5 Healthy Flat Stomach Diet Tips

A flat stomach diet is just that – a diet meant to help you achieve and keep a flat stomach. While eating a balanced diet is important for your overall health, maintaining a healthy body weight requires adding some specific healthy foods to your diet, eliminating various harmful foods from your diet and making correct food choices. Here are 5 healthy flat stomach diet tips to get that flat stomach you’ve always wanted:

1.  Add Fiber To Your Diet

Gradually add fiber to your diet, until you are consuming about 25 grams a day, if you are a woman, or 38 grams a day if you are a man.

While there are fiber supplements designed to help you meet these levels, fiber is best absorbed into your body as part of fresh fruits, whole grains, vegetables or legumes. You can even add fiber to your favourite recipes for smoothies.

Try eating an apple a day, or trading your regular spaghetti for whole wheat pasta (available in the same range of noodle shapes as regular pasta).

2. Know Your Food Allergies and Reactions

For some of us, a flat stomach diet involves recognizing that we may be allergic to and react negatively to wheat, lactose (found in milk and other dairy products), or both.  Some times not being aware of this and continuously eating foods that contain these ingredients will impact how easily you gain or lose fat.

Try switching your regular milk for lactose-free (which tastes the same), or reducing your wheat intake for a week to see if your body reacts negatively. If you have either of these allergies you will experience stomach pain and other digestive problems, in addition to a bloated stomach.

3. Eat Slowly & Reduce Distractions

Try to take at least 30 minutes to eat each meal. Eating slowly has a wide range of benefits. Chewing your food more thoroughly reduces your chances of indigestion, and decreases the amount of air that you swallow with each bite, which will reduce bloating in your stomach.

Additionally, research has found that when you take more time to enjoy each bite, and focus on eating, rather than eating while watching television or doing work at your desk during lunch, you will find your meal more satisfying – and if you are more satisfied, then you will eat less, which will contribute to a flatter stomach.

4. Increase Your Good Bacteria Consumption

Recent studies have found that foods rich in probiotics are a healthy way to reduce bloating. These foods, including pineapple, parsley, certain yogurts (look for the ones that have labels stating that they have probiotics or are good for digestion), and even peppermint tea, are healthy foods in their own right.

Consider switching out gassier foods, like beans and cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli and cauliflower, for these anti bloating alternatives.

5. Reduce Your Sodium Intake

Get into the habit of reading the packaging and nutrition labels of food before you add them to your shopping cart, and if there is more than 500 mg of sodium per serving put it back on the shelf. Aim for less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day.

Follow these tips for healthy ways to adopt a healthy stomach diet – and get ready for swimsuit season!