Giant Food, Stop and Shop and Publix.

Fish with the lowest level of mercury – albacore tuna from US or British Columbia, fresh water Coho salmon, farmed mussels, farmed oysters, Pacific sardines that are wild caught, farmed Rainbow trout, Wild salmon caught in Alaska.

Organic milk tends to be higher in anti-oxidants.