Overall the South Beach diet offers a lot of positives as far as diet goes. It was created by Dr. Agatston and is a more heart-friendly version of the Atkins. In the first phase that lasts two weeks one must say good-bye to potatoes, bread, cereal, rice, pasta, fruits, carrots, beets, and corn, and most of those are strongly discouraged after the two weeks. South beach diet does promote low sugar carbs and healthy fats. It is structured in that healthy snacks are essential and it does not leave out any major food group. Dieters do not have to count calories or fat grams, just be conscious of portion sizes. It does emphasis a move away from processed foods and the last stage is eating right for the rest of your life.
Some downfalls of the South Beach diet is that is does not put enough emphasis on exercise. It recommends ingesting artificial sweeteners as a way to get your sugar fix. During the induction period much of the weight lose is water weight and losing this much can throw your electrolyte balance off. Also the water weight usually comes back when dieting stops and losing weight that quickly can be unhealthy.
