South Beach Diet Pros and Cons – Important Factors to Consider
South Beach Diet created by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietitian Marie Almon is originally a diet to prevent heart disease. Dr. Agatston see the danger of low fat diet suggested by American Heart Association in 1980 which increase the risk of heart disease, not reduce it; so he create this diet as its substitute.
Actually, the basics behind South Beach Diet are not that complex: replacing “bad carbohydrates” and “bad fats” with “good carbohydrates” and “good fats”:
1. Put relatively unprocessed foods such as vegetables and whole grains in daily meal instead of foods that contain heavily refined sugar.
2. Eliminate trans fat and saturated fats which contribute to LDL cholesterol and replace it with unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids which will contribute to HDL cholesterol.
The diet is not consist of one golden session to solve all your problem. Instead, it will divide the process into 3 phases where the first two phases are aim to make you familiar with the concept and lose weight at the same time. The 3rd phase is a maintenance phase which will be last for life where you are expected to understand the basic principles and apply it in your every day’s life.
Pros
1. The diet is originally designed to prevent heart disease, which is a nice feature to have.
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. Known for fast weight loss; up to 13 pounds after you finish the first phase.
4. Restrict bad foods; it based on eating low Glycemic Index (GI)) foods which restrict junk food consumption.
5. Various food choice; it consists of various foods and doesn’t eliminate certain food groups.
6. Simple; no calories counting or portion control, just choose your foods from the food list provided.
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. Some people feel that the 1st phase is the most difficult due to its strict rules on limiting carbohydrates intake. Some experts assume that the weight loss gained during this phase is all water loss, not fat loss and you will regain the weight again when you resume your usual carbohydrates consumption.
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. Using GI to determine good and bad foods is not approved by all the experts in medical community. This method is still controversial because it will remove any food with high GI even when the food is nutritionally beneficial.
4. The program seems solely focused on its food list and ignore proper exercise; this is not a good sign since we all know that a good diet is always complemented by an adequate amount of exercise.
5. The food list contain high protein which will force your kidneys to work harder.
6. Require extra cost; especially on the first phase since the high protein foods are more expensive than the carbohydrates foods.
7. Does not support vegetarian dieter or people who can’t eat dairy products; soy, which is considered as meat substitute by most of the vegetarian is prohibited for the first two weeks and most of the snacks are dairy products.
8. The fist and second phase consist of very limited food choice that can make you get bored really quickly if the cook is not creative.
9. Many of the recipes suggested contain difficult preparation and very time consuming.
South Beach Diet is only one of many alternatives when you decide to pick a weight loss program. Put the pros and cons into consideration, you should have known whether it is good for you or not. The main issues I want to focus here is the diet offer lifetime maintenance, which is great; but it is not put consideration into the importance of exercise in a healthy diet, which is bad.
Related Reading:
- Rapid Weight Loss Tips – Lose Weight with the South Beach Diet
It's the American Dream: "If I could just lose a little bit of weight..." The trouble for many Americans is that they fall quickly into the trends. They've tried it all: the... - Every Other Day Diet Intended For Everyone
The Every Other Day Diet means that you have one day of eating normally and the one day of eating light. The day where you eat light consists of 300-400 calories. Created...
