South Beach Diet Plan

The South Beach Diet Plan kind of sounds like a reality TV show or something, but it actually is a bona fide diet that millions swear by. The South Beach Diet is one of those new breed of diets that sees carbohydrates as the key to weight loss and increased health.

Where the South Beach Diet Plan veers from the similar path taken by the Atkins Diet is in recommending that your servings of meat are leaner. The first two weeks or so require a severe reduction in the amount of carbs, but over time you are increase it gradually.

In addition, the South Beach Diet Plan divides carbohydrates into good and evil, rather than recommending an across the board cutting back. According to the South Beach Diet Plan, the good carbs are those that contain high fiber as being high in the good kind of fat, as well as having a low glycemic index. This basically just means that these carbs more easily digested and absorbed by the body.

The South Beach Diet Plan is separated into three distinct phases, though it is recommended throughout all three that ingesting the bad kind of fat be limited.

Phase I lasts two weeks, during which dieters avoid high-glycemic carbohydrates. These include such favorites as candies, bread, and sugar as well as those foods typically much easier to avoid such as potatoes, cereals and grains.

The idea of this two week phase is for the body to reduce its insulin resistance and start using its excess fat. But more on Phase I later.

The question often asked is whether the South Beach Diet Plan qualifies as just another fad diet or does it really have merit. Lets look at the facts. The recommended caloric intake for the average person is from 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day. On the other hand, the caloric ceiling of South Beach Diet Plan is a mere 1500 calories per day. Thats not a whole lot of food, in case you werent aware. Cutting that many calories out of your diet per day is almost a guaranteed way of losing weight. But at what price?

One problem faced by many people who try it out is the tendency to go right back to their normal eating patterns once the desired weight is lost. Sensing this, the creators have actually done something rather ingenious. They have built the idea of falling off the wagon into the diet. The South Beach Diet Plan creator came up with this idea from personal experience.

He himself fell off the wagon and realized that a diet system needed to be established that dealt with that whole part of the psychology of dieting. Hence, the South Beach Diet Plan is easy enough to get right back into even after falling off track for a few days. Because there are three distinct phases to the diet, at any time things go all wacky, the dieter simply starts over again from phase one, which only lasts two weeks.

In Obesity, Brain Becomes 'Unaware' Of Fat
Critical portions of the brain in those who are obese don't really know they are overweight, researchers have reported in the March issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. These findings in obese mice show that a sensor in the brain that normally detects a critical fat hormone - causing a cascade of events that keeps energy balance in check - fails to engage. Meanwhile, the rest of the metabolic pathway remains ready to respond. [click link for full article]

Foods To Prevent Obesity?
This, surely, is the oxymoron of the year. Reuters reports that the "Dutch hope to invent foods that prevent obesity". That single sentence encompasses the arrogance, greed, and plain foolishness that exists in the minds of those who "invent" foods. "We are working on certain food ingredients, which provoke more satiety than others do on the long run, so that...

Obesity Surgery Can Lead To Memory Loss, Other Problems
Weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass surgery, can lead to a vitamin deficiency that can cause memory loss and confusion, inability to coordinate movement, and other problems, according to a study published in the March 13, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The syndrome, called Wernicke encephalopathy, affects the brain and nervous system when the body doesn't get enough vitamin B1, or thiamine. [click link for full article]

DVT Awareness Survey Findings For Respondents In High-Risk Groups: Obese Individuals
Up to two million Americans are affected each year by DVT, with up to 600,000 hospitalized. Its primary complication, pulmonary embolism (PE), claims up to 300,000 lives annually -- more than breast cancer and AIDS combined. The Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT) recently sponsored an online survey of a nationally representative sample of consumers and physicians. [click link for full article]

A Short Walk Helps Smokers Quit
Smokers should do short bouts of exercise to help them resist the temptation to light up, say experts at the University of Exeter. A review, recently published in the international journal 'Addiction', concludes that when smokers abstain from smoking, exercise can help them to manage withdrawal symptoms and resist the urge to smoke. [click link for full article]

Do You Pursue an Hourglass Figure?
Forgive the double entendre. When it comes to the hourglass figure - many women pursue it, and it seems that men pursue women with it. Psychologists at the University of Texas (obviously with way too much time on their hands) have reviewed hundreds of years worth of literature and concluded: Men lust after slender-waisted women. Apparently it all comes down...

Food: Can Variety Breed Indulgence?
Every morning I have the same breakfast. With the exception of a few minor variations I have been eating the same breakfast day in and day out for years. Some people believe that too much variation can lead to indulgence. Is this really true?...

Red Pepper: Hot Stuff For Fighting Fat?
Food scientists in Taiwan are reporting new evidence from laboratory experiments that capsaicin - the natural compound that gives red pepper that spicy hot kick - can reduce the growth of fat cells. The study is scheduled for the March 21 issue of the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. [click link for full article]