‘These foods could actually shrink your waistline’
A doctor has shared a number of common foods that could boost your metabolism, burn your belly fat and help you live longer. Dr William Li, author and metabolism expert, spoke to Dr Rangan Chatterjee about the latest science that points to foods that can activate our “innate fat burning systems.”
Firstly, Dr Li emphasised the difference between brown and white fats, highlighting that white what is the “wiggly and jiggly” stuff around our middle that we might want to shed in the new year, and brown fat acts as more of an organ that plays a crucial part in our metabolism.
Speaking on the podcast “Feel better Live More” the expert said that what we eat is a powerful way to channel energy away from the “dangerous visceral fat.” He said: “There are ways that we can actually utilise our metabolism and foods to be able to shrink that visceral fat.”
Watermelon, guava and papaya
These fruits all contain a “really cool” chemical called lycopene, a magical fat burning chemical that absorbs into the bloodstream and “immediately goes to the fat in our body first in our belly fat, then in our thighs, then in our butt.” He said: “It’s sort of like a fat fighting bomb that gets implanted into your fat to fight fat, right where it needs to be fought.”
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Chemicals in tea, acids in strawberries and compounds in broccoli and bok choy and turmeric also possess the magical fat burning abilities and clinical studies showed “these foods specifically could actually shrink your waistline.”
Here are some other common foods that may have you sizing down your clothes in 2025, according to the expert:
Tomatoes
Tomatoes also contain the lycopene found in papaya which “lights up brown fat” and “fights harmful body fat.” Dr Li added: “Fat can be thought of as absolutely a healthy tissue that we need to have enough.
“Now we’ve got two colours of fat in our body, white fat and brown fat. What I do think is that people go to extremes to and focus only on that and they ignore what’s really important, which is this visceral fat inside our body that you can’t see.
Avocados
Avocados are also packed with fat-fighting properties. Dr Li said: “Avocados, I love avocados. A great source of dietary fibre, surprisingly because they don’t taste very fibre-y.”
Leafy greens
Specifically broccoli, broccolini, bok choy and baby bok choy. He said: “These are vegetables you sauté with little garlic and extra virgin olive oil. You blanch it, you can stir fry, add a little oyster sauce or soy sauce, man, you can make amazing tasty dishes with it.”
Chilli peppers
Dr Li said he likes to incorporate these into his diet by cooking with them. The options are endless too as there are “hundreds of chilli peppers out there.”
Mushrooms
Touted as the new superfood for 2025, Dr Li has jumped on the band-wagon. “I love mushrooms” Dr Li said, adding this applies especially to his “Taki mushrooms on the grill”.
Canned beans
He said: “I talk about studies with canned beans that can actually shrink your waistline by fighting visceral fat, by eating lentils and other legumes.”
Olive oil
Olive oils and extra virgin olives are excellent white fat fighters.
Barley and buckwheat
Dr Li said: “Look for the high polyphenol type barley, buckwheat, soba noodles. Foods that can actually do this fit within the realm of culinary traditions, from healthy eating patterns from around the world that people find delicious.”
