What is the South Beach Diet? In spite of such a light and fashionable name, it is a diet that has already been around for a few years, and which in the United States is considered one of the safest for weight loss. This is because the South Beach Diet was developed by Dr. Agatston, a cardiologist and author of many books on this weight loss regimen, which he believes is the key to losing weight and staying fit forever. The American site is very well organized, now provided with mobile apps, recipes, tips, and so on, but if you are interested ,. I propose a book that in Italian explains the principles of the South Beach diet ( here ) and even a blog, by an Italian boy who tried South Beach in 2005 and tells his experience of him.
But let’s get to the diet. The South Beach Diet is great for losing weight and learning how to eat properly, so I recommend it. It is divided into three phases: in the first there are two weeks of a more restrictive regime, focused on losing weight as much as possible, complete with prohibited foods and allowed foods. You lose up to six pounds, which is really a critical two weeks, because you don’t eat a lot of things. You can eat yogurt and lean ricotta or cottage cheese, eggs, chicken and turkey, low-fat meats and cheeses, fish as much as you like, vegetables apart from carrots, beets and potatoes which are not vegetables. That’s all, without calorie calculation restrictions, but with many limitations, softened by the recipes proposed by the doctor.

For the first two weeks in factSouth Beach looks a bit like Dukan : no fruit, no carbohydrates and obviously no sweets or alcohol; yes to the usual lean proteins, no to the heavier ones of red meats and aged cheeses. For the rest and as a rule, the South Beach diet focuses on the glycemic index of foods , so it prefers not so much the calculation of calories but the choice of low glycemic index carbohydrates, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts and good fats. Of course, you can make homemade desserts and the dessert is surprise included in South Beach : but you will say goodbye forever (more or less) to refined carbohydrates, sugar, spirits.
According to Dr. Agatston, by the time we learn to eat low-GI and choose the right carbohydrates and fats, we will forget both the hunger for sweets and the nervous hunger.because we could eat the right food without gaining weight, with six meals available during the day. The diet for life corresponds to phase three of South Beach, which is the maintenance of lost weight. If regular physical activity were associated with this regimen, weight loss would be constant and in addition phase three corresponds to a correct and healthy diet that leads me to recommend South Beach for weight loss. With one drawback: like Dukan, South Beach encourages the use of aspartame and substances to flavor dishes, such as artificial flavors. Today there are stevia, erythritol or sucralose on the market to avoid the trap of the chemical sweetener. Likewise, spices do much better than artificial flavors! In short, if reviewed in a more critical and Mediterranean way, the South Beach diet can be a valid weight loss diet.