The South Beach Diet was pioneered by Dr. Arthur Agatston of Miami Florida. While many consider it a variation of the popular Atkins diet, this is really a mischaracterization. While the two diets do fall under the general heading of “low carb diets”. They were developed independent of each other, with different methods and goals.
As with all low carb diets, avoiding refined or processed carbohydrates is one the core principles. The science behind this involves controlling your blood sugar. When you eat refined carbohydrates you insulin levels will rise. This triggers a shift in the way your body is operating. It converts the carbohydrates into sugars so they can be more easily absorbed into the body. Once all of the carbohydrates have been absorbed and broken down, your blood sugar level crashes. This triggers a craving for foods with more carbohydrates. Eventually the body can’t process all of the carbohydrates and converts it into fat to be stored and used later.
Dr Agatston realized he was able to attain dramatic weight loss by removing carbohydrates from his patient’s diets. How if done over a prolonged period of time, patients were at risk from ketosis. So he split carbohydrates into two classifications good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. Once past the initial phase of the diet, people start to add good carbohydrates back in while limiting or avoiding bad carbohydrates. So while you may not be able to a plate of linguini Alfredo, you will be able to chose from other health alternatives and still lose weight.
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