The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss - M.D. Arthur Agatston

The South Beach Diet is based around the principles of eating good carbs and good fats, so it’s in with salads, vegetables, lean steaks, chicken breasts and oily fish, and out with pies, cakes, chip butties, sausages and sugary drinks.

The author of this book is Dr Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist based in Miami. He created this diet to meet the needs of his patients, as he felt that the diet recommended to his patients that focused ...
.../> It is based around the principle of the Glycemic Index – the rate sugars are broken down and released into the blood stream. When we've eaten, carbohydrates in food are digested and broken down into their basic sugars. These are then released into the blood stream for our bodies to either use immediately for energy, or to be stored as fat for later use. This large surge of sugar in our blood causes our body to releases insulin to steady ... more

The South Beach Diet is based around the principles of eating good carbs and good fats, so it’s in with salads, vegetables, lean steaks, chicken breasts and oily fish, and out with pies, cakes, chip butties, sausages and sugary drinks.

The author of this book is Dr Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist based in Miami. He created this diet to meet the needs of his patients, as he felt that the diet recommended to his patients that focused on eating plenty of carbs and very low in fats was actually having a negative effect on his patients’ health.

It is based around the principle of the Glycemic Index – the rate sugars are broken down and released into the blood stream. When we've eaten, carbohydrates in food are digested and broken down into their basic sugars. These are then released into the blood stream for our bodies to either use immediately for energy, or to be stored as fat for later use. This large surge of sugar in our blood causes our body to releases insulin to steady the levels of blood sugar. High carb foods cause a quick rise in blood sugar level, so a large amount of insulin is released. This large amount of insulin causes sugar levels to drop rapidly, leaving you lacking in energy, craving more carbs and quickly feeling hungry so that you eat again.

The diet has three phases – a tough two-week initial period where all bread, potatoes, fruit & fruit juice, pasta and sugar is forbidden. I found this very tough indeed, but the book gives you three meals per day, plus two snacks and a cheese based dessert (which was yucky). I did 4 days of the first stage before I skipped to stage two, where you may re-introduce one serving of good carbs, certain fruits and a wider variety of meat and dairy products. Stage 3 is based around long term eating habits, and lets you have the odd treat. I’m not there yet so I can’t comment on how effective stage three is.

Well, to be fair, I’ll eat anything except parsnips and my auntie Maureen’s shepherds pie, but if you’re the sort of person who likes meat and two veg meals, and the two veg you like are chips and bread, then this is not the diet for you. Neither is this diet suitable if you don’t like cooking or don’t have a fair amount of time to spend preparing food. It’s quite tough on the household budget too – think how much a ready-made lasagne or a pound of sausages cost, and then consider the price of sirloin steak of salmon fillets. In defence of the increase in price though, I wasn’t buying cookies, sweets, crisps or sugary drinks, so the increase in my shopping bill was bearable.

I admit that I haven’t followed the plan word for word, just taken up the basic principles. My daily diet used to be something along the lines of cereal, yoghurt and fruit in the mornings; sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch; sausages, mash and veg in the evening plus biscuits, more crisps, chocolate etc throughout the day.
Now I still eat cereal, yoghurt and fruit in the mornings, but I have a salad at lunch and an evening meal with lean meat or fish and loads of vegetables. I’ve knocked out the junk and the snacks and I drink more tea and water than before, and yes, I have lost weight and I do feel better in myself.

The book has clear explanations of the process of how our bodies work, and how they sometimes fight against us. The diet plans include recipes that are easy to follow, but as I stressed earlier, you need to be prepared to make your lunch before you go to work, and expect to spend plenty of time chopping veggies – bunging things in the microwave simply isn’t an option.

If you’re planning to lose weight, good luck!
 

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