gamblin_man's Full Review: Arthur Agatston - The South Beach Diet: Good Fats,...
I have spent much of my eating time since last summer trying to follow the diet proposed by Arthur Agatston which his publishers named The South Beach Diet. I have had more success than failure and have lost about ten percent of my excess weight. This could have admittedly been even more if it hadn’t been for the holidays. Recently I added another tool to my arsenal. It is particularly handy to take to the grocery store, when perusing a cook book, or even when traveling.
The South Beach Diet Good Fats Good Carbs Guide
This nifty small book, subtitled The Complete and Easy Guide for all Your Favorite Foods, is meant as a companion piece to the main diet book. It, in fact, is perfectly suitable as a stand alone guide to the South Beach Diet. It has all the essential information inside its 5” X 7” soft covers on its 140 crisply written pages.
About the Diet
The South Beach Diet preaches moderation in all things. The diet divides carbohydrates into good and bad types. It divides fats into good and bad types. It teaches that balance is more important than abstinence, that replacing bad fats and carbs with good, or at least better, varieties is preferable to eliminating one or more of the three major energy sources almost entirely, and that counting calories is counterproductive.
The diet was designed, not specifically as a weight loss diet, but as a diet to improve dangerous blood chemistry so as to prevent cardiac and other health problems. It works in two phases. Phase 1 limits carbs very strictly for two weeks to get the system refocused from the normal American's high carb needs diet. Phase 2 is for the rest of the time your weight or blood chemistry is wrong for you. There is a Phase 3 as well. It is for the rest of your life.
The diet is so popular because it is so simple. No calories to count. No need to step on the scales regularly. No measurements with a tape around your girth. Little measuring of food quantities is needed. The variety of foods allowed, after completing the two week Phase 1 program, allows sufficient variety for even picky eaters or for those who eschew meat based products. You determine how you are doing on the diet simply by noticing how your clothes fit.
About the Book
This book begins with a very concise review of the South Beach Diet called Your Road Map to South Beach Success. It outlines the good/bad theory, including a clear introduction to the Glycemic Index. Within these 22 pages are the heart and soul of The South Beach Diet. Included are several charts. One is a list of foods with high levels of trans-fatty acids, one of the bad fats. Both Phase I and II foods to enjoy/food to avoid lists are there as well.
The bulk of the book is a list of foods, grouped by type of food and alphabetized. Each food has what a normal serving size is, the total carb, sugar, and fat gram counts and a column that tells where this food falls in the South Beach Diet. That column simply says Good, Avoid, Limited, Very Limited, or sometimes, Allowed.
The food lists start with beans and end with vegetables. Some of the lists might as well not be in the book since every item has Avoid as the recommendation. Of course if they weren't there we could cheat, I guess. There is a comprehensive list for fast foods, mostly with Avoid as the recommendation for the items. That should not come as a surprise to any of us.
The book ends with three short sections and a pretty decent index. The first section is titled The Supermarket Cheat Sheet. It is a nice list of foods to keep at home for that last minute meal need. The next one, titled Medley of menu Makeovers, gives suggestions for replacing your bad food choices at each meal with healthy South Beach Diet choices. The final section is a brief, useful, treatise on how to eat out.
Recommendation
Although I bought this book long after my initial foray into The South beach Diet, I have found it to be useful as a quick refresher and handy carry along. The Food Lists are certainly worthwhile for those who are trying to eat healthy long term. For someone wanting to try The South Beach Diet without the expense of the original book this is a very useful guide to doing it The South Beach Way.
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Based on the nation's #1 bestsellerPublished in January 2004, The South Beach Diet Good Fats/Good Carbs Guide has sold more than three million copies ...More at HotBookSale
An essential tool for success, this completely revised and updated bestseller features a new, more user-friendly format and an expanded list of foods,...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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