South Beach Diet is originally created to prevent heart disease by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietitian Marie Almon. The original purpose of the program is replacing low fat diet suggested by American Heat Association in 1980s which is turned out to increase the risk of heart disease instead of decrease it. It is gain popularity quickly in the early 2000s as a powerful weight loss program.
The diet basics are actually really simple: replacing “bad carbohydrates” and “bad fats” with “good carbohydrates” and “good fats”:
1. Replaced foods that contain heavily refined sugar with relatively unprocessed foods such as vegetables, beans, and whole grains.
2. Focus more on unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids which contribute to HDL cholesterol and use it as replacement for trans fat and saturated fats which contribute to LDL cholesterol.
There are 3 phase in this diet. The 1st is aim to make you familiar with the basic concept and apply strict diet which will make you lose weight significantly, the 2nd is prolonged session of the 1st phase but with less strict rules. When you enter 3rd phase, you are considered to have mastered all the basic principle and can carry it for the rest of your life.
Pros
1. Prevent heart disease; remember that weight loss is only the nice “side effect”.
2. Low saturated and trans fats; most diet author, nutritionist, or physician will suggest you to minimize consumption of these kind of fats. South Beach Diet food list will help you do that.
3. Fast weight loss feature; up to 13 pounds in the 1st phase.
4. The diet choose its foods based on low Glycemic Index (GI) which automatically restrict junk food consumption.
5. The food list after 1st phase consist of various foods and doesn’t remove any food groups.
6. Simple; no calories counting or portion control, just choose your foods from the food list provided.
7. With no portion restriction and complemented with 2 snacks time, hunger definitely is not part of the process.
Cons
1. The 1st phase is very strict, limiting the consumption of all carbohydrates completely. Some people believe that the weight loss gained during the phase is all water loss, not fat loss; this will cause you to gain weight again after you resume your carbohydrates intake.
2. Due to the strict limit of carbohydrates intake in the first phase, there are reports of various side effects such as fatigue, dehydration, lack of vitamins and minerals, and weakness.
3. The usage of GI as an indicator to determine good and bad foods is still an unresolved issues between experts in medical community since there are foods with high GI and nutritionally beneficial.
4. The diet doesn’t include proper instruction on exercising; this make some dieter wondering about the importance of exercise in South Beach Diet.
5. The diet will make your kidney work harder since it contain high protein intake.
6. Require extra cost; especially on the first phase since the high protein foods are more expensive than the carbohydrates foods.
7. South Beach Diet is definitely not for vegetarian or people who can’t consume dairy products. It prohibit any soy consumption during the first two week; a vegetarian will find it hard since they depend on soy as meat substitute. The program also suggest various dairy products as snacks.
8. Creating meals during the first two phases will need extra creativity since the food choice is very limited and it could lead into boredom quickly.
9. Most of the recipes are time consuming and complicated in preparation.
South Beach Diet is only one of many alternatives when you decide to pick a weight loss program. Put the pros and cons into consideration, you should have known whether it is good for you or not. The main issues I want to focus here is the diet offer lifetime maintenance, which is great; but it is not put consideration into the importance of exercise in a healthy diet, which is bad.
