Get a Flat Stomach

ByABC News
October 19, 2006, 12:18 PM

Oct. 19, 2006 — -- We all have spoken about how great it would be to have a flatter stomach. As a personal nutrition, exercise and lifestyle coach, my clients often tell me during their evaluation that getting a flat stomach is their motivation and main goal.

Three main ingredients go into getting a flat stomach.

First, there is digestion. Digestion starts with your brain, by deciding what to eat, followed by the chewing that takes place in your mouth. From there digestion travels to the stomach, the small and large intestines, and finally to the colon.

The goal of each single step is to break down your food.

When your food is properly chewed it mixes with digestive juices such as the enzyme amylase that breaks down carbohydrates, the enzyme protease for protein and the enzyme lipase for fat.

If you do not chew your food properly, your body can't break down its nutrition, which is needed for your hormones to improve your metabolization of fat, carbohydrates and protein. In addition, your stomach might inflate and expand through bloating, because large food particles get into your gastrointestinal tract.

Second, bacteria in your stomach helps you digest your food. Your gut has good and bad bacteria. When the good bacteria, called probiotics or lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium bifidum, streptococcus yhermophilus, just to name a few, get overgrown by yeast, your digestion does not work 100 percent as well.

Friendly bacteria do the following:

If your body has a lack of friendly bacteria, your digestive system doesn't function optimally and it doesn't support your nutritional intake to help your metabolization. Additionally, candida microbes start to overgrow in your gut, releasing toxins that can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, bloating, indigestion and constant fatigue.