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Summary: Great companion to the South beach Diet Book
Review: I just picked this up at our local Wal Mart. As the title indicates, this offers you a guide to the best foods that are low carb in nature and good fats which are typically so lacking in most diet programs.I love the South Beach Diet. Having been on and off Atkins too, the benefit of South Beach is more carbs and less fat. Protein is about the same. I have more energy with South Beach than with Atkins although sometimes to break a plateu, I will go back on Atkins. I highly recommend this books along with the South Beach Diet book to help you reach your weight loss goals.
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Summary: pretty good diet book.
Review: I like the recipes, the food, the technique. Works without having to starve and get to love what you love. But, it's difficult because I love carb stuff . Man, only if they can make carbless stuff all over, that would be fantastic!
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Summary: WHY CAN'T I BUY SOUTH BEACH DIET AS AN EBOOK
Review: I LOVE THE SOUTH BEACH DIET, BUT THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING FOR ME THIS YEAR IS I CAN'T FIND IT AS AN EBOOK. I WOULD PAY A LOT OF MONEY FOR IT IF I COULD.
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Summary: It really works!
Review: I purchased this book right before the new year. I had just seen the picture of the bride's maid's dress I was going to have to wear in front of 400 people in a matter of months. It took only a few minutes to read the narrative portion. I then took the thorough listing of foods that were good carbs/good fats and made a grocery list. Between December 27th and May 8th (the wedding day), I lost 30 pounds, dropped 4 pants sizes, and feel healthier than ever! I did not follow a meal plan and rarely used recipes. I just ate the foods that were allowed and didn't eat the ones that weren't. I highly reccommend this book!
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Summary: A good companion
Review: I purchased this guide so that I could carry it in my glove compartment or my wife could put it in her purse. It list the foods to avoid, the foods to eat in moderation, and the foods that are recommended. You don't have to have this guide to succeed but it is a handy tool when you are shopping or dining out.
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Summary: Good Companinon Guide to South Beach Diet
Review: I rate the original South Beach Diet Book 5+ stars. I lost 10lbs in five weeks and eventually a total of 14lbs. More importantly I have kept it off. At first glance I was disappointed with the Good Fats Good Carbs guide as it seemed to review much of the original book. However, I'm now quite happy with the guide. Before buying the guide I often wondered about certain foods. Now I can eat a wider variety of foods with confidence.
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Summary: Updated and Quick Reference
Review: If you actually READ "South Beach Diet" as a book, from start to finish, the actual diet plan comes as quite a shock. Agatson goes on and on about the magic of carb-cutting as if it's a great trick that will have minimal impact on your eating habits--then lays out a diet that is classic calorie cutting and portion-size restriction. But I give him lots of credit for the recipes, which have become part of my repertoire regardless of dieting. Great salads and dressings, especially. Recommended if you can let go of the hype and accept that to lose weight, you need to better and eat less.
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Summary: It's not a complete and easy reference as the title states
Review: 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.
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Summary: For anyone wanting guidelines .....
Review: It starts off with a short explanation of Good Fats & Bad Fats/ Good Carbs & Bad Carbs with a Trans-Fat Hot List. It talks a little about the Glycemic Index and Insulin. Then lists "Foods to Enjoy" for phases one & two. I was used to having butter, meat and cheese without worries about the fat content on Atkins. Not so with this diet which is all about balance. It says I can have beans but only some types while others are limited or to be avoided. It goes on to list beverages, types of breads & cereals, cheese, A LOT of the obviouse no no's, fruits & veggies, fats (butter), and meats & seafood. With 8 types of Beef Roasts listed who knew that some should be limited and even avoided. The same goes for ground meats, brisket, and pork. On Atkins plain hotdogs were unlimited but not so with South Beach. There are so many types of foods that sometimes it can become overwhelming without a little guidance. It's nice to know I can flip to the meat section or the bread section and know exactly what types are good, limited and to be avoided. One reviewer commented that it's all about what kind of donut to avoid which it's definitely not. It's about the type of meat, veggie, and fruit along with a portion size. It's a set of guidelines and bounderies for us to live by. It takes a lot of the guessing and mystery out of it. With a family and a full time job I LIKE THAT!
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Summary: Resist the bad carbs
Review: Knowing which carbs to go for (or not) has been useful information. I also purchased the Amazon recommended title, "The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook" and I must say that was a big influence in learning how my mood affects my behavior and ultimately my eating.
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