 [Larger view] | South Beach Diet Good Fats/Good Carbs Guide: The Complete and Easy Reference for All Your Favorite Foods
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 It's not a complete and easy reference as the title states | |
| If you are looking for a diet that is easy to follow, does not leave you hungry, is effective, nutritionally balanced, and improves your overall health, the South Beach Diet may be for you. In this companion book to The South Beach Diet book, Dr. Agatston lists many common foods, as well as whether they can be enjoyed in abundance, limited, or avoided completely. While this could have been done with a simple food list, this information is presented in a table that also lists carbs, sugar, and total fat.
The beginning of the book gives a brief overview of the diet, and a discussion of trans fats and why they should be avoided. It also has a discussion of the glycemic index. Although the recommendations in the book are based on glycemic index, glycemic load, and other factors, this information does NOT appear in the tables, purportedly because it's not available for all foods. Leaving it out for that reason, even when known, defies credibility. As followers of this diet know, it's not about following the glycemic index, or counting calories or carbs. While the GI may serve as a guideline to let you know where foods fit in, it can also be misleading since some foods with similar GI values may not be of equal value to your diet. All this is explained in the main diet book, which gives a brief list of GI values for common foods. Likewise, we are told that total fat is not the big factor, but how much is saturated or trans fat vs unsaturated fats is important. That distinction is not made in the tables, which list total fat. If a strict look at those factors is not a necessary part of the diet, then why are they in the table? That's not clear. The portion that describes how to use the guide acknowledges that you need not be a slave to the numbers, but the real advice ultimately boils down to following the main diet book, in which case all but the last column (whether and how much to eat) seems irrelevant. The other problem is that this supposedly complete book is far from complete. It has too many entries for items that are obviously not allowed on the diet, and few entries for what might be suitable substitutes. If you look at breakfast foods for instance, you'll find bacon and eggs, cereals, and pancakes. Yet you won't find French toast. You may be able to figure it out based on the rules from the diet book, but then why do you need this book? It's not as if processed foods or foods prepared from recipes that may vary were left out. There seems to be no rationale for what's included. If you do look at cereal, you will find a couple of pages of cereals that are limited or should be avoided completely. But do I really need this book to tell me to avoid Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops if I know how the diet works? Yet if I look at the myriad "healthy" cereals in my supermarket, not one of them is listed in this book. The same is true for the ones in natural food stores, even if they are available nationwide. I might be able to figure out on my own that Uncle Sam cereal is a good choice, but then why buy the book? On the other hand, I might find another supposedly healthful cereal, and the label may show me that it's whole grain and high in fiber, but has more sugar than I would want. It's foods like these for which I would like the book to give me an idea if it's acceptable. There are way too many common foods left off the list, which is surprising considering the exhaustive permutations and combinations listed for others. I don't need five pages to tell me that all baked and broiled fish is good, but breaded fish is not. If it's the recommendation that counts, I don't need a separate entry for tuna, canned, light, in water, and different ones for dark tuna in all its permutations, when ultimately, they fall into the same recommendation as other fish. The bottom line is that if you stick to the main diet book, and manage to work around the flaws in the way it was written, you won't need this guide. This book might be helpful if you are on Atkins or even Weight Watchers, however. | |
 Small & Compact Guide for a Great Diet | |
| The diet is great because it allows more food types than other Atkin's type diets, but still allows for bigger portions of the right foods. There is a beginning strict phase and then a more laxed phase like Atkins. This seems more sensible than Atkins though. There are less hunger pains on this diet than other types of diets and the fat comes off fast. Good small guide for a great diet. I recommend to anyone who is trying to lose weight (or make positive changes of other types) the amazing book "Effortless Wellbeing" by Evan Finer. That book will give you a simple way to feel better no matter what you weigh, will help you win the weight loss battle, and help you stay tuned to what is important-- generally make your more powerful and successful. Wonderful highly recommended books!! Good luck!
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| A Guide to Life! | |
| This is one of those books that guides you through the rocky waters of life to a smooth and happy existence living well.
Some others that I would also recommend along these same lines would be... "Voice Lessons to Go" a CD by Ariella and "New Sex Now" DVD or Video guide to life's Ultimate Pleasure and "The Artist's Way." |
