Eat more of these foods to get a flat stomach and improve your skin

Eat chocolate to enhance your mood. Photo / 123RF

Exercise can certainly help, but one nutritionist says you can eat your way to better health and a body you've always wanted.

From oats for a flatter stomach to alternative cold-pressed oils to help with dry skin, these are the foods and drinks you need to add to your diet right now if you want to become more healthy.

Nutritionist Cassandra Barns explains here which foods are best for boosting heart health and for improving your mood - and the list even includes chocolate.

OATS FOR FLAT STOMACH

If you experience digestive problems such as bloating or pain after eating, then look at how much wheat you are eating as gluten, a protein in wheat, could be triggering your symptoms.

Try switching from wheat-based cereal to one that uses oats.

COLD-PRESSED OILS FOR DRY SKIN

Dry skin can be associated with a lack of healthy fats in your diet.

An easy way to up your intake is to use nourishing cold-pressed oils, which include flaxseed, hemp seed or avocado oils.

They're best for salad dressings or drizzled straight onto salads or warm foods after cooking.

Aim to have around two tablespoons a day.

MATCHA TEA FOR JOINT PAIN

Pain and stiffness in your joints is nearly always related to inflammation.

What we eat and drink can affect levels of inflammation in the body, and so consuming more anti-inflammatory foods and drinks may help.

Eating plenty of vegetables and fruit is a good start. Drinking green tea may also be beneficial as it contains plant compounds called catechins that have known anti-inflammatory activity.

Try a matcha green tea: matcha has been found to contain particularly high levels of catechins.

CHOCOLATE FOR LOW MOOD

Chocolate really can make you feel happier, and not just because of the sugar it contains.

Cacao itself - the raw ingredient used to make chocolate - contains a variety of substances that may benefit our energy and mood, such as theobromine.

For the greatest health benefits, eat a small amount of dark chocolate with a low sugar content or a raw cacao bar.

OILY FISH FOR HEALTHY HEART

You'll have heard it time and time again: eat oily fish for a healthy heart. That's because oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, salmon and herring contain two omega-3 fatty acids: EPA and DHA.

These two omega-3s play a vital role in helping our heart to function normally, as well as keeping blood pressure in check, and triglycerides (a type of blood fat) at healthy levels.

To jazz up your fish and turn it into a quick and tasty meal, try topping a salmon steak with miso paste and baking in the oven.