What Is The South Beach Diet? The South Beach Diet Is More Than A Version Of The Atkins Diet Although These Diets Have A Lot In Common:
- Both of these diets are creations of medicine specialists. The creator of the South beach diet is Doctor Arthur Agatston, Cardiologist in Miami Beach , Florida .
- Both of these diets limit the unhealthy carbohydrates intake. In the first two weeks of the South Beach diet, the patients are not allowed to consume bread or any pastry products, cereals, rice, potatoes, fruits, macaroni or any sweets.
- Both diets have a phase of severe induction
Now That We Discussed The Similarities These Diets Have Let’s Talk A Little About The Differences:
- Fats: The South Beach diet encourages consuming healthy fats instead of unhealthy fats.
- Carbohydrates: South Beach is not about calculating calories you eat everyday; it is about the amount of glucoses in each type of carbohydrate while the Atkins diet is trying to turn the man into a “Fat metabolizing machine”.
The carbohydrates with a low level of glucoses are considered high quality and are recommended in the South Beach diet.
This type of diet is not one of those starving to death diets. In fact the whole thing about this diet is to strategically organize your meals. The diet includes snacks between the main meals of the day even if you feel hungry or not. The amount of calories will not be taken into account but you are not allowed to wolf down everything you see on the table. The purpose of this diet is to make you eat until you won’t feel hungry (you don’t have to feel full, just not hungry anymore).Regular quantities will be consumed during this diet. At the beginning these quantity will seem a little too small for most people who start South Beach . I repeat: the carbohydrates with a high level of glucoses are forbidden! These include: rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, beer or any other aliments with a high level of glucoses. It is also forbidden to consume any pastry products or sugar based deserts. Alcohol is also forbidden in the first phase of the diet and limited after it.
Now That We Have Discussed General Aspects About The South Beach Diet Let’s Get Down To A More Detailed Debate. The Diet Consists In 3 Phases:
- The first phase.
- The second phase.
- The final phase.
The first phase : this phase lasts 14 days. The following aliments are forbidden: bread, rice, potatoes, macaroni, sweets and fruits. Beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks are also forbidden. The ones who already tried the diet have confessed that after the first days you will get used to it and you won’t feel the need of eating bread or other forbidden aliments. Considering dairy products you are allowed to drink 2 glasses of low fat milk or yogurt. Still not clear enough? Let’s make a short example with things you can eat in a day: for breakfast you can have eggs and some ham. Instead of ham you can eat some mushrooms or broccoli. You can add some cheese (low fat of course) to your breakfast. You can also have some coffee or some tea with sugar substitutes. Around 10:30 be ready for a snack either you are hungry or not. Some mozzarella or some yogurt will do just fine. For lunch you can have some salad. In the afternoon energy level is decreasing and you need something sweet to increase it. In the old days you used to run to the candy shop and buy a tone of chocolate. But not today! Today you will eat some nuts or some peanuts (not salted). These aliments contain fats that are good for your body and they will make you feel less hungry. Time to think about dinner: for dinner you should eat fish, fresh vegetables or lean meat. After dinner you can have a sweet desert without sugar (something based on jelly) or some sweet soft cottage cheese. This can turn into a really delicious desert if you add some coffee and chocolate syrup without sugar. That’s just an example but feel free to create your own healthy meals and experience new recipes during your diet.
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The second phase : in this phase some of the forbidden carbohydrates will become part of your meals. For instance you are allowed to eat macaroni, carrots, tomatoes, onion and fruits. In this phase you have no restriction on fruits. The only thing is that you must not forget that you are on a diet and eat every aliment in reasonable quantities. Also you must alternate these aliments. For example if today you ate macaroni avoid eating tomorrow the same thing. How long is this phase going to last? The second phase is going to last until you reach the desired weight.
The final phase : the final phase is a lifetime lasting phase. It is about a lifestyle that we all should have; it is not a diet anymore. You will be eating normal food, in normal amounts, taking into account a few rules of the South Beach diet and of course not filling your tummy till it cracks.
The Principles Of The South Beach Diet:
People are crazy about carbohydrates but they are bad for our health. This is the purpose of phase one: to make you get rid of all the carbohydrates that are not good for your health. In these two weeks you are determined to say goodbye to carbohydrates. That is why the amount of glucoses is limited throughout the diet. Refined glucoses are digested very fast by your organism. This determines a fast insulin level growth (insulin is a hormone which takes part in metabolizing glucoses). The high secretion of insulin will determine a rapid descent in the levels of glucose which is found in your blood. This thing will increase the feeling of hunger and will make you eat more and more sugar. Running inside this vicious circle will not do you any good. This is why I recommend the South Beach diet. You will eat less and better quality food.
It is also the advice of specialists in nutrition that you adopt the South Beach diet as a lifestyle. They consider that this diet has all the healthy features and will help you eat right. It is based on vegetables, fruits, cereals, and high quality proteins. And the most important thing is you won’t have to give up on major types of aliments.