10 Superfoods You Should Be Eating To Lose Visceral Fat

10 superfoods to lose visceral fat. Now, I get it. The word superfood gets thrown around loosely, and most people have switched off to the term. And honestly, you have the right to. Because a lot of the superfoods have been marketed, but they have no human-based evidence behind them. But some of them do. And the ones that do are not the ones that you've heard about a thousand times. Today, I'm going to give you 10 with real science behind them to help you lose your visceral fat. And two of them are going to surprise you. The first one was originally developed for astronauts and soldiers. And the second one is one that a lot of people debunked in the 1980s as a diet fad decades ago. Now, both of those foods have human clinical evidence-based research behind them right now. My name is Dr. Michael Diamonds. I'm a medical doctor, pro-natural bodybuilder, and a scientist with degrees in microbiology and biochemistry. I'm also the founder of Scott by Science, where me and my team of medical doctors have taken thousands of clients, reversed their blood biomarkers, and gotten them in the shape of their lives. So, stick around to the end, because the last food on this list is the most calorie-dense of them all. And I use it every single day. Now, let's get straight into it. Number one, spirulina. This is the one that surprises people the most. Now, spirulina is a blue-greed microalgae. It's basically this microscopic spiral-shaped bacteria that grows in fresh water lakes. Now, it sounds like something that you would scrape off the bottom of a pond, but NASA developed it as a food source for astronauts in space, and the military looked at it like survival food for soldiers, precisely because of how nutritionally dense it is. So, here is what makes this relevant for fat loss. Around 60 to 70 percent of spirulina's dry weight is protein, which makes it one of the most protein- That protein content suppresses hunger through the same mechanism that we talked about before. It triggers the hormone called peptide YY that travels from your gut to your brain and tells your brain to stop looking for food. Spirulina does something beyond protein. It contains an active compound called phycocyanin. It's the pigment that gives it that blue-green color, and research suggests that phycocyanin interferes with the immune cells called microphages that infiltrate visceral fat. Visceral fat is that deep fat that's wrapping around your organs, and it's driving inflammation, it's driving insulin resistance, and it even slows your metabolism. And when those macrophages move into the fat, they kick off a cycle of inflammation that makes losing it progressively harder. Spirulina appears to interrupt that cycle, and this just isn't theory. There's actually a meta-analysis, which means it's research of researchers pulling in 17 randomized controlled trials, and they found that spirulina supplementation reduced body weight, body fat percentage, BMI in overweight and obese adults. This is something I need to be honest about and its effects. Spirulina is not going to melt your body fat off, but this daily addition to a caloric deficit will support fat loss, visceral fat loss, and belly fat loss at a hormonal and cellular level that almost no other food will, and even supplements. So this is how I want you to incorporate it. Add one to two teaspoons of spirulina powder to a morning smoothie with a strong flavored fruit, maybe like a mango or pineapple, which will mask that earthy taste that you can get from it. Start with half a teaspoon if you're new, and then build up to it. And you'll find a spirulina powder or tablets at any pharmacy or health food shop, or just search for it on Amazon. If that already changed how you're looking at superfoods, hit the video with a gentle thumbs up. This is the single biggest signal to me that tells me that you guys enjoy this level of research and me bringing in new information that you don't see anywhere. So stay with me because food number two is something that most people stopped eating 30 years ago after we were told it was the bump. Now the research today is telling us a different story. Number two, grapefruit. Most people associate grapefruit with a 1980s fad diet. They assumed the whole thing was marketing nonsense, and we moved on. But this is what's actually happening. The early claims were wildly overstated. People said grapefruit contained this magic enzyme that burned fat directly, and that part was never true. Underneath that exaggeration though, there was something real. Now grapefruit contains a compound called naringenin, and it's a flavonoid fruit in citrus fruits. And naringenin does something most foods cannot. It activates two proteins called p-alpha and p-gamma, which act like master switches for how your body stores fat and how efficiently it burns it for fuel. When those are switched on, your body leans towards using fat for energy rather than the default of storing it. Naringenin also improves your insulin sensitivity, meaning your body handles the storage hormone insulin more efficiently. So essentially, less glucose is being shuttled into your body as fat. And here's the part that surprises a lot of people. There's a randomized controlled trial, and it's placebo controlled, and participants ate a half of fresh grapefruit before each of their three meals every day for 12 weeks. And then the grapefruit group lost significantly more weight than the placebo group while improving their insulin resistance. For the people who already had metabolic syndrome, the effect was even stronger. I have to be honest here. Grapefruit interacts with a long list of medications, which tells you how powerful it is. Grapefruit interacts with statins, it interacts with blood pressure medications, and also interacts with some blood thinners. So if you are on any of those prescription medications, check with your doctor before taking grapefruit regularly. This is what I mean by how powerful these foods are. So what to do? Have half a grapefruit as part of breakfast alongside your protein. That naringenin is the most concentrated part. It's the white pit that's just underneath the skin. So eat as much of it as you can stomach rather than just the flesh. If the bitterness is too much, add a tiny bit of honey rather than sugar to keep the insulin response minimal. Food number three. Salmon makes the list for three separate reasons. And the first one is the reason that you're not thinking of. Yes, salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids. Those are fats that your body can't make on its own, and it can only get it from food. But here's why this matters for fat loss specifically. Chronic inflammation. The low-level kind that's quietly persisting over weeks and months is one of the most underrated barriers to losing fat. It disrupts your entire hormone that regulates your hunger. It also blunts how well your body responds to insulin and how it signals to your body to hold on to fat rather than burn it. And human studies consistently show the lower inflammatory markers that quietly stole fat. Now the second reason is the protein. A hundred gram serving of salmon will give you 25 grams of protein for roughly 200 calories. And that protein triggers the same hunger suppressing hormone that's going to keep you full for hours. And the third reason no one talks about online, nobody, only Dr. Mike, your boy, is iodine. Salmon is one of the best dietary sources for it. And your thyroid, it's the small butterfly-shaped gland in your neck that sets your metabolic rate. It cannot function without iodine. Now a lot of people in western country are quietly low on it. And a thyroid that is short on iodine makes less of the hormone that decides how fast or how slow you burn energy. So one piece of salmon is reducing inflammation. It's giving you muscles, suppressing hunger, and it's also feeding the gland that turns your metabolism all the way up all at once. So what to do? Eat two to three servings of a fatty fish per week. Now if you don't want salmon, you can have mackerel or sardines or herring per week. So I want you to get wild caught salmon over the farmed one wherever you can since the omega-3 content in the wild caught is much higher. Number four, green tea baby. It's been on every superfood list for years but we need a blow on it. Pause. But almost nobody understands the specific reason why it belongs on this list. And it's not that it's just an antioxidant in some vague general sense. It is the two compounds that green tea works on together. EGCG and caffeine. Now EGCG is a plant compound called catechin and found in high concentration in green tea leaves. On its own it does very little but paired together with caffeine it does something that neither one manages alone. It blocks the enzyme that normally breaks down noradrenaline. So hear me out. Noradrenaline is the signal molecule that tells your body to use fat as a source of energy and it burns fat. So when you block the enzyme that breaks that signal and the signal to release and burn fat stays switched on for longer after you drink green tea. And human studies link that that catechin and caffeine combination too small but real improvements in calorie burning and fat oxidation. So what to do? Drink two to three cups of that green tea a day. Ideally have it before a training session so you can maximize its fat burning effect during your sessions. Brew it at around 80 degrees rather than boiling water because if it's too hot it can damage the catechins which we really want. Number five. Chili peppers. It contains this compound called capsaicin which is what gives chili its heat. It creates a heat by triggering the same receptors that respond to the actual rise in temperature. So your body thinks that it's warming up and responding to increasing thermogenesis and that is burning more calories to produce heat. This is the honest thing that I need to share with you. The effects of this is small. So adding chili to your meals can maybe burn an extra 50 calories a day. It's not dramatic. But capsaicin does something arguably even more useful. It can blunt your appetite. Human studies show that eating chili with a meal reduces how much you eat in the following meal. So what to do? You can add fresh or dried chili to as many meals as you can tolerate. Cayenne pepper is a more practical form. Half a teaspoon can give you a meaningful dose without you know being overwhelmed if you're not used to the spicy. So let me know in the comments below which one of these foods you're gonna add. I really want to know because this will tell me if I should add a part two. Let's move to food number six. Now most people avoid avocados on a diet because it's high in fat. And that's the wrong way to think about it guys. Avocado is high in monosaturated fat. The same type of fat that you find in olive oil which behaves completely different in your body than the saturated fat that you get in processed food. It improves how well you respond to insulin. It lowers LDL cholesterol. That's that bad cholesterol that's tied to that arterial plaque. And there's also control trial evidence. Swapping a daily avo in for refined carbs shifts where your body stores fat. With one trial, one research paper showing a drop in deep visceral fat in women specifically. Avocado is one of the highest fiber fruits that you can eat. And a single one carries around 10 to 13 grams of fiber which will slow down your digestion. It will stretch out your fullness signal. And on top of that, it feeds the good gut bacteria that help regulate your hunger hormone. So this isn't a food that you should be afraid of on fat loss. It is the food that's gonna work for you over time. And as long as it replaces refined carbs rather than getting piled on top of them, you're good. So what to do? Replace your refined carbs in your one meal with half an avo. Swap it, add it to your toast with eggs in the morning. Now, number seven. Chia seeds are one of the most calorie efficient satiety foods that you can buy. Two tablespoons run about 140 calories with roughly 10 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. Most of that fiber is soluble fiber. And that fiber is the one that dissolves in water and forms a gel. So here's the part that does the work. When chia seeds hit the liquid, they swell to around 12 to 11 times the original size and turn into a thick gel. And that gel sits in your gut and physically slows down everything digesting through. So what happens is glucose enters your bloodstream more gradually. Your stomach empties more slowly. You stay fuller for longer than you would in the same number of calories in low fiber food. So chia is one of the best plant sources of anti-inflammatory omega threes that we talked about with salmon. So what to do? Stir two tablespoons of chia seeds into Greek yogurt or oats or into a smoothie. Make sure that it sits there for 10 to 15 minutes. The gel that forms is very satisfying. It will fill you into the and it's amazing. Food number eight, cinnamon. It is the most underrated food on this list because most people think of cinnamon as just, you know, food or flavoring and nothing else. But cinnamon contains an active compound called cinnamaldehyde. And that thing behind the smell and taste, that's cinnamaldehyde. And that cinnamaldehyde improves your insulin sensitivity. Remember, when your insulin decides where your glucose goes after you eat, your body responds really well to it. That glucose heads to your muscle for fuel instead of storing it. And when it doesn't, it gets stored up as fat. And cinnamon improves that response. So more of what you eat fuels your muscle and fuels less of your fat. And it also slows how fast your stomach empties, which flattens that glucose spike after a carb-heavy meal. Number nine, ginger has been used in traditional Asian medicine for over thousands of years. And unlike the traditional Asian remedies, there's actually human evidence for ginger and especially for fat loss. So let me tell you about it. Now, ginger contains compounds called gingerols and chagols. That source of that sharp spicy bite, that's what it is. And they do two useful things in your body. First, they are thermogenic. They raise your body's temperature and energy expenditure in a similar way to capsaicin that I talked about earlier. The second one is that they reduce inflammation. As we keep on talking about inflammation in this video, chronic inflammation is one of the most direct hormonal barriers to fat loss. And there's a meta-analysis of human trials that found ginger reduced body weight, waist to hip ratio, and hip circumference in overweight and obese individuals. That combination of the thermogenesis and the anti-inflammatory action gives ginger two mechanisms working together, which makes it more interesting than a single trick pony food. So what to do? Grate fresh ginger onto your meals. Add fresh ginger onto your smoothies and onto your teas. And you can use a thumb-sized piece, grate it into hot water with lemon, and it makes a simple morning drink that can deliver that real dose of gingerols that I was talking about. Now, ground ginger powder can also work. Half a teaspoon that you can add into your smoothie or into your oats can do a good job. Now, a quick one before I go into the last food. I'm considering putting a food video together where I include all of these ingredients in an entire meal. Let me know in the comments and say, Dr. Mike, make the five superfood meal video, and I'll do that for you guys. And I'll combine these and make a cooking show. Now, 10, extra virgin olive oil. It is the most calorie-dense food on this entire list at 120 calories a tablespoon. So I get it. Putting this food in a fat loss video sounds backwards, but it carries some weight, pun intended. Now, the compounds that are packed into it make it one of the most powerful metabolic-supporting foods you can use. The main fat in olive oil is called oleic acid. It's a monounsaturated fat that improves your insulin resistance, and it's been shown to switch on genes that can promote fat burning, meaning that your body gets better at using stored fat for fuel. So what sets extra virgin olive oil apart from the regular ones and a compound called a leucanthel? It's a natural anti-inflammatory that works through the same enzyme pathway as ibuprofen. And because chronic inflammation quietly drags down fat loss at a hormonal level, anything that lowers it builds a better environment for fat loss. So I use extra virgin olive oil as my main cooking source. I use it as a base on my salad. I use it as a dressing. I add it to my sauces, not for more dramatic fat burning, but because it replaces the worst fat sources. And it also can support my metabolic environment for fat loss and not make it worse over years like the seed oils. So what to do? Replace refined vegetable oils in your cooking with extra virgin olive oil, and use it as the base for your dressings using lemon, using garlic cloves, or vinegar. I want you to buy cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. It should be in a dark bottle. We want it away from light so it can protect that compound leucanthel. So those are 10 foods with real evidence behind it, not miracles and science. Science! Not magic fat burner. Just tools that generally support fat loss. It'll improve your hormonal levels, your metabolic level, and it will consistently help you get into a caloric deficit. And if you want me to turn this into a full cooking video where I show you how to put these together, comment down below, Dr. Mike, make five superfood meals and I'll do it for you. If you want to work with me and my team, it's the first link in the description. If you guys enjoy this type of videos, leave the video the gentle thumbs up. And as I always say, keep putting one foot in front of the other, especially when you don't feel like it.