What’s With All The Hype About The South Beach Diet?
The South Beach Diet was created by the cardiologist Arthur Agatston. Unlike other diets, South Beach requires a mixture of healthy fats and carbs, that are blended together to create a healthy and balanced diet. The unhealthy items forbidden from this diet comprise ones Dr. Agatston believes to contain bad carbohydrates. Bad carb foods like white rice and white potatoes are not to be eaten, while foods such as sweet potatoes and brown rice are okayed under the rules of the South Beach Diet.
The diet was originally developed to treat Dr. Agatston’s cardiac patients by reversing their resistance to insulin. This side effect of taking in too many bad carbohydrates can keep the body’s insulin from converting sugar and fat. Ingesting these bad carbs can make heart problems worse.
The South Beach Diet is made up of three distinct diet phases. In every section, the dieter must eat the proper foods and keep from eating foods that have bad fats in them. The preliminary step is the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet, during which the dieter will lose his resistance to insulin. The body’s fat stores will then be burned, which can cause the dieter to lose 13 pounds during this period. There are three meals each day, with vegetables, cheese, meat, eggs, fish and nuts eating eaten each day. These are the foods that have the healthy fats recommended by the diet. The dieter will not be left hungry or craving sweet snacks because meals and snacks are eaten regularly.
During step two, dairy, fruit and whole grain items are recommended for the diet. With small portions, these same healthy fats, carbs and proteins are eaten during this phase of the diet. Red wine is allowed in moderation during this step. About two pounds a week can be lost during this step. Once the goal weight has been reached, it’s time to begin phase three.
Phase three marks the maintenance phase to keep the weight off permantently. The dieter eats three servings of whole grain and three of fruit, as well as the other approved foods. The dieter eats six times a day, which includes both meals and snacks. This final phase is effective for both keeping off extra weight and keeping the heart healthy.
Unlike many diets, the South Beach Diet doesn’t require keeping track of calories or periods of hunger. The meal size on this diet was designed to keep the dieter feeling full. This keeps the South Beach dieter from binging due to hunger. The South Beach Diet also encourages eating as many natural foods as possible, with few processed foods. The meats eaten on the diet should not be too fatty. Foods that are approved for the diet have been made into a line of meals named South Beach Living.
In the last couple of years, the diet has been studied to figure out how practical the South Beach Diet has been. Two recent studies proved that the South Beach dieters involved in the studies did lose a significant amount of weight while following the South Beach Diet.