The South Beach diet plan was started in the mid-1990s by Arthur Agatston, a cardiologist from Miami, Florida. It was originally developed for his cardiac patients and first appeared in the book of the same name by Rodale Press.
The South Beach Diet has three different phases; each of them includes specific meal plans and recipes. The first phase lasts for two weeks. This may sound quite similar to the Atkins diet, however Dr. Arthur Agatston clarifies that it is not a low-carb diet.
Dr. Agatston‘s weight loss advice focuses on a healthy balance between carbs and fats – “good” carbs and fats, that is. Highly processed foods like baked goods and soft drinks are the bad guys on The South Beach Diet. Dr. Agatston says decreasing these kinds of carbs will help you metabolize what you eat better and will also improve insulin resistance, leading to weight loss. The diet itself is based on the use of the Glycemic Index.
When you first read the requirements of phase one, it may sound a little daunting if you are used to low-fat, high-carb diets. However, the doctor says you can become accustomed to and happy with eating the good carbs and fats and leaving the bad ones behind. It is claimed that you can lose anywhere between 8 and 13 pounds just in the first two weeks.
Phase One
What can’t we eat? If you are going to try the South Beach diet, phase I will be the most difficult as it is the strictest part of the diet. For two weeks, you’ll be totally eliminating fruit, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar, and baked goods from your diet. No alcohol is allowed.
This means you’ll be eliminating many foods you may be accustomed to eating now such as a roll with dinner or a banana in the morning. And say good-bye to junk food. However, after the initial two weeks are up, you can begin adding the excluded foods back into your diet.
Is the food good? The meal plans certainly sound delicious. And there are tons of recipes included in the book. Some dishes that sound wonderful are Balsamic Chicken, Roasted Eggplant with Peppers, and Grilled Mahi Mahi.
The phase two recipes get even better with the likes of Broiled Sole in Light Cream Sauce and Baked Tomatoes with Basil and Parmesan. There are even desserts – Almond Ricotta Créme, anyone?
Is it difficult to do? According to Dr. Agatston, even if you’re a bread and pasta lover, you’ll be able to get through these initial two weeks “painlessly”. It seems you may not even have the urge to eat these types of foods once you get going on phase one. The proof is in the pudding (or is that in not eating the pudding?): Dr. Agatston’s patients who have previously followed his plan have said their cravings virtually disappeared.
What does phase one do? The theory behind phase one is that there is a “switch” inside us that affects the way our bodies react to the foods we eat that make us overweight. When the “switch” is on, we have urges to eat foods that actually cause us to store fat (Agatston, pp 4-5). According to Dr. Agatston at the end of the first two weeks of the diet that “switch” goes from “on” to “off” position.
The principle requiring the stringent two-week introductory phase is that by following the specified plan, you can correct the way your body reacts to food.
In other words, by eating fewer of the foods that cause those pesky cravings, you’re sort of “re-booting”. You shut down those cravings during phase one and then when you start adding carbs again, your system has had time to adjust.
Phase Two
At this time you can begin adding the foods that were off-limits before. You can begin to add bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, or cereal to your meals… it’s up to you. You can add fruit, too, if you wish.
This diet gives you the freedom to “cherry pick” which of these foods you add back into your diet. While you can’t eat them all, nor eat the ones you choose with abandon, they’ll no longer be off-limits. The key here is to re-introduce these foods in moderation and to not eat them as often as you were before.
Phase Three
Lastly, phase three is the final and least restrictive phase of The South Beach Diet. Dr. Agatston says as long as you follow some basic rules, you’ll continue to manage your weight. In fact, he suggests you’ll even forget you ever were on a diet and what you’ve learned will simply become a way of life.