THE SIGHT OF STOMACHS SQUEEZING OUT OVER TROUSERS IS NOW SO FAMILIAR THAT IT HAS MERITED A NEW ENTRY IN THE DICTIONARY.  BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO GET RID OF THAT ‘MUFFIN-TOP’ FOREVER.

Picture this: you’ve planned a big night out and want to look the part, so you go to your wardrobe and pull out your brand new trousers and skin-tight top.  ‘But when you take a final look in the mirror you don’t have to ask does my belly look too big in this?’ because a bulging layer of fat hangs over the wasitband of your lovely low-cut jeans.

Does this scenario seem familiar? Well rest assured you are not alone.  This modern phenomena has been quietly aptly-coined muffin-top syndrome.  It affects both men and women, but men prefer to call their extra layers of fat ‘love handles’.

Given that the average person skips breakfast, grabs a latte en route to work, and has a mod morning snack of biscuits accompanied by a sugar laden soft drink, it is no wonder that the muffin top is so prevalent. The ingestion of all this sugar causes a rapid rise in blood-sugar levels, which the body converts to fat that is then stored on the hips.

There was a time when fresh food prepared and cooked in the kitchen and served at the dinner table.  Today food scientists in laboratories are your chefs and their goal is to manipulate your taste-buds and, more importantly, ensure one helping is never enough.

Nor is the quest for a slim waistline helped by the ubiquity of the food pyramid, which promotes the consumption of grains, including processed cereals, breads & pastas.  Processed foods, low in nutrients have been modified and changed from their original state so that they can last longer on the Supermarket shelves.

It may also be of interest you to know that farmers have found grain to be an effective method of fattening up cows for market and, if it can fatten up a cow with two stomachs, it will do a tremendous job of fattening up yours. In fact if you were to soak a slice of processed bread under a tap, squeeze it and throw it against a wall, it would stick like glue. Try it.  The experiment will help you understand why you feel bloated, have digestive issues and are the not so-proud owner of your very own muffin-top.

So what can you do to set rid of it.

• Eat foods that were around 10,000 years ago. You have the digestive system of a hunter, so favour a diet of meat, fish, greens, nuts and berries.

• If the food you are about to eat didn’t run, swim, fly or isn’t green don’t eat it.

• Eat organic meats, dairy and veggies as often as possible.

• Eat fruits with thin skins as they contain more of the anti-oxidants that help your body deal with toxins.

• Eat small amounts every two to three hours and include protein, fibrous fruits or vegetables and healthy fats at every meal

• Remove temptation from the kitchen. If sweets. biscuits, ice-cream and alcohol aren’t there, then you can’t indulge.

• Avoid fasting. When the body goes into starvation mode it eats muscle and stores fat as a result

• No artificial sweeteners. None, not even a little. Yes, this will mean you’ll have to read all the labels, but you’ll get used to it.

• Train hard. Choose exercises that require a muscular-workout using weights rather than aerobic exercises.  Muscle burns a lot more energy.