"Belly Flattening" Foods

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Created on 01, July, 2008

A health magazine article by a dietitian/MPH and reprinted on a major online news site states that certain foods are “belly flattening.” 

As any nutrition/health professional should know, there is no such thing as a food that makes you (or your belly) thin, and any claim otherwise is irresponsible and misleading. There are, of course, foods that have better nutrition content (better fats, more fiber, more vitamins and minerals, etc.), but in terms of keeping weight off, the only “secret” is to keep caloric intake at or below energy expenditure. In other words, eat less and/or exercise more. Foods that come in smaller portions can help in that regard, but reading the “number of servings per package” is just as good, if you limit what you eat to one serving, and it can be done with any food. The article also makes various unsubstantiated claims for various food products – claims that would be illegal on food packages: “anti-aging,” “brain boosting,” etc. In addition, the author uses criteria for “heart healthy” that are not in conformance with those established by FDA (i.e., the ones that must be used for labeling food products). For example, rather than limiting saturated fat to “3 grams or less” per serving, the established limit for a “heart healthy” food is 1 gram (in addition to other criteria for “low saturated fat”).