Fiber fix for a meno-belly

Good news for anyone sick of fighting that stubborn fat that piles up around our middle as we age: There’s a way to get rid of it without so much hard work. How? It turns out that ‘feeding’ fiber to the bacteria in the GI tract can help the body automatically shed ab flab. In fact, one study found that sipping tea mixed with special prebiotic fiber helped women ages 50 to 75 shrink their waist up to 28 times faster than women given plain tea. “The latest research is blowing the minds of doctors and scientists,” says Lose Your Belly Diet author Travis Stork, M.D., whose new mission is spreading the word about prebiotics. Read on for simple tips that can help you use prebiotic fiber to target your meno-belly and make wellness soar

Dr. Stork, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, became focused on prebiotics after they worked better than traditional medicine to ease his own chronic GI trouble. He also lost 20 pesky pounds and resolved to pay his good fortune forward.

So what are prebiotics exactly? Mostly we hear about probiotics, the live microbes in food or supplements that bolster good bacteria already in our GI tracts. “Prebiotics are any type of soluble fiber,” explains Dr. Stork. “In the gut, soluble fiber turns to a gel-like food for good bacteria.” Without prebiotics, good bacteria die off and can’t help us do things like digest food, fight viruses and control blood sugar Top sources of prebiotics include onions, beans and greens, but most plants contain at least some prebiotic fiber. And we need lots of prebiotics to help good bacteria—and ourselves—thrive.

Getting a prebiotic boost