Read 48 times since Tuesday, July 26, 2011
South Beach has a lot of positive connotations, and this diet is certainly one of them. Developed by leading cardiologists Arthur Agatston and Marie Almon in the 2000s, this diet emphasizes eating right, the kind of foods that are good for you.
This means no more fast food, deep-fried mayonnaise balls, and like your mother always said, eat your vegetables. So if you are not willing to or don't have the stomach to eat healthy, this diet is not for you.
There are first the good carbs, and then you have the bad carbs. Agatstons research shows hunger cycles revolve not so much around the amount of carbohydrates, but rather the type of carbohydrate.
There are complex carbs and less complex carbs. Complex carbs are the type you get from unprocessed foods like vegetables, beans, and wheat bread; these take longer to digest because there chemical structure is more complicated.
It is like taking two pieces of wood to a fire, one being dried out and old and one being freshly separated from a tree. The dry piece of wood is going to burn faster, just like the "bad carbs".
Bad carbs make up most of Americas diet, from potato chips to big macs we usually grab what is most accessible. When eating these foods full of bad carbs our metabolism is saying, "oh geez this is easy to digest, I must need more of it."
To find out if you are eating good carbs or the bad ones just check the glycemic index. The glycemic index or GI is a measure of effects on blood sugar levels.
There are also two basic types of fats you will want to be aware of. The first type of fat, the bad fats contribute to LDL cholesterol, the second type, the good fats contribute to HDL cholesterol.
Like carbs and fats, cholesterol too has its good and bad side, LDL (bad) and HDL (good). The South Beach Diet helps replace the bad fats with good ones like unsaturated fat and omega 3 fatty acids.
This means you will be eating less steak, beef or pork and replacing those with fish, lean meats and nuts. This will help you get your cholesterol in better balance and help prevent things like heart attack, blood clots, or ulcers.
South beach is more geared to helping people be healthy rather than skinny, so there is no limit to the amount you can eat as long as you are eating the right kind of foods. This will still help you lose weight but more benefit your cholesterol and over all wellbeing. Destry Masterson is a health, fitness and nutrition expert. She has written articles about diet and exercise and recommends http://www.treadmillsensei.com for information about treadmills.
Contact Info:
Destry Masterson - MyOnlineArticleWriting@gmail.com - Twitter: @DestryMasterson
|
|
