The Effect of South Beach Diet - Essay Example

Unlike many of the fad, diet craze is that has swept the nation and the past several years, the “South Beach Diet” was originally intended not as a means to necessarily lose weight and get and she but as a means to prevent heart disease and lower cholesterol. Accordingly, the diet was first put forward by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietician Marie Almon in response to many previous diets that come before them with regards to a low-fat-only approach to affecting health via diet. Accordingly, the diet first gained traction with regards to the publication of the book The South Beach Diet in early 2000. Due to the fact that the diet was originally designed as a means to improve health, the message itself has become very popular with individuals that both wish to improve their overall health as well as to find a good way to lose weight and get in shape. Even though the diet continues to garner a wide level of popularity, it retains both of the original developers as its primary spokespeople; Marie Almon and Arthur Agatston (Simmons 5). 

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Although the South Beach diet has many positive points, it also reflects many negative points as well. The first of these is with regards to the fact that it oftentimes confuses its very own rubric of understanding between “good” carbs and “bad” carbs. At the very simplest understanding, the diet promotes that there are good cards that you should be consuming and high quantities and bad carbs view should avoid altogether. Yet, the diet includes bread within the category of “good” carbs without even the slightest mention of the fact that it litany of individuals within the current system suffers from both diagnosed and undiagnosed gluten sensitivity (Hager 66). Moreover, it also does not take into account the number of people who are at risk already for diabetes and must have a certain input of both good and bad carbs in order to regulate their insulin levels. The secondary drawback that is exhibited is with regards to the overall cost the following the South Beach Diet takes (Kennedy 8). Although it is good to engage in a diet that is high in fish and all of the benefits that these sources of nutrition offer, the fact of the matter is that in order to a cure to the diet, it is necessary for the individual to spend at least $90 per week on fish and seafood alone in order to maintain adherence to the diet.

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With regards to food restrictions, these can basically be understood with regards to limiting bad carbohydrates and bad fats and maximizing intake of good carbohydrates and good fats. According to the rubric of the diet, heavily refined sugars and grains make up a lion’s share of the Western world’s dietary intake.  However, these carbohydrates are categorized as bad carbohydrates due to the fact that they digest quickly and cause sudden spikes in blood sugar content. Similarly, with regards to fat restrictions, the diet notes that trans-that in saturated fats must be discouraged at all costs. In such a way, highly processed food is shunned whereas oily fish, nuts, meats, and poultry are encouraged. Likewise, as compared to other diets, the South Beach Diet compares favorably to the average 1300 kcal intake specified by the average BMR.  Moreover, in the case the diet did not ascribe to this benchmark, the effect would be that the individual would begin not only losing weight but vital processes within the body would not be carried out according to peak efficiency and possible damage could be done.

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With respect to the total cost that the South Beach Diet entails, it must understand that as compared to some of the most popular diets that are currently promoted the South Beach Diet has far and away from the highest monthly cost; averaging in excess of $800. Although it is true that it is impossible to put a price on nutrition, the fact of the matter is is that this price tag discourages many people from engaging with this diet. Although no particular item in and of itself contributes the majority of this price, the integration of a high level of expensive proteins and rather difficult to find expensive fish increases the price much more than the competitive diets that have already been discussed (Lara-Castro and Garvey 4201).

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Similar to any diet, it is possible for an individual to lose a great deal of weight following the South Beach Diet.  However, it appears to be extraordinarily expensive and difficult to maintain over a long period of time. In such a way, if the individual is one that suffers from continually ballooning weight levels such a diet is doubtless an incorrect approach. Similarly, with regards to recommending such a diet to a friend, this would only be the case if the friend was an individual who suffered from heart disease or had a very likely chance of suffering from heart disease. In short, recommending the diet merely as a means of losing weight would be both extraordinarily expensive and somewhat foolish compared to the more appropriate and better diets that exist within the current system.