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Your gut health is a major factor when it comes to improving both your overall health and losing weight and body fat — including stubborn visceral fat that makes its home around your belly and back. You can’t spot train away belly fat, but you can exercise regularly, eat a diet with plenty of whole foods, protein, and fiber, and consider supplements if you feel your diet is lacking in important nutrients.
Here are four anti-inflammatory supplements you should have if you want to lose belly fat today.
Curcumin Supplements
Why anti-inflammatory supplements for belly fat?
Registered Dietitian Sharon Collison explains in Today’s Dietitian why anti-inflammatory ingredients (including curcumin found in the spice turmeric) can help curb the major problem that is inflammation:
“Chronic inflammation is associated with the alteration of cell signaling pathways, which results in increased levels of inflammatory markers, lipid peroxides, and free radicals, causing cell damage and eventually leading to the clinical symptoms of disease. Recent research has demonstrated that chronic inflammation initiates and promotes many disease states, including obesity; diabetes; cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and inflammatory bowel diseases; and certain types of cancers.”
Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric that fights free radical damage in your cells and can help you burn more belly fat, which is actually a sign of inflammation in the body.
Fish Oil
When people talk about the brilliance of fish oil supplements, they’re thinking of the brilliance of omega-3 fatty acids. If you aren’t eating foods like cold water fatty fish, nuts, and seeds on a regular basis, a fish oil supplement could be extremely beneficial because it contains anti-inflammatory DHA, which decreases inflammation in the body and can even help with muscle recovery after a workout.
One study that examined whether polyunsaturated fatty acids could improve belly fat came up inconclusive — but not when it came to whether fish oil could play an important role.
According to the study’s conclusion: “Current evidence cannot support an exact anti-obesity role of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in overweight/obese subjects. However, these subjects may benefit from reducing abdominal fat with fish oil supplementation especially when combined with life modification intervention.”
Resveratrol
Resveratrol is an antioxidant found in red grapes and red wine and it doesn’t take much of it to reap its anti-inflammatory benefits. But if you’re not into the idea of a glass of vino each night, you can take resveratrol supplements, which have been shown in studies to lower inflammation markers, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels in people who are obese.
Vitamin D
Too much UV exposure and time spent under the sun may not be the healthiest way to get your daily recommended dosage of vitamin D, but the fact remains: studies are proving a vitamin D deficiency can be linked to belly fat. And more people than you might realize could be lacking in this vitamin:
“With more than 40 percent of the population of the United States being vitamin D deficient, this is a serious issue,” reports Medical News Today. “Some authors have referred to it as "an ignored epidemic," estimating that over 1 billion people worldwide have inadequate levels.”
Scientists are only beginning to understand the connection between vitamin D and belly fat, but the link is becoming more clear:
“They discovered that in women, both total and abdominal fat were associated with lower vitamin D levels, but that abdominal fat had the greatest impact,” Medical News Today reported on a Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study. “In men, however, lower vitamin D levels were significantly linked with fat in the liver and abdomen.”
If you're concerned about a possible deficiency, consider taking a vitamin D and calcium supplement (vitamin D actually helps your body better absorb calcium, making this a supplement marriage made in heaven).
