South Beach Diet Plan example essay topic

South Beach Diet The South Beach Diet is a relatively new weight loss diet. It was developed by Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston, M.D., who is the director of the Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center. The diet is meant to promote weight loss but not at the expense of heart health. Unlike other wildly popular low-care plans, South Beach calls for keeping tabs on saturated fats and favors lean meats and proteins over bacon, cheeseburgers, and steaks.

With this diet there is no calorie counting. In fact, there is no actual diet plan per se. Agatston uses sample menus to outline what you need to eat. Lists of "foods to enjoy" and "foods to avoid" round out the plan.

Basically it adds up to three meals a day and three small snacks or six "eating occasions". Like the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet plan is divided into phases. o Phase 1- Lasts 14 days- The Strictest Phase of the Diet In the first phase, you eat normal-sized helpings of lean meats, such as chicken, turkey, fish, and shellfish. Vegetables are also allowed, so are nuts, cheese, and eggs. The goal is to eat three balanced meals a day, and to eat enough so that you don't feel hungry all the time. A typical South Beach diet breakfast is two eggs and lean bacon. A mid-morning snack is Celery stuffed with 1 wedge Laughing Cow light cheese.

Lunch might be salad greens with grilled chicken. For an afternoon snack, 10 cherry tomatoes with 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese. Dinner may be lean meat again with fiber-rich vegetables. Diet Foods to Enjoy: include, tenderloin, sirloin, or top round, skinless chicken or turkey breasts, all types of fish and shellfish, boiled ham, Canadian bacon, turkey bacon, whole eggs, fat-free cheeses, peanuts and pistachios, green vegetables, legumes, canola and olive oils. Diet Foods to Avoid: include, beef rib steaks, honey-baked ham, breast of veal, all yogurt, ice cream, milk including whole, low-fat, soy, and full fat cheeses, beets, carrots, corn, yams, fruits and fruit juices, all alcohol, all starchy foods such as bread, cereal, oatmeal, matzo, rice, pasta, pastries, baked goods, crackers, etc. Expected Weight Loss: 8-13 pounds. o Phase 2- Lasts Until You Reach Your Weight Loss Goal- More Liberal Phase The second phase is similar to the first phase, but you reintroduce some of the banned foods and eat from all the dietary food groups.

You can start eating high-fiber carbohydrates, such as whole-grain breads, which raise your insulin levels in a much milder way that do simple, starchy carbs. Additional Diet Foods to Enjoy: include, most fruits, fat-free or 1 percent milk, other low-fat dairy foods, whole grain starches, barley and pinto beans and red wine. Diet foods to eat sparingly, include: refined wheat baked goods, potatoes, beets, carrots, bananas, pineapple, watermelon and honey. Expected Weight Loss: 1-2 pounds per week. o Phase 3- Weight Maintenance This diet phase, which is an even more liberal version of the initial diet plan, lasts the rest of your life. It should be used to maintain your healthy weight. Agatston describes this phase as a "way of life".

Should your weight begin to climb, you repeat the diet plan. There are pro's and con's to this diet however. On the plus side, the diet claims that you will lose 8-13 pounds in 14 days. Thereafter, offers weight loss of about 1-2 pounds per week.

It does help to improve your eating habits and stabilize blood sugar levels. It also helps to improve good to bad cholesterol ratio and reduce triglycerides. The down side however is that there really is nothing new and advanced about this diet. It just cuts out unhealthy processed foods together with excess sugar, and recommends less saturated fat. Most of the initial 8-13 pounds weight-loss is likely to be water-weight-loss caused by carbohydrate restriction. Such weight loss is typically regained, as soon as care-intake resumes.

Another drawback is the lack of options for people who do not like or cannot eat dairy. Many of the snacks are dairy-based, yet the diet bans soy in the first two weeks. Even though there are many positive features to the South Beach Diet, you should still go and talk with your dietician or doctor before you undertake any diet plan that induces ketosis (which comes as a result of care-restriction) because the body is shedding water and this could cause an electrolyte imbalance without proper hydration. Also, low-care diets are not recommended for anyone who has kidney problems.

I do not agree with some of the anti-care propositions in the South Beach Diet. However this diet is full of sensible advice about eating better. This diet is do-able and it has a range of different interesting recipes and diet ideas, and it does encourage long-term eating from all food groups. So if someone was interested in serious dieting, I would probably recommend this one based on the information I have learned about in this paper. Work Cited Page web beach checklist. adp web.