Weight Loss Diets

South Beach Diet History

What is known as the South Beach Diet started began with Arthur Agatston, MD, a cardiologist, who decided to develop an eating plan that would improve the cholesterol and insulin levels of his patients with heart disease. Now, the South Beach Diet has grown into something much bigger. That's because the plan Agatston created no only improves cholesterol and insulin levels, but it also has helped many people lose weight."

The South Beach is about the restriction of carbohydrates. The South Beach Diet, unlike the Atkins system, allows "good" carbohydrates, such that are derived from fruit and foods with a low glycemic index. South Beach also advocates portion control. They allow snacking all day and do not count calories. However, if you are like most, and take advantage of these snacking periods by gorging on whatever you can get your hands on, the diet will not work.

The reason for the restriction of carbohydrates is to re-establish the body's sensitivity to one of the main metabolic hormones. The key for a healthy body is a good hormone level. In order to regulate hormones like insulin and glucagon, the body uses essential substances from food. As a result, food is considered by many the most powerful tool to change how our body works.

By removing carbohydrates from the diet, and replacing them with fats and protein (which are satieting and have little effect on blood sugar levels), the induction period of the low carb period re-establishes the body's ability to deal with carbohydrates effectively. Just as importantly, it switches the body from a carbohydrate-burning machine to a fat burning machine. In other words, in the absense of carbohydrates, the body has to turn to fat as its main source of energy.

The South Beach diet consists of several stages:

First: all moderate-to-high glycemic carbohydrates are completely eliminated from the diet. That means breads, buns, sweets, refined grains, most fruits, and so on. This period is intended to last a minimum of two weeks.
Second: moderate to high glycemic foods are very slowly introduced back into the diet. You may wish to add one slice of bread and one piece of fruit per day to start. This second stage of the diet may last for a year or more, depending on a person's weight lose goal.
Third: the most liberal part of the diet, where even more carbs are allowed. While more carbs are allowed into the diet in this stage, this is not intended to be a return to the eating habits that got you in this mess in the first place.

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