M U F A’s = L O V E

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DIETS ARE MEAN

It’s a lit­tle say­ing that I have posted rather promi­nently in my work cube. When I cut it out of some ran­dom mag­a­zine, I didn’t care what the adver­tiser was push­ing. My thoughts (hence the mean face etched along­side) were: it’s a kinder and gen­tler, more office-appropriate way to tell DIETS where to go. And although DIETS have not been the bane of my existence—since I like my belly more than most i.e. I like to nyam—I know what it feels like to carry around an extra 40 pounds of lov­ing (and that’s not even count­ing from where “they” say you should be in rela­tion to height and age blah blah blah.)

(Thank you to all those who are think­ing “girl you look good!” Ha! I’m think­ing it too lol)

Back to my sig­nage: DIETS ARE MEAN

For the pur­poses of this post, I like these quick-hitting gen­eral def­i­n­i­tions of diet and Wikipedia digs even fur­ther with what diet in rela­tion to food might mean.

Let’s face it, the word DIET is a trig­ger and one way or the other you fig­ure someone’s going to get hurt. How­ever, the bare facts are that the word DIET has been so over-commercialized and cap­i­tal­ized upon that we don’t even rec­og­nize the word in its sim­plest form—something we do whether its pre­scribed or not, or whether we care what goes into our mouths or not.

You are what you eat. Well, yes, and your diet is basi­cally the daily sce­nario of what you eat. Now, how you process that diet is a whole other level not to be dealt with right here or right now.

Over the past two years (since I hit 30 of course), I’ve checked out a few diet options. I can be indif­fer­ent to DIETS, but in gen­eral when­ever I start I’m focused like nobody’s business.

One such diet is The Flat Belly Diet or as I have dubbed it the FBD. I bought the pocket guide (I was too cheap to invest in the full spec­trum of lit­er­a­ture avail­able) and I dili­gently fol­lowed what turned out to be a rather excel­lent guide to not only eat­ing, but eat­ing for an area that can tell so much more about a per­son than how well their jeans will fit.

The thing that I can hon­estly say I appre­ci­ate about any good DIET is always the takeaways—those methods/techniques that become so ingrained, and work so well that when the au courant diet gets the we-can’t-be-lovers-but-we-can-be-friends-speech, you will never ever be able to for­get them.

Flat­belly friends: MUFA’s

MUFAs (pro­nounced moo-fah) are:

Monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids, plant-based fats found in some of the world’s most deli­cious foods. Stud­ies show that these good-for-you fats enhance heart health and pro­tect against chronic dis­ease. And now the lat­est research shows that these dietary super­stars may even tar­get fat where it’s hard­est to lose–in your belly!

The MUFA cat­e­gories are as fol­lows:

1. Oils
2. Nuts/Seeds
3. Avo­ca­dos
4. Olives
5. Dark Choco­late (Oh yes chocolate!)

In my book MUFAs = LOVE

I love MUFAs because my weak­ness has always been snacking—sweets and then more sweets, and then salty, and then a dash of hot sauce or grind of black pep­per, and hey why not add some melted but­ter and a double-stuffed something-something. You see where I’m going. If we excuse the peanut but­ter, I’m eat­ing it. And yes, I will eat it off your plate if you’re will­ing to share.

Believe me when I tell you there is noth­ing bet­ter than melt­ing two table­spoons of bit­ter­sweet or dark choco­late and spoon­ing it lib­er­ally over some mango chunks, straw­ber­ries or banana slices or com­bi­na­tion of them all.

Months and months after the FBD has come and gone, I am still incor­po­rat­ing MUFAs into my diet and lifestyle. The thing keep­ing MUFAs rel­e­vant and good for you/me is por­tions. Isn’t it always about por­tions? The FBD rec­om­men­da­tion that I have stuck with, are two table­spoons per serv­ing incor­po­rated into every meal. I still carry a mea­sur­ing device around with­out an ounce of shame.

The Flat Belly Diet Cook­book is still on my Ama­zon wish list.

MUFAs are an easy and afford­able way to get in those good fats and 2 table­spoons are a great way to keep every­thing in check. Diary of a Nutri­tion­ist has a great post on MUFAs and other good fats.

Now go and get you some MUFA love! There is plenty to choose from and enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: The orig­i­na­tors and mak­ers of the Flat Belly Diet did not extend a hand of friend­ship to Dasheen or myself to help things along with sales. And my even men­tion­ing the diet here is only my expe­ri­ence in rela­tion to my dis­cov­ery of the won­der­ful world of MUFAs, and should not be taken as a push or gen­tle sug­ges­tion in their direc­tion. Besides that, please do your research/homework.

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