Ah, the oh-so sunny and popular South Beach Diet! Just the name makes many want to follow the diet plan designed by a cardiologist and dietician, as an alternative to low-fat approaches such as the Ornish Diet and the Pritikin Diet. The diet is relatively simple in principle and what it does is replace bad carbs and bad fats with good carbs and good fats. According to the South Beach Diet, hunger cycles are triggered not by carbs in general, but by carb-rich foods that the body digests quickly, that create a spike in blood sugar. Such foods include the heavily refined sugars and grains that make up a large part of the typical Western diet. The South Beach Diet knocks out these carbohydrate sources and replaces them with relatively unprocessed foods such as vegetables, beans, and whole grains.
The South Beach Diet eliminates trans-fats and discourages saturated fats and although foods rich in these “bad fats” do not contribute to the hunger cycle, they do contribute to LDL cholesterol and heart disease. The South Beach Diet replaces them with foods rich in unsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids which contribute to HDL cholesterol and provide other health benefits. Specifically, the diet excludes the fatty portions of red meat and poultry, replacing them with lean meats, nuts, and oily fish. The Diet is divided into three phases, each progressively becoming more liberal. “Phase 1″ lasts for the first two weeks and eliminates all sugars, processed carbs, fruits, and higher-glycemic vegetables as well so to eliminate the hunger cycle; it often results in significant weight loss. “Phase 2″ continues as long as the dieter wishes to lose weight and re-introduces most fruits and vegetables and some whole grains as well. “Phase 3″ is the maintenance phase and lasts for life with no specific list of permitted and prohibited foods. Instead, you are expected to understand the basic principles live them!