Is the South Beach Diet Safe?
Posted by Richard Gonzales
For many years, many people have gone through the South Beach Diet. A diet created by cardiologist named Dr. Arthur Agatston who wanted to find ways to lower cardiovascular diseases by ways of finding foods that would be beneficial to people. Agatston believed that if people ate foods with good carbohydrates and good fats, that people would not be exposed to health risks such as insulin deficiency and cardiovascular disease because eating the right foods and making health and life adjustments can only lower any negative effects.
But not everyone is friendly towards Dr. Agatson’s South Beach Diet. Author, Dr. Joseph Mercola (of www.mercola.com) has twelve reasons to avoid the South Beach Diet. According to Mercola these are the primary reasons why the South Beach Diet is not exactly safe:
Reason 1 – Dr. Agatson’s “Good Carbs” is wrong
Mercola feels that Agatson promotes whole grain breads and fruits as good carbs but those who have high carbohydrate sensitivity and struggling with insulin, ALL grains and sugars should be avoided until insulin levels are normalize. Mercola stresses that fruits have high sugar content.
Reason 2: Misguided advice can lead to dangerous levels of Mercury and PCB’s
Mercola said eating fish from water sources contaminated with dangerous levels of mercury and PCB’s can lead to very serious diseases such as neurological disorders and recommends bottled or capsule of fish oil instead.
Reason 3: Mile may worsen common allergies
Agaston advocates commercialized pasteurized milk but Mercola mentions that some people have pasteurized casein, a food allergy towards pasteurized milk.
Reason 4: Eggs are good and saturated fat is bad for everyone
Mercola says that some high quality saturated foods are ok and if you get it from clean or healthy sources such as organic virgin coconut oil is a good thing.
Reason 5: Aspartame is bad
NutraSweet/aspartame is linked to diseases such as cancer and diabetes and mentions Dr. Agatston encourages it in a South Beach Diet.
Reason 6: Misguidance on trans-fat
Mercola mentions that Dr. Agatston’s lack of understanding of trans fats and that he mentions it should be avoided but then makes a claim that French fries and potato chips are healthier than baked potatoes and that Agatston is misinformed as French fries and potato chips are high in trans fats and are unhealthy.
Reason 7: Misguidance on fats
Dr. Agatston promotes synthetic margarine’s and classifies all unsaturated fats as healthy but Mercola points that high omega-6 is a contributing factor to most chronic degenerative diseases.
Reason 8: Lack of Nutritional Insight
Dr. Agatston advocates peanut butter as a source of monounsaturated fats. But Mercola mentions that peanuts are susceptible to contamination by afflatoxin and people should restrict their peanut to Valencia peanuts that are grown in drier climates.
Reason 9: Effective Diet can eliminate dependency on statis
Mercola mentions that Dr. Agatston takes a statin drug to lower his own cholesterol but has said it is possible to avoid statin drugs and supplements.
Reason 10: Many will not even temporarily lose weight
Mercola mentions that some people need a high carb diet, some need require a low-carb diet but one size never fits all diets never work for all people.
Reason 11: To lax on the exercise
Dr. Agatston’s advice on exercise is highly debatable and Mercola feels that different people, especially those with a serious exercise deficiency may need more exercise.
Reason 12: Most will NOT lose weight permanently
Many diets are never solid and the South Beach Diet doesn’t cover the emotional component.
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