South Beach Diet Aid

This is your aid for evaluating South Beach Diet, if your are feeling you need some hints or tips on how to form your own overview.

South Beach Diet is founded by a cardiologist - Dr Agatston - who has designed a diet for patients with heart diseases, but they lost significant amounts of weight as a side effect pf this diet. Dr Agatston describes it as your plan to eat the right carbs and the right fats to lose weight and protect your heart.

Cutting Carbs and Ketosis :
It is based on the same theory underlying the Atkins diet but with some modifications, i.e. Ketosis, in which we force the body to maintain blood glucose - the energy store of the brain -, by synthesizing glucose inside the body from fat and protein stores, rather than waiting for external supply which is arbitrarily determined by appetite and sateity feeling.
Ketosis occurs when the blood glucose levels fall down the normal levelwithout external supply of glucose. to induce ketosis, you should cut out all carbswith high glycemic index - that pours high glucose amounts in the blood quickly - leading to increased blood glucose concentration.
South Beach Diet severely restricts carbs during the first 2 weeks, before it gradually re-introduce those carbs with low glycemic index. It also recommends unsaturated fats in place of saturated fats.

South Beach diet breaks the vicious circle of carbs--> Insulin--> hunger--> carbs, by allowing foods with low glycemic index such as pasta, pulses, and porridge, and these slowly release glucose into the blood, providing a steady supply of energy and you feel satisfied for longer time rather than carving carbs with high glycemic index which release more Insulin that forces you to carving more carbs and so on.This is the first modification of Atkins' which completely restricts carbs.

FATS : they should be mentioned by Dr Agatston as a cardiologist, thus he replaces saturates with monounsaturates such as olive oil and nuts.

THE PLAN is divided into 3 phases which starts with banning most carbs except low glycemic vegs such as Broccoli and Cabbage, and the focus is on eating lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs, low fat cheese, some nuts and olive oil, the second stage allows low glycemic carbs including most fruits, whole grain cereals, and pasta , and the third and the last phase allows a larger variety of foods to stay on for life. The phases are based on a combined time and weight loss schedule.The full details of the plan are better given by the South Beach Diet people themselves.
South Beach Diet claims the result is that you can lose 8- 13 lb in the first 2 weeks, and once you enter the second phase you can expect to lose 1-2 lb/week.

THE PROS :

# The diet takes the heart health in consideration, you can eat a lot of delicious foods if you limit saturated fats and trans fats.

# No major groups of food are eliminated.
* You can 'de-junk' your diet and cut down on carb rich foods ( white bread, sugary cereals, and sweets).

# No starving or fasting involved:
* You can have more energy and do not get tired if you start eating the low glycemic index way.
* You won't get hungry after you stop eating sugars,white flower,high glycemic index white rice, and potatoes.
* You can stop craving for high sugar foods after you stop eating them.

# Dieter compliance:
* The diet follows the basic principles of healthy eating and, the list of the low glycemic index foods involves a wide variety of nutrients.
* You can twist between its phases, cheat a little and a few weeks back on phase one.
* You can avoid phase 1, and start on phase 2, and get one of the better diets available.
* You get a true new life style through South Beach Diet.

THE CONS :
# The first 2 weeks of extreme carb restriction requires serious willpower and may leave you weak and wobbly.
# You will not get your recommended fruit and veg each day, and you miss out on some vitamins,minerals, and fibers.
# South beach diet does not fully cater for people who do not or cannot eat dairy. It bans soy in phase 1.
# Most of the 8-13 lb lost in phase 1 are likely to be water loss ( No one explains how).
# Some experts do not necessarily agree that you should completely ban all high glycemic foods, because glycemic index changes considerably when foods are eaten together.
# Most nutrition experts are less happy with the recommended weight loss. They see that you lose no more than 2 lb/week for good health, and this contradicts the large weight loss in the first 2 weeks.
# Most nutrition and fitness experts believe it is impossible to lose weight from just one part of your body, arguing losing weight specifically from midriff.
# Few experts argue with a diet that recommends cutting down on processed carbs and swapping foods rich in saturates for those containing mono-unsaturated fats.


The bottom line that South Beach Diet is a good alternative if you can escape its cons and stick to its pros.