Flat-Belly Food #5 ---- Berries

Flat-Belly Food #5

Berries - including blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and even the "exotic" Goji berry.

Berries are a powerhouse of nutrition... packed with vitamins and minerals, and also some of the best sources of antioxidants of any food in existence.

Berries also pack a healthy dose of fiber, which slows your carbohydrate absorption and digestion rate, and controls your blood sugar levels to help prevent insulin spikes (which can stimulate fat gain). Berries generally contain the best ratio of grams of fiber to total carbohydrates, making them some of the best choices for fruits in terms of glycemic response (blood sugar).

Get creative and mix up your berry intake by using the basics -- blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries... but also get adventurous and give a more "exotic" berry a try, such as Goji berries (which are one of the most nutrient dense berries on the planet).

I like to add berries to my yogurt and cottage cheese mixtures, as well as oatmeal or oat bran, salads, or just taking a bag of mixed berries and mixed nuts with me for the day as a mid-day healthy snack!

3 More Flat-Belly Foods Mistaken as “Unhealthy”:

This article below also shows you why dark chocolate, coconut oil, and even butter can actually HELP your fat loss efforts and are good for other health reasons too!

>> 3 More delicious flat-belly foods that surprise most people

Eat Your Way Lean! By: Mike Geary

These 3 shocking Fatty (but healthy) super-foods can actually help you to burn body fat faster!

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist Author of best-sellers: The Fat Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and prevent cravings. Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...

1. Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher)

It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.

However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts. In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of pie.

Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content (I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to the amount of healthy fats. In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate... I look for more total fat than total carbs (or about the same number of grams of each).

The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood sugar response compared to other "sweets".

In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants, including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits. The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats. Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.

The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar. However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness. If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better. Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste. Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!

You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the calories.

2. Coconut milk, coconut flour, and coconut oil

Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system, and is lacking in most western diets. In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as bodyfat compared to other types of fats.

Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!). Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!

Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely NEEDS to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.

3. Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter

Yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, not deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to get lean. In fact, I eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter daily and maintain single digit bodyfat most times of the year.

There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter. It just shows that the majority of the population has zero idea that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.

In fact, there's even ample evidence that REAL butter can even help you to lose body fat for a couple of main reasons:

a. Grass-fed butter is known to have high levels of a healthy fat called CLA, which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties, and also has been shown to help burn abdominal fat and build lean muscle.

b. Grass-fed butter also has an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (unlike conventional grain-fed butter) which helps fight inflammation in your body, and can help balance hormones.

c. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also contain MCTs, which help to boost your immune system and are readily burned by the body for energy. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also help to satisfy your appetite and control blood sugar levels, both of which help you to stay lean! d. Grass-fed butter also contains the vitally important nutrient vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 works alongside vitamin D and calcium for proper calcium metabolism in your body, and is also involved in balancing hormones by making vitamin D more powerful. Vitamin K2 is generally only found in grass-fed animal products such as butter, cream, full fat cheeses, and organ meats, so it's hard to obtain from plant sources except for certain types of fermented foods. It's one of THE most important vitamins for overall health that many people lack, and it's found in that beautiful grass-fed butter that we all love!

If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids. Organic Valley also has some excellent grass-fed butter that's rich in nutrients as well.