Cox News Service
ATLANTA -- "Belly Fat Gone," "Flatten Your Belly in 4 Days,"
"Five Foods to Help Banish Belly Fat." These are a few of the
titles found when scanning health magazines.
All the stories pointed to research published in Diabetes Care
in 2007 on body composition that used three different diets with
the same calories but different nutrients. The researchers
recruited 11 Spanish volunteers (that's right, only 11 subjects),
average age of 62 years, with a family history of diabetes. All
were obese and insulin-resistant. All subjects followed the diets
for 28 days. One diet was high in carbohydrates, the second was
high in saturated fat and the third was a Mediterranean-type diet
that was high in monounsaturated fats.
These heart-healthy fats are found in avocados, olives and olive
oil, nuts and seeds and dark or semisweet chocolate. Results showed
that weight and fat were unchanged, but when on the
high-carbohydrate diet, body-fat distribution was altered and fat
tended to accumulate in the gut. That is a bit different than
claiming that foods high in monounsaturates shrink belly fat.
I'm not criticizing the study; the authors found that a diet
rich in monounsaturated fats prevented (but did not reduce) belly
fat from accumulating when compared with a high-carbohydrate diet
in older obese men and women, and that has implications for disease
prevention. They also reported that insulin resistance was lowered
with the Mediterranean-diet type.
All of the plans restrict calories while including foods rich in
the heart-healthy fats. One diet plan called for 1,600 calories a
day eaten in four 400-calorie meals. Again, nothing wrong with that
diet plan, but let's call it what it is - a diet that restricts
calories. Adding unlimited servings of guacamole, macadamia nuts,
olive oil, olives and chocolate without cutting calories will not
help much.
To keep your belly in check, remember the acronym SED - strength
training to preserve muscle mass, exercise aerobically to burn fat
and diet should include heart-healthy fat while cutting about 100
calories per day.
Chris Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D., is a professor of nutrition in
the College of Health and Human Sciences at Georgia State
University. She'll answer nutrition questions of general interest.
Send your questions to her c/o The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Sixth Floor, 72 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303. Or e-mail her
at dietitian AT ajc.com.