The Flat Belly Diet isn't just rabbit food. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Dieting has become a new national pastime.  Many fad diets have come about, such as the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Gullible Enough To Buy This Stuff Diet and now the Flat Belly Diet. A miracle way to make yourself Hollywood skinny has been sought for years, just like the Northwest Passage, and the Flat Belly Diet likely isn’t it either. That said, it uses some real common sense.  It won’t send you running for installment loans for bulk orders of frozen dinners that taste like cardboard, either.

Flat Belly Diet uses Mediterranean Diet

Because doctors are experts on the human body, to doctors you should go to consult about dieting and weight loss, and WebMD has reviewed the Flat Belly Diet.  The diet proclaims to burn up to 15 pounds in 32 days.  The first part consists of a four-day 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day initiation period, wherein dieters ingest foods targeted to reduce bloating and mentally adjust to eating healthier. During this four-day initial phase, they also are supposed to drink two liters per day of Sassy Water, a healthy and refreshing concoction.

Monounsaturated fats: the linchpin

As fate would have it, Cynthia Sass, inventor of Sassy Water, is a co-author of the Flat Belly Diet book, along with Liz Vaccariello.  The key to the 1,600 calories a day Flat Belly Diet is a compound called Monounsaturated Fat. MUFAs, as they’re called, are known to help reduce levels of low density lipoproteins (that’s the bad cholesterol) and potentially boost High Density Lipoprotein (the good kind).

Lots of healthy goodness

The diet itself has an eating plan, a cookbook, you name it. You eat four portion-controlled, small meals per day, each of which includes a MUFA ingredient. The idea is to stick to healthy foods like more fruits and veggies, whole grains, beans, lean protein and so forth.  Exercise is encouraged to complement the diet.

What the doctors said

The WebMD review was mixed. The review said that there were very good things about the Flat Belly Diet, but some misleading things.  First of all, they state the weight lost is likely to be water weight and that to burn 15 pounds of true fat a person would have to burn more than 1,600 calories a day, which isn’t likely.  The best weight loss results are slow and steady — a couple of pounds a week — and to remember SED – Strength training, Exercise (meaning cardio), and a healthy Diet.   There may be no Northwest Passage to weight loss.

Is your city going through yet another heat wave? Do you want to avoid all of the calories and expense that come with drinking soda? Sassy Water is the perfect summer beverage for cutting calories and costs.
Don’t use your payday loan money to buy soft drinks and coffee drinks full of sugar and caffeine when you can drink Sassy Water and get a natural, healthy pick-me-up. It’s also recommended as part of the flat belly diet.

Get your Sassy Water ingredients

Are you ready for the Sassy Water recipe? I thought so. Don’t let the “mint leaves” part scare you off. You don’t have to start growing plants; you can get them at any regular grocery store, and they are very inexpensive.
• 2 Quarts of water
• 12 Mint leaves
• 1 Cucumber peeled and sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1 Lemon sliced thin
Instructions
1. Fill up a container with 2 quarts of water.
2. Break off 12 mint leaves and place into the water.
3. Thoroughly wash the lemon rind. Slice very thin and add to water.
4. Peel the cucumber, slice really thin, and add it to the water.
5. Grate the ginger root on the fine section of your grater. Add to the water.
6. Put the water in the refrigerator and let it get cold. Overnight is recommended.
One batch of sassy water should last you all day, so fill up your water bottle, thermos or whatever container you can take with you and you can have this tasty, healthy beverage with you all the time.

What makes sassy water sassy?

Sassy water was named in honor of its concoctor, Cynthia Sass. She is the nutrition director at Prevention. The magazine also says it is so named because “it’s a heck of a lot perkier than plain old water.”
Other web sites say Sassy Water has an energizing effect somewhat similar to caffeine. The ginger is the key; it has natural energy enhancers.

Health benefits

Prevention Magazine includes sassy water as part of its popular “Flat Belly Diet.” Prevention recommends using this drink as a four-day “jump start.” It is almost free of calories, plus it keeps you well hydrated.
And, though you could spring for the “Flat Belly Diet” book, you could save yourself some cash by just switching from soda to sassy water and incorporating common sense into your diet.

More free diet advice

You could also incorporate these 10 foods, also recommended by Prevention, into your diet:
1. Almonds
2. Avocado
3. Dark or Semi-Sweet Chocolate
4. Flaxseed Oil
5. Macadamia Nuts
6. Natural Peanut Butter
7. Olive Oil
8. Pistachios
9. Sunflower Seeds
10. Walnuts
Of course, these foods are meant to be eaten in moderation. Most of them are meant to take the place of something else — dark chocolate instead of regular chocolate, olive oil instead of butter or regular cooking oil, you get the idea – the same way Sassy Water takes the place of soda. Basically, these foods are sources of good fat rather than bad fat, and Sassy Water is a source of natural, low-calorie energy.