A flabby belly is simply the accumulation of fat in the abdomen. While belly fat seems to be becoming a developing pattern in our community, recent research studies have strongly suggested that this condition is not innate (as opposed to public opinion) but is more often triggered by the type of food substances we routinely consume. So in this article, my aim is to explain how some of the foods that give rise to a flabby belly actually makes this happen.
1. Alcohol
A routine and excessive consumption of alcohol has been known to give rise to a flabby belly and this is why: It remains an indisputable fact that alcohol in itself may not have any fat in it, but when you consume a glass of alcohol (for example), it is broken down into two compounds: fat and acetate. The fat enters the blood stream and is stored wherever your body stores fat (often in the tummy). The acetate on the other hand serves as a ‘primary energy fuel’ – which means that instead of your body utilizing its stored carbohydrates, proteins or fat as fuel, this acetate is utilized, by so doing it will cause all of the unused carbohydrates and fat to be retained in the belly, thus giving rise to a flabby belly.
2. Fried foods
Fried foods have fat written all over them, especially potatoes. Walter C. Willett from the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health once opined that potatoes may be fine for individuals who are extremely lean and workout more often, but for the rest of mankind, he said, should stay off fried potato chips and all other forms of fried foods. He explained that they “increases levels of blood sugar and insulin more quickly and to higher levels than an equal amount of calories from pure table sugar.”
3. Pizza
Yeah right – Pizza! Disappointing, I know, but making pizza your staple food will give you a quick ride to having a flabby belly. The main layer of pizza is covered with saturated fats, and statistics in the US have even indicated that pizza is the ‘second biggest contributor of saturated fat, just below cheese’. Apart from causing a flabby belly, an uncensored consumption of pizzas has also been known to trigger a number of heart complications.
4. Diet soda
It’s ironical that diet sodas have been associated to causing wider waist circumferences. This happens because a majority of the diet sodas out there are packed with refined sugar and a study that was published in the International Journal of Obesity explained that those who often drink diet sodas have a higher percentage of belly flab than individuals who don’t.
image courtesy of: camyspizzasurrey.com, time.com, mensfitness.com.
