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South Beach Diet
South Beach Diet is the title of an enormously popular dieting book, written by Dr. Arthur Agatston, MD, director of director of the Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
Dr. Agatston, being a cardiologist, presents in this book his diet formulas and diet plans that result in a healthy heart. The book has sold millions of copy world over.
Bad Carb and Good Carb
South Beach Diet attempts to teach people a healthy way of life where the diet chiefly comprises of right carbohydrates and fats. This new concept of diet eliminates bad carbohydrates and fats from food.
When people eat bad carbohydrates and fats they feel frequent hunger, causing them to eat more and thus gain weight. The good carbohydrates prevents this by providing a full and complete diet that provides energy through out day thus leading to correct diet without any side effects.
The ingredients of South Beach Diet are complex carbohydrates like whole grain bread, cereals and fruits. Hence it can not be compared to a simple low fat diet food. Basically South Beach Diet focuses on how food affects the blood sugar rather than just selecting few low carbohydrate foods.
South Beach Diet-Steps
South Beach Diet is divided into three phases
Phase 1
Duration : 2 weeks
Dietary Recommendation: Complete ban on baked goods, rice, potatoes, vegetables with high sugar contents, fruits, wine and beer.
This is the strictest phase of the Diet. However it does not implies that one should go hungry either. It recommends small meals that are just enough to satisfy hunger and provide adequate energy for body to work. Chicken, fish, and yogurt are some food items that are given in this phase to dieters. And the good thing is that one can add almost all the banned items back to menu after 2 weeks period. Alcohol is the only exception which stays out.
Effect: Rapid loss in weight. From 8 to 13 pounds over two week.
Phase: 2
Duration: Depends
This phase sees introduction of healthy carbohydrates in the diet, along with some of the banned items from the first two week. The effect of the food items introduced is carefully monitored for effect on blood sugar levels. The duration of phase 2 depends upon a person's ability to monitor his/her weight and response to good carbohydrate foods.
Effect: The rapid loss of weight slows down and becomes more gradual.
Phase 3
Duration: Life Time
This is the final phase of South Beach Diet which lasts for the remainder of life time. By this time it is assumed that people's tendency to fall on bad carbohydrates and fats is contained and benefits of good carbohydrates and fats so well exemplified that it would encourage them to continue on the same diet. Whenever people feel gaining weight, they can revert to phase 1 for a short duration to reduce it.
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