South Beach Diet

February 19, 2009 by  
Filed under South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet–Eating Through Weight Loss

South Beach Diet has become one of the most popular diet plans on the planet. Most of this popularity can be attributed to the effectiveness and health benefits brought about by the diet. Originally designed by cardiologist Dr. Arturo Agatston, with the help of dietician Marie Almon, for his patients as a diet against heart disease, South Beach Diet quickly gained popularity as word of its weight-loss effects came out. Dr. Agatston decided to come up with a new diet after he saw that low-fat diet among patients isn’t working advantageously. He postulated that this could be due to spikes in sugar level that could result to series of hunger cycles, making patients consume more food.

South Beach Diet is known to “force” the body in burning fat, which requires more energy to burn, instead of carbohydrates. This happens when the body is low on carbohydrates and turns to fat stores for fuel. The only way to go to have this scenario is having a low carb-high fat diet. However, Dr. Agatston want the diet to be healthy for the heart especially for his patients, thus he categorized carbohydrates and fats as either good or bad.

Bad carbohydrates are the highly processed foods such as refined sugar and grains. Good carbohydrates are the relatively unprocessed ones like whole grains and vegetables. This control in carbohydrates results in lesser spike in the blood sugar level which can lead to hunger. Good fats are those that include oily fish, lean meat and nuts, all of which are rich in omega-3 fatty acid and unsaturated fats. They contribute significantly to HDL cholesterol which is the good cholesterol. Bad fats are those that contribute to LDL cholesterol like red meat fats and poultry.

To make things simpler, books and websites dedicated to South Beach Diet present a wide variety of South Beach diet recipes that anyone willing enough can whip out. South Beach cookbooks abound in major bookstores and provide comprehensive guides on how to come up with healthy recipes in line with South Beach diet plan. For those who prefer the internet, you can find South Beach diet online in a lot of websites that will give you not only recipes but also further knowledge of the program.

South Beach Diet boasts great advantages over other diet programs in terms of encouraging faithfulness to the program. The plan doesn’t put a limit in the consumption of food. You can eat until you’re full. The only restriction is on the kinds of food you are eating. This results to lesser disappointments since no one will be starving themselves, which is harmful, just to lose weight.

The South Beach diet foods are a wide variety of food choices that you can choose from, basing on your palate preferences. You can always find a recipe you’ll like. All recipes are made to be delicious so finding one that will suit your taste isn’t too difficult. However, take note that South Beach diet foods can cost more and, will need ample time and effort to prepare.

The South Beach diet is something everybody willing to lose some weight can do. With the proper knowledge and determination, it is the most effective and healthiest diet plan out in the market.