The lastest diet to grab headlines lets you eat anything from salad to cheesecake. iVillage's nutrition expert looks at how the diet works and its three phases.
Leading cardiologist, Dr Arthur Agatston initially created The South Beach Diet (Headline; £10.99) to help prevent heart disease and noticed his patients lost weight on it too. The diet claims to help you achieve your desired weight and stay there. Celebrity followers include Bill and Hilary Clinton.
- How the diet works
- Good and bad carbohydrates
- The three phases of the diet
- Eating out
- Is it successful?
The plan is based on the principle that certain types of carbohydrates cause people to gain weight. Carbohydrates are allowed on the diet but are put into good and bad categories. Refined foods like biscuits and pasta are classed as the bad.
Dr Agatston proposes that bad carbs make you feel temporarily full by causing your blood sugar levels to rise rapidly. When levels start to decline, you then start to feel lethargic and hungry again.
These bad carbs are also classed as foods with a high glycaemic index (GI). The GI is simply a scientifically valid way of describing how the carbohydrates in individual foods affect blood glucose levels. Food with a high GI contain carbohydrates that have a dramatic effect on blood glucose levels, while food with a low GI contain carbohydrates with much less impact.
The good and bad dichotomy extends to fats, with monounsaturated fats (e.g. from olive and rapeseed oils) being classed as good fats and saturated fats (e.g. from fatty meats and dairy products) as the bad.
So, what does this mean?
The South Beach Diet claims that it is not low in carbs or low in fat, but that weight loss is achieved by learning to eat the right carbs and the right fat.
It advocates a life-long regimen to help you live without the bad carbs and fat. The diet does not require you to measure what you eat in ounces, calories, or anything else. The meals should be of normal size, enough to satisfy your hunger but no more than that.
The diet is divided into three phases
The first phase
The first phase is aimed at banishing your cravings. It lasts for two weeks and is based on a restricted plan of three meals and two snacks a day. This phase promises a weight loss of between 8 and 13 pounds.
What's out: Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice or baked products. Fruit, fruit juices, milk, yoghurt, full-fat cheese, butter, alcohol, sweets, cakes and any sugary foods.
What's in: Lean cuts of meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, low-fat or fat-free cheese and some nuts. Low glycaemic index vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, celery), olive or rapeseed oil.
For snacks, you're allowed to have low-fat cheese with celery/cucumber/ turkey slices, and for desserts, sugar-free jelly and dishes made with low-fat ricotta cheese.
The second phase
The second phase allows the reintroduction of carbs. This phase lasts until you reach your target weight. Again, this phase is based on having three meals a day with two snacks and a dessert for dinner.
Back in: Fruits except bananas, pineapple, raisins and watermelon. Limited amounts of granary bread, wholegrain cereals such as brown rice, wholemeal pasta, low-fat dairy products, wine and limited amounts of bitter-sweet or semi-sweet chocolate.
What's out: Refined breads and cereals, white potatoes, beetroot, carrots and corn.
Your weight loss slows a little during this stage in comparison to phase one. You are given the option to continue phase one for another week if you think you can maintain the strictness of it. But, it is recommended that you transfer to phase two so that you don't get bored and go back to your old eating habits.
The third phase
At this stage you should be at your ideal weight. The third phase is not aimed at promoting weight loss but adapting the diet as part of a healthy ongoing lifestyle regimen.
This phase allows for more variety but is basically more of the same from the previous two phases. You are allowed to fall off the wagon occasionally and go back to phase one if you feel it's necessary and then go back to phase three.
Dr Agatston devotes an entire chapter of his book on how to eat in a restaurant.
During the first phase of the diet, it would probably be quite difficult to eat out, although it's possible. For example, you can limit yourself to a plain grilled chicken breast and a leafy salad with olive oil dressing.
The temptation to eat breads, deep fried foods and other banned foods may be too great unless you have steel willpower.
Dining out during the second and third phase will be easier, since you're allowed to have alcohol then too.
Restaurant strategies
When you do eat out, Dr Agatston proposes that you eat a protein snack such as low-fat cheese 15 minutes before you're due to arrive at any restaurant. This starts the process of filling you up so that by the time the waiter arrives, you won't want to order the entire menu.
Some other useful tips include drinking soup or consomme as soon as you arrive. This does the same thing as the protein snack, since it takes about 20 minutes or so before signals from your stomach start channelling through to your brain to tell you that you're full.
Of course, according to the rules of the diet, rice and potatoes are off limits at any restaurant as well as no chips and fast food.
Dr Agatston's patients with diabetes or heart problems who followed the diet, lost weight, had lower levels of bad blood cholesterol and their insulin resistance improved.
The diet is flexible. Once you understand what foods to mix and which ones to avoid, you are able to create your own version of the plan. This ensures that enjoy the foods you eat and stay on the diet.
One aspect not addressed in the diet is the emphasis on adopting an exercise regime, which can improve blood pressure, blood cholesterol and general health.
Overall, this diet is good for people who have the willpower to cut out favourites for a week or two but don't want to feel like they're spending their lives on a diet. Combining it with a sensible exercise routine will provide the best results in weight loss and improvement for health.