Visceral fat is stored deep in the belly. Having too much of it has been linked to various medical issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and even certain cancers. This means that keeping your visceral fat levels in check is important to your health. An important cause of high visceral fat is a poor diet and consuming too many calories.
But this, in turn, means that your diet can also play a role in losing visceral fat. Personal trainer at OriGym, Jessie Jones, recommended upping your intake of dark green foods in order to do this. "Dark green leaves and super greens like spirulina are some of the best things you can eat to tackle visceral fat. A vicious circle is going on with visceral fat in which stress is a common cause of the storage of this fat, but the storage itself causes the adrenal glands to exhaust and malfunction. This means we can produce more stress hormones and be left with inflammation and long-term health issues."
Examples of dark leafy greens include spinach, kale, lettuce, broccoli, rocket, and cabbage.
Jones' claims are backed by a paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2014. The meta-analysis of five existing studies said: "Consumption of non-starchy vegetables is associated with lower liver fat deposition, and dark green or bright orange/yellow vegetable intake is associated with lower visceral fat and improved insulin sensitivity."
