Foods to Avoid Belly Fat

Dream of getting rid of that gut? Here are foods to avoid belly fat when you add them to your diet.

Black Beans
All legumes are full of protein and fiber -- two well-known appetite crushers. And thanks to their dark color, black beans are also one of the highest in flavonoids of all the beans. And research shows that flavonoids may thwart the storage of excess tummy fat.

Cold Potatoes
Hate having to pass on the potatoes for the sake of your pants size? Well, you may not have to. Just eat them cold -- as in vinegar potato salad. If you chill potatoes overnight, they form something called resistant starch crystals -- a constituent of fiber that triggers the production of two hunger-halting hormones, according to research. And resistant starch helps the body incinerate more fat for fuel while making less fat available to stash away in fat cells. 

Peanuts
Hard to believe that rich-tasting, calorie-packed peanuts could help you lose weight. But they just might. Seems the healthy fats in peanuts are burned more readily than the less-healthy fats found in cookies, chips, and creamy desserts. So make them your snack of choice.

Sunflower Seeds
Toss 'em into soups and salads, mix them into yogurt, or

Foods to Avoid Belly Fat - Sunflower Seeds

sprinkle them onto sandwiches for nutty crunch. Plus, sunflower seeds (unsalted, please) are high in monounsaturated fat -- a healthful type of fat that appeared to inhibit waist widening in a study of overweight people. 

Tea
Seems the white version of this brew may be a veritable fat blaster. When human fat cells were treated with white tea extract in a lab study, the cells absorbed about 70% less fat than the untreated cells did. And those same tea compounds also triggered the breakdown of fat in existing cells.

Apple Cider Vinegar
As a fish condiment and tang-provider for sauces and salad dressings, nothing beats apple cider vinegar. But here's a big bonus: Apple cider vinegar also has a compound called acetic acid, which turbocharges the body's ability to burn fat and simultaneously hinders fat storage.


http://www.sharecare.com/health/mens-health/article/9-foods-that-fight-belly-fat - Foods to Avoid Belly Fat

Why you should give up Diet Soda

Why you should give up Diet Soda

For lots of healthy types, the frequently stated fact that Diet Coke might be “empty calories” actually goes down just fine compared to office cupcakes, which they’re not regularly scarfing.

And reaching for a diet soda fits nicely into the “allowable-exceptions” category of a healthy New York lifestyle. You know, along with a glass of Sancerre, the occasional dinner at Eataly, and watching the Real Housewives.

But should you allow Diet Coke a free pass? (Ditto: Housewives.)

While sipping diet soda seems harmless, especially in the context of a generally healthy life, a surprising number of substantial studies show the opposite, that drinking Diet Coke and Aspartame can greatly interfere with your health.

As Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, found last year, “[Diet soda] may be free of calories, but not of consequences.” And she wasn’t talking about the caffeine.

Interpreting the data of two studies, Dr. Hazuda pointed out that it caused a blood sugar spike in mice, and suggested that diet sodas may inhibit the signal that tells you when you’re full. 

Here are 6 more reasons to give up diet soda:  

1. It messes with your skin. Diet Coke lowers your pH levels, which can cause acne, and zap you of radiance. We need a high level of alkalinity for our bodies to be healthy and expressed in our glowing complexion, explains Dr. Jeanette Graf, author of Stop Aging, Start Living: The Revolutionary 2-Week pH Diet. As Dr. Graf told us recently, “If there’s one thing you should never consume, it’s soda. Soda is an extreme acid-forming substance which will lower your pH level dramatically.”

2. It alters your mood. The mood-food connection is ever-rising, and Aspartame in Diet Coke can really do a doozey on those with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Aspartame is also on an EPA list of potentially dangerous chemicals contributing to neurotoxicity, right under Arsenic. So that’s kind of saying it could alter your brain, too.

3. Weight gain and belly fat. Ironically, we actually gain weight from Diet Coke. In two studies conducted by the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, those “who said they consumed two or more diet sodas a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-users.”

4. It causes diabetes and heart disease. When waist circumference (belly fat) increases, this contributes to diabetes and heart disease, which a 2010 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine confirmed.

5. It makes your kidneys sluggish. Diet soda may interfere with the kidneys, found the Harvard Nurse’s Study, which reported a 30% drop in kidney function with just two servings of diet soda each day.

6. Aspartame’s been linked to cancer. A lot. Aspartame is “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA while substantial data has shown its link to cancer. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cautions against Aspartame because it’s poorly tested, and contains three well-recognized neurotoxins. Aspartame was found to increase cancer risk if exposure begins in the womb, reported a study at the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center. And various studies have linked lymphoma and tumors in rats. And beware the BPA of cans and caramel coloring, reports Grist.

Kind of takes the fizz out of it, right?

Do the best experiment out there—the one on your own body. We dare you to lower your soda intake for a week and see if you notice any changes in skin, weight, or mood.


http://www.wellandgoodnyc.com/2012/07/31/do-you-have-a-dirty-little-dietary-secret-and-is-it-called-diet-coke/ - Why you should give up Diet Soda