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The South Beach Diet: A Proposed Alternative to Low-Fat and Low-Carb Diet PlansThe South Beach Diet distinguishes itself from its two primary 'competitors' in the diet world, the low-fat and low-carb diets, by calling itself the good-fat and good-carb diet. In other words, to follow the diet one does not consciously cut down on carbohydrate or fat consumption but switches to healthy carbohyrdrates and fats.
What constitutes healthy carbohydrates and good fats? Well, for carbohydrates, that question is better answered by telling you what are not good carbs. Anything containing sugar, as one might imagine, constitutes a bad carb. So, cookies, ice cream, pretzels, and most other products that have natural sugar added to them for sweetening effects are foods that contribute to obesity and related disorders, according to Dr. Arthur Agatston, the founder of the diet. Similarly, foods that contain other simple carbohydrates that are easily digested are off-limits on this diet, including white rice, most pastas, white bread, and any food cooked with white flour. Certain fruits also are banished from the diet (or, at least, advised against). These include the sweeter fruits, such as watermelon, mangoes, and bananas.
With regard to fats, the question becomes easier to answer. Oils such as canola and olive oil can be used liberally, but vegetable oil is prohibited because of the trans-fats (an unhealthy fat) it contains. Butter is permitted, but a butter substitute such as I Can't Believe It's Not Butter is recommended instead. The good fats contained in olive oil and canola oil not only contribute to improved cardiovascular health, but also lead to satiety, a feeling of fullness. So, including fat in the diet can actually help curb one's appetite.
The filling effect of good fats contrasts strongly with the response brought about by consuming the so-called 'bad carbohydrates'. When one eats, say, a big bowl of pasta or rice for lunch, the pasta or rice provides a big initial burst of energy followed by a crash in blood sugar a few hours later. One might become light-headed or dizzy due to the low blood sugar level, so to alleviate that feeling one needs to eat something. Typically, one will wolf down a jelly doughnut, a bag of chips, or a croissant as a mid-afternoon snack to raise blood sugar again. Of course, eating such foods will only lead to more food binges later on as your blood sugar levels yo-yo up and down.
What we need to find, then, is a way of eating that will stabilize blood sugar levels for longer periods of time and will contribute to a feeling of fullness. Nothing makes a diet harder to follow than that gnawing feeling of hunger, the sensation that you just have not eaten enough. The guidelines offered by The South Beach Diet are intended to offer just that, a pattern of eating that will reduce hunger pangs, lead to greater satiety, and improve cardiovascular health even as you lose inches from your waistline.
Though I am unable to provide a complete review of the diet developed by Dr. Arthur Agatston, I can introduce a few of the concepts. The approach to carbohydrate consumption adopted by The South Beach Diet follows primarily from a measure of the effect carbs have on blood sugar called the glycemic index. Foods that have a high glycemic index, such as white bread, table sugar, white rice, and pasta (not the whole wheat variety) raise blood sugar levels rapidly giving a person the familiar sugar rush. Unfortunately, the body responds to that raised blood sugar by rapidly mobilizing insulin to clear the sugar from the blood stream. This leads to that all-too-familiar blood sugar crash that most people feel in the middle of the afternoon when lethargy and even lightheadedness leads a person to the snack table, refrigerator or coffe machine to get that last boost to last until dinner. Such high-glycemic index foods contribute to overeating, and therefore should be avoided.
Foods with a low-glycemic index, on the other hand, should be preferred. Such foods include most vegetables, particularly green vegetables, onions and mushrooms. Certain fruits, such as strawberries, blueberries, and rasberries, also can be consumed without much fear of adversely impacting blood sugar. These low-glycemic index foods typically contain high levels of fiber, a substance that does not get absorbed into the bloodstream, but does slow down the entry of sugars and starches into the blood. When carbohydrates enter the bloodstream slowly, blood sugar levels rise slowly and remain stable for a longer period of time. The net result of that is to reduce hunger pangs and help curb the appetite.
Other substances also slow the digestion of carbohydrates, including fats and protein. Both fat and protein should be included with every meal because of the protective effect it exerts on blood sugar levels. The South Beach Diet calls for a significant consumption of lean meats, such as turkey and chicken breast, lean beef such as sirloin, and virtually all types of fish. Typical breakfast food includes eggs (whole eggs, not just the egg whites), and lean bacon, such as Canadian or turkey bacon. Typically, protein forms larger portion of the meal compared to carbohydrates.
Like the Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet consists of phases. The first phase is the strictest and lasts, as with the Atkins Diet, two weeks. During that phase, the dieter eliminates all but the lowest glycemic index foods including all types of fruit. A typical day on the strict phase of the South Beach Diet looks very much like a day in the strict phase of the Atkins Diet: an omelette for breakfast, a grilled chicken salad for lunch, and a lean meat with some green vegetable such as broccoli for dinner. Snacks are permissible twice a day and include nuts and cheese sticks. Though the total carbohydrate consumption may be slightly higher than is permitted in the Atkins Diet, the overall flavor of the two diets is remarkably similar.
After the initial strict phase, the dieter can begin adding more carbohydrates. The second phase involves ongoing weight loss, but at a slower rate than occurred during the first two weeks. The variety of foods permitted during the second phase makes it a more agreeable phase for the long-term and therefore dieters are encouraged to make the switch to phase II even if they did not experience difficulty following phase I.
After you reach your desired weight, phase III kicks in, which is the lifetime maintenance phase. Basically, this phase involves following the basic principles for carbohydrate and fat consumption, but permits the dieter a greater degree of freedom in choosing what foods to eat. As with the Atkins Diet, dieters are encouraged to stick to the basic principles of the diet and to return to a stricter phase if weight gain returns.
Ultimately, the two major popular diets on the nutritional scene are very similar in the structured system they employ. The founders of the two diets believe that each diet can be, and should be, adopted for life rather than for a brief period of time. The goal for each diet is to permanently change a person's eating habits in order to achieve and sustain weight loss and to improve cardiac health. Most of all, the diets produce results and can be followed without the typical dieter feeling of deprivation. One can enjoy food and still diet, which should be music to the ears of anyone who's tried to lose weight in the past.
On a personal note, my wife and I have followed the South Beach Diet for the past six months and have both lost a considerable amount, yet we have experienced very few struggles to maintain the eating habits described in The South Beach Diet. It literally has changed our lives. Though we recommend both the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet, we more highly recommend the South Beach Diet due to greater allowances permitted by the diet and our own personal experience with it. Read the book and the principles stated in it carefully, though, before proceeding and try to re-read the book every few months (the non-recipe portion of the book is only about a hundred pages long) to remind yourself of the basic tenets of the diet. Trust us. It will help because it's easy to deviate from the diet and to convince yourself that certain foods truly are not that bad.