| Flat
Belly Diet/Flat-Out Lies
From
Nutrition Action newsletter Dec 08/Center For Science in the
Public Interest
"Sick,
I mean really sick, of all that belly fat, dear friend?"
asks the "special announcement" that hundreds of thousands
of women received in the mail last summer about "a remarkable
fat-melting breakthrough from the folks you trust at Prevention
Magazine."
If you sent in the card and bought the Flat Belly Diet! (only
$32 plus shipping and handling), you would have learned that
the "new belly-flattening nutrient" is monounsaturated
fats (MUFA's). Yup, the same monos you'll find in olive oil,
canola oil, avocado, nuts, and peanuts.
"Yes, my friends, I am talking about chocolate and peanut
butter," writes Prevention's editor. "The more you
eat...the MORE you lose."
The "RESEARCH". What's the evidence that mono fats
"target your belly fat and help make it vanish!? Here's
what the books introduction claims. "It wasn't until the
srping of 2007 that we realized just how amaxing these fats
are. That was when Spanish researchers published a study in
the journal Diabetes Care showing that eating a diet rich in
MUFA's can actually help prevent weight gain in your belly.
"The reseachers looked at the effect of three different
diets- one high in aturated fat, another high in carbohydrates,
and a third rich in MUFA's...All three diets contained the same
number of calories, but only the MUGA diet was found to reduce
the accumulation of belly fat and, more specifically, visceral
belly fat. "Bear in mind. No other nutrient can do this."
Wow. Pretty impressive...IF IT WERE TRUE!!!!!
The TRUTH. First of all, the study involved a measly 11 people-
1 bit skimpy for "breakthrough science." And all 11
were the offspring of people with diabetes, so it's hard to
know whether the results apply to anyone else.
Second, no one lost any weight. Instead, the researchers found
more fat in the upper body (chest and abdomen) and less fat
in the lower body (hip, thigh and leg)after a month on the high-carb
diet than after a month on the diets that were high in eigher
mono of sat fats. (1) Does a high carb diet shift fat from your
hips to our waist? It would take more than one study on 11 people
to know. In other studies, fat deposits were no different when
overweight people cut calories with either high-MUFA or high
carb diets. (2).
The Flat Belly Diet! Has recipes for healthy dishes and exercise
routines. That's fine. But "a NEW discovery" that
helps "dieters lose more weight and keep it off longer?"
Don't bet your gut on it.
1. Diabetes Care 30:1717,2007
2. J.Nutrition 134:1741,2004
Lisa's say on this. If it sounds too good to be true it always
it. Carbs can hold water in the gut as part of the digestion
process making the belly stick out but that is not fat. So,
when people up their protein, healthy fats and decrease the
carbs (IF they were having too many) the belly will lose some
of the bloat/water retention and it'll go down a bit. Asthetic
but sometimes that makes our brain happier too.
|
