This small change to diet can have big results.
Foods like fruits, vegetables and beans can help with reducing belly fat and increasing weight loss, studies repeatedly find.
The reason is that they all contain high levels of soluble fibres.
Soluble fibres form a gel-like substance in the gut and this slows down the speed of digestion, making people feel less hungry.
Foods that are high in soluble fibre include:
- Pears
- Barley
- Broccoli
- Sweet potatoes
- Avocados
- Oats
As little as half a cup of pinto beans, a couple of apples and a cup of green beans each day would be enough to meet the target.
Adding some moderate exercise on top of this and belly fat was reduced by an average of over 7 percent.
Dr Kristen Hairston, the study’s first author:
“We know that a higher rate of visceral fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and fatty liver disease.
Our study found that making a few simple changes can have a big health impact.”
For the study, the progress of 1,114 people was tracked over 5 years.
It emerged that those who increased their soluble fibre intake by 10 grams per day lost 3.7 percent of their belly fat.
Belly fat is the fat that surrounds the vital organs, deep in the belly.
High levels of belly fat are linked to fatty diabetes, liver disease and high blood pressure.
Dr Hairston said:
“There is mounting evidence that eating more soluble fiber and increasing exercise reduces visceral or belly fat, although we still don’t know how it works.
Although the fiber-obesity relationship has been extensively studied, the relationship between fiber and specific fat deposits has not.
Our study is valuable because it provides specific information on how dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, may affect weight accumulation through abdominal fat deposits.”
Another method by which soluble fibres can influence belly fat is that they form short-chain fatty acids in the stomach.
These decrease the storage of fat in the body and increase the rate at which the body burns fat.
The study was published in the journal Obesity (Hairston et al., 2011).
