South Beach Diet Examined

The South Beach diet gets its name from its humble origins in a cardiologist’s office in Florida, rather than the hype of Hollywood. Dr. Arthur Agatson noted his patients difficulty with following the mainstream low-fat diets advocated by the American Heart Association. Furthermore, he noted that they were sometimes not very effective. He was intrigued by the concept of insulin as an important weight regulator in the body, though not convinced by the approaches taken to solving the problem thus far. Together with David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at a leading university, Dr. Agatson pioneered the Glycemic Index – a way of categorizing carbohydrates by their impact on blood sugar and insulin levels.

According to the G.I. there are good carbohydrates and then there are evil ones. The good ones are carbs that break down slowly, entering the bloodstream at a controlled rate, therefore causing insulin to be released slowly and gently. Carbohydrates that are easily digested and already contain a lot of sugar are the culprits that cause our insulin levels to spike suddenly, then drop just as dramatically, leaving us with wildly swinging insulin levels and causing weight gain. “Good carbs” include whole grains, fruits and legumes, while “Bad carbs” include refined sugars and flours, rice and candy.

The Glycemic Index was very well received by the scientific community, and diets based on it are considered some of the most healthful around. Despite this, the South Beach Diet, which Agatson went on to create in order to take advantage of the Glycemic Index, falls very short of its mark. In Phase 1 of the diet, all carbohydrates are banned. Not many, not most, but all. This means two weeks of no fruit, grains, legumes, or other generally healthy food. This is the worst possible thing anyone could do to their bodies. Even if the complete lack of vitamins and minerals were not something to be worried about, it must also be remembered that glucose is the primary substrate of the brain and nervous system. These two weeks wreak havoc on the whole body, but especially those critically important systems. The result is a state of virtual starvation in the body. Immense willpower is required to sustain this initial phase because you are fighting not just your cravings, but also your body’s will to survive. Irritability, weakness, fatigue, and other undesirable physical and mental status changes are pretty much guaranteed.

The diet, like Atkins, relax its iron grip after week two, but this hardly seems to be worth it. Finally, nutritionists, doctors and researchers alike approve of the maintenance phases, but are not in love with the amount of weight loss that occurs during the starvation phase of the diet. A healthy weight loss is generally accepted to be 1-2 pounds per week, not fifteen. Research shows that through healthy fat burning, as opposed to emergency fat burning as is seen in Atkins and ketosis, the body can only get rid of a couple of pounds at a time. Therefore experts are concerned that the other thirteen pounds lost during Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet is most likely simple water loss and worse, muscle and tissue wasting.