By Shae Blevins for DietsInReview.com
You eat all the right foods to stay healthy, including an apple a day! But you can’t seem to lose weight, especially in your midsection. Add to that “muffin top” bloating, cramping, and irregularity and you feel like you’re at the mercy of your out-of-whack digestive tract.
The surprising cause for your suffering: the healthful foods you keep eating that may very well be bullying your belly.
You are not alone. Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest’s and author of the New York Times best-selling book The Digest Diet, noticed her tummy troubles and weight gain around her midsection revolved around her seemingly healthy diet.
Vaccariello and registered dietitian Kate Scarlata developed the 21 Day Tummy Diet, designed to soothe and shrink your tummy by eating “Belly Buddies” and getting rid of “Belly Bullies.”
Belly Buddies – foods that help digestive health – are light on carbohydrates and contain stomach-soothing ingredients like fiber, magnesium and anti-inflammatory fats. Belly Buddies are also low in FODMAPs, rapidly fermentable carbs.
FODMAP foods are fermentable with oligosaccharides, disaccharides (lactose), monosaccharides (fructose) and polyols (sugar alcohols), and are, in general, hard on the tummy.
Belly Bullies, on the other hand, are carbohydrate-dense foods and contain pro-inflammatory fats found in processed food. Foods high in lactose, fructose and FODMAPs are also considered harmful to digestive health.
Additional Belly Buddies include: Greek yogurt instead of plain yogurt, coconut milk ginger (which strengthens the digestive tract muscles), turmeric (famed for anti-inflammatory benefits), and maple syrup.
The 21-Day Tummy Diet helps you identify which foods trigger your bloating, cramps, and constipation, and then shows you how to replace them with foods that can treat and even cure your digestives issues.
ALSO READ:
The Morning-After Pill for Your Food Baby is Available OTC
The Digest Diet vs. the Flat Belly Diet
What Being Regular Really Means