The South Beach Diet is popular with people who want to lose weight. It is not a low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein diet. You do not have to count carbohydrates, fat grams. It teaches dieters to eat only healthy carbohydrates, fats and saturated fats that can lead to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and general poor health.

This diet is an alternative to these sometimes detrimental means of losing weight. The South Beach Diet allows you to eat and not completely cut out all your favorite food, which in the long run makes it almost impossible to stick to.

The South Beach Diet is easier to stay on because it teaches how to eat in a healthy manner and improve your lifestyle. It eliminates cravings for all those bad carbohydrates and fats in food that we all love. After being on the diet for a while, you will probably not crave any of those foods anymore.

This diet focuses on good carbohydrates and fats. The South Beach Diet works by changing the way you eat by including more healthy choices that will make you feel good and add to your energy levels.

The South Beach Diet is has three phases. The first phase is change your diet to one that is filled with eating healthy lean types of meat, such as beef, lamb, pork, veal, chicken, fish, and seafood.

All meat should be broiled or baked and should not be fried. They should not be coated with breading or crumbs. Vegetables, nuts, eggs, and low-fat or fat-free cheeses are also allowed in the diet. Vegetables should be steamed and plain with no sauces or butter. Phase one of the South Beach Diet does not allow you to have breads or baked goods of any kind, rice, pastas, potatoes, fruit, candy, ice cream, sugar, or alcohol.

This part of the diet only lasts two weeks and is designed to get your body used to only having good carbohydrates to jump start your weight loss.

In phase two, sweet potatoes, wild or brown rice, whole grain breads and cereals, fresh fruits, and red or white wines are slowly added back in. Vegetables such as carrots, beets, white potatoes, and corn are avoided because of their high sugar content. So are fruits like bananas, pineapples, raisins, and watermelon. Some other types of foods that will slow down your efforts to lose weight include cookies, cakes, sweet rolls, and ice cream.

You will need to stay at phase two until you reach your target weight, then phase three will begin. Then you will practice the good eating habits you have learned and maintain your weight. The South Beach Diet is heart healthy and is designed to educate people how to lose weight effectively.

The South Beach Diet is a new way to thinking about food, how to shop for food, meal planning. It distinguishes the difference between good and bad carbohydrates.