Natural Health Trip

The South Beach Diet is one of the most popular diets around today.

Like the Atkins diet, it is a low-carb approach to losing weight. But there is a lot more to it. It can help heart patients and diabetics become more healthy and manage their conditions to increase the likelihood of living longer, healthier lives.

Primary Goal Was Health Related

To make this point even more clear, the South Beach Diet was developed by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatson, who wanted to devise a diet so his patients could lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way. His primary motive in developing the South Beach Diet was to improve his patients' health, not to sell weight-loss books. Of course, many diabetics and heart patients are overweight, which contributes to their conditions. So changing their eating habits  and getting into a pattern of aerobic exercise is the method he recommends to improve his patients' health, and the weight loss is one of the results of the diet.

I Can Vouch For The South Beach Diet

I personally have gone on the South Beach Diet, as I have Type-2 diabetes and have had high blood pressure for years. It was my cardiologist who told me that if I got my health under control, it would add ten to fifteen years to my life. Since I'm a Baby Boomer, ten or fifteen years was a major portion of my remaining life expectancy. Both my hypertension and blood sugar levels are normal now. I still take medication for each, but a much-reduced dosage. The doctor says if I lost 25 more pounds, I might be able to cut out the medication entirely.

Carbohydrates Convert Into Sugar

The basic approach of the South Beach Diet is get into a regimen of consistent aerobic exercise and to restrict one's sugar and carbohydrate consumption. Sugar has a lot of calories and increases blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates, or starches,  convert into sugar during digestion. Diabetics might not realize it, but it's the carbs that are really keeping their blood sugar levels high. I never realized this until I switched to a new cardiologist. I drank diet soda and used artificial sweeteners, but my borderline Type-2 diabetes became worse. Of course, I wasn't physically active and my weight was at an all-time high. So my cardiologist said a change in my lifestyle and diet was mandatory. No more procrastination. The situation was simple. If I continued the way I was, I might live only another ten years. If I adopted this new direction, I could expect to live twenty-five to thirty more years. It hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. Time for a change! My cardiologist recommended the South Beach Diet. So here I am ready to tell you about it. Which I will do in an upcoming series of posts.

Healthy Weight Loss Tips: Get member support, nutritionists' advice, the doctor's tips, results!

Technorati Tags: Diabetes, Diet, Exercise, Health, High Blood Pressure, south beach diet

Suggested Reading

• The Basics About High Blood Pressure
• The Facts About Your Blood Sugar Level
• Using Herbs To Treat High Blood Pressure
• The South Beach Diet
• Introduction To Low Carb Dieting

Tags: Diabetes, Diet, Exercise, Health, High Blood Pressure, south beach diet

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Diabetes, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Health, Healthy Food, High Blood Pressure, Natural Foods, Natural Remedies, Running Accessories, cardiovascular, cholesterol, drug costs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.