12 Magic Foods for a Flatter Stomach

Improving your body’s responsiveness to insulin is a magic trick to achieve a flatter stomach

Insulin is a health term that is hard to define to a layman but for an overweight person, insulin issues may still be hindering your health and contributing excess stomach fat.

After eating a meal rich with carbohydrates, insulin production is stimulated, that is a hormone responsible for storing the glucose into the body cells to provide energy for the bodily functions. However, a lifestyle involving a diet with excess carbohydrates can build tolerance inside the body for insulin, preventing the body to respond effectively and preventing storage of glucose inside our body. As a result, body gains weight in response to higher level of insulin and sugar in the blood stream. Excess insulin encourages conversion of glucose into fats which also prevents the body to utilize these fat deposits to release energy.

Image: HealthyVogue

The magic trick to combat extra insulin lies in nixing processed foods and staying active. Certain foods can build back the lost sensitivity of the body towards insulin. Here are some of the magic foods that can be added to the diet.

1. Blueberries

In a recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2010, it was discovered that obese and insulin resistant participants had an improvement of 22% improvement in insulin sensitivity after consuming a blueberry smoothie daily for the 6 weeks as compared with a placebo group who had an improvement of only 4.9%.

On a plus side, blue berries are high in belly-filling fiber, low in sugar and delivers a punch of anti-aging oxidants that improves skin and heart health.