South Beach Diet Pros and Cons - Important Factors to Consider
When cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietitian Marie Almon create South Beach Diet, their main goal was to replace the low fat diet suggested by American Heart Association in 1980s to prevent heart disease. They designed this diet after the low fat diet has proven to increase the risk of heart disease instead of reduce it.
There are no complicated theory behind this diet; the principle are simple: replacing "bad carbohydrates" and "bad fats" with "good carbohydrates" and "good fats":
1. Eliminate foods that contain heavily refined sugar and replace it 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. The diet is originally created to prevent heart disease; weight loss in only one of its side effect.
2. The food list focus on replacing saturated fats and trans fats with unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids, thus will reduce the risk of many other disease.
3. Fast weight loss; up to 13 pounds during the first phase.
4. The diet choose its foods based on low Glycemic Index (GI) which automatically restrict junk food consumption.
5. Various food choice; it consists of various foods and doesn't eliminate certain food groups.
6. No calories counting or portion control involved; choose the food from the available food list and you are done.
7. No hunger involved; it suggests eating in regular portion size with 2 snacks time, so hunger is not part of this diet.
Cons
1. The first phase, which is result in most weight loss, has very strict rules about carbohydrates consumption. There are claims that all the weight loss gained during this phase is water loss and not fat loss. As a result, you will regain it after finish the 1st phase.
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 high protein intake will make your kidneys work harder.
6. Extra cost is required, especially in the first phase which involving lots of more expensive high protein foods that less expensive high carbohydrates foods.
7. This diet doesn't put vegetarian or people who can't eat dairy products into consideration; it forbid soy for the first two weeks and we all know that vegetarian use soy product as meat substitute. Most of the snacks suggested also contain of dairy products.
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. Many of the recipes suggested contain difficult preparation and very time consuming.
If you planning on starting South Beach Diet now, the pros and cons provided should give you a few things to consider and decide the diet's system compatibility with your lifestyle. The main issues I want to focus her is this program has a lifetime maintenance, which is good; but doesn't really care about including exercise, which is bad.
There are no complicated theory behind this diet; the principle are simple: replacing "bad carbohydrates" and "bad fats" with "good carbohydrates" and "good fats":
1. Eliminate foods that contain heavily refined sugar and replace it 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. The diet is originally created to prevent heart disease; weight loss in only one of its side effect.
2. The food list focus on replacing saturated fats and trans fats with unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids, thus will reduce the risk of many other disease.
3. Fast weight loss; up to 13 pounds during the first phase.
4. The diet choose its foods based on low Glycemic Index (GI) which automatically restrict junk food consumption.
5. Various food choice; it consists of various foods and doesn't eliminate certain food groups.
6. No calories counting or portion control involved; choose the food from the available food list and you are done.
7. No hunger involved; it suggests eating in regular portion size with 2 snacks time, so hunger is not part of this diet.
Cons
1. The first phase, which is result in most weight loss, has very strict rules about carbohydrates consumption. There are claims that all the weight loss gained during this phase is water loss and not fat loss. As a result, you will regain it after finish the 1st phase.
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 high protein intake will make your kidneys work harder.
6. Extra cost is required, especially in the first phase which involving lots of more expensive high protein foods that less expensive high carbohydrates foods.
7. This diet doesn't put vegetarian or people who can't eat dairy products into consideration; it forbid soy for the first two weeks and we all know that vegetarian use soy product as meat substitute. Most of the snacks suggested also contain of dairy products.
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. Many of the recipes suggested contain difficult preparation and very time consuming.
If you planning on starting South Beach Diet now, the pros and cons provided should give you a few things to consider and decide the diet's system compatibility with your lifestyle. The main issues I want to focus her is this program has a lifetime maintenance, which is good; but doesn't really care about including exercise, which is bad.
About the Author:
Selecting a diet that suit you is not an easy task; before you decide anything, visit Diets That Work for a useful information regarding selecting a diet wisely and healthy diet to found out criteria that should be met by a good diet by Stefan Vincent. Hopefully these 2 guides will make your task a lot easier
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