South Beach Diet - Your Guide

The South Beach Diet is one of the most popular diets in history. The diet is incredibly effective because it differentiates between what are considered "good carbs" and "bad carbs". As the South Beach Diet is not your typical low carb diet, the selection of food that you are allowed to eat is vast. Because of this people on the South Beach Diet find it easy to stick to the diet, and they successfully lose weight as a result.

South Beach Diet News

South Beach Diet and Bill Clinton

It seems the South Beach Diet is even working for Bill Clinton and his traveling entourage. Jamie Oliver's famous London restaurant, named Fifteen, had to make last minute changes to their menu options making them SouthBeach Diet friendly.

New South Beach Diet Foods

The makers of popular Oreo cookies and macaroni cheese, Kraft Foods Inc, will be adding a Southbeach Diet range of foods to its line-up this spring. The new Southbeach diet range will include cereals, pizzas, wraps, and entrees.

This news comes as interest in low carb diets, such as Atkins, are beginning to slump. Dr Arthur Agaston, creator of the South Beach diet said that the new range of Southbeach diet foods will help to to clear up a common misconception that the south beach diet is a low carb diet. The new Kraft Foods line up will not be marketed as a "low carb food" range, but rather focus on healthy amounts of the "right carbs" and the "right fats".

Amid serious current concerns relating to obesity, the new Southbeach diet line-up of foods is being welcomed.

South Beach Diet: Good Carbs, Great!

A South Beach Diet related trial done in the Netherlands recently involved feeding 26 males good carbohydrates (complex carbs) for breakfast one day, and then bad carbs (simple carbohydrates) for breakfast the following day.

The results wont seem surprising to anyone familiar with the South Beach Diet. The researchers found that those consuming a complex carbohydrate breakfast (whole grain breads and cereals) felt more energetic and less hungry, throughout the day, than those who ate the simple carbohydrates.

The consumption of the simple refined carbs for breakfast (which the South Beach Diet advises against) resulted in increased glucose and insulin levels, triglyceride levels and free fatty acids.

Atkins follows the SouthBeach Diet's Lead

The traditional "high fat, low carb" Atkin's diet is now following the South Beach Diet advice of discriminating against bad fats such as saturated animal fats. The Atkins diet has long been a concern from many intuitionalists and health experts due to the high proportion of bad saturated fats that traditionally lead to heart disease.

Ahead of a large forthcoming advertising campaign, the people behind the Atkins diet have issued a warning saying that only 20% of a dieter's total calories should come from saturated fats. Some still believe this figure is too high.

The discrimination against bad fats (for example, saturated animal fats) and bad carbs (simple carbohydrates) has always been the focus of the South Beach Diet. The South Beach Diet is a naturally healthier alternative to Atkins.

South Beach Diet - What's the fuss?

The South Beach Diet is being touted as the next "big thing" amongst those trying to lose weight. But what's all the fuss about? Well, this site has been set up to fill you in on all the details of the SouthBeach Diet in a straight forward, no gimmick manner. After all, you want to get on with losing weight ready for summer, right?

A Quick Summary of the Idea Behind Low Carb Diets

The body uses sugar and glucose as a primary source of energy. Simple carbohydrates get absorbed into the bloodstream as sugar very rapidly. This is why "high energy" drinks such as Lucozade Sport will provide you with a temporary energy boost - they're very high in glucose. The basic idea behind low carb dieting, including the SouthBeach Diet, is that if there is a shortage of this primary energy source (the carbohydrates) then the body will, instead, begin to burn fat as a source of energy.

Where Did The SouthBeach Diet Come From?

South Beach Diet was created by Dr. Arthur Agatston after finding many of his patients were having little success with traditional low carb - high fat diet plans such as the Atkins diet. Being a cardiologist, Dr. Agatston's primary concern was to find a diet that resulted in a healthy heart. He couldn't find such a diet so decided to formulate his own diet plan which has become known as The South Beach Diet.

"In one 12-week study of 40 overweight people, those who followed the SouthBeach Diet lost an average of 13.6 lb, almost double the 7.5 lb lost by those on the strict "Step II" American Heart Association (AHA) diet. And the South Beach Diet group showed greater decreases in waist-to-hip ratio (belly fat) and triglycerides, and their good to bad cholesterol ratio improved more. Plus, only one person [in the SouthBeach Diet group] dropped out compared with five in the AHA group." - Dr. Agatston

So, Is the South Beach Diet Just Another Low Carbohydrate Diet?

In a word, no. The idea with the SouthBeach Diet is to lose weight in a manner that's healthy for the dieter. Unlike other low carb diets, it does this by having the dieter select between good and bad carb foods. For this reason a dieter on the South Beach Diet will often eat more fruit and even whole grain bread when compared to other low carb diets. The SouthBeach Diet is more balanced than many other low carb diets.

Instead of just selecting low carbohydrate foods the SouthBeach Diet focuses on how foods effect your blood sugar levels. This is measured by the glycemic index and this is what's used to differentiate between good and bad carb foods.

How Does The South Beach Diet Work?

The South Beach Diet is split into three phases. Each phase becomes more relaxed in terms of what you can and cannot eat. Because of this a person on the South Beach Diet will normally lose weight at a faster rate whilst at an earlier phase than a later phase. However, no one wants to be permanently on a strict diet and indeed this is often the reason why many diets fail. Because of this, only phase one is this "strict" and lasts only for two weeks. To maintain a healthy body weight the dieter may move between the different phases. As these phases are really the basis for the South Beach Diet, you can find them explained in a little more detail by clicking here.