The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life
working really well for her, so I decided to give it a try. I bought the book and followed the Phase 1 guidelines to a T. I lost 8 pounds during those initial 2 weeks and had more energy than I’d had in years. I started walking outside. I could go only a mile or so at first, but I did it every day until I had the strength to walk 3 to 5 miles on some days. My speed increased, too.
    I knew it was time to quit smoking. Being on the diet made it easy because I already had a fridge packed with raw vegetables to munch on. Also, I could always walk when I felt the urge to smoke. I did it—I quit smoking and never gained back an ounce. I continued to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week while on Phase 2 and tried another type of exercise. I bought a bike and rode it on a bike trail we have in town. I hadn’t been on a bike in more than 20 years, and now I can ride the whole trail (22 miles). I also bought a kayak and some dumbbells, exercise videos, and a treadmill so I could walk when the weather got cold.
    Within 2 months, my cholesterol went from 287 to 155. My doctor couldn’t believe it. Six months later, with my doctor’s permission, I went off my cholesterol medication completely.
    I also joined a gym for the first time and love all the exercise classes. I’m always telling people on the SouthBeachDiet.com message boards about my exercise routine. We also share recipes all the time. I actually learned how to cook from those wonderful people.
    I met my goal of losing 30 pounds more than a year ago. It took about 7 months, and I have been working hard at maintaining it. Sometimes I’ll regain a few pounds, but then I just go back to eating like I did when I was on the first couple of weeks of Phase 2, and the weight comes right off. It’s very simple.
    Another added benefit of the diet is that I’ve made new, healthy friends at work, at the gym, and in my neighborhood. I wasn’t a very pleasant person to be around before South Beach. Now I love life and all the people in it. I didn’t just find a new lifestyle with the South Beach Diet—I found life!
----

    And there’s much more going on. Food manufacturers are now required by law to list the amount of trans fats on their food labels, and many have simply removed these terrible fats altogether. In New York City, restaurants are currently banned from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fats and will have to basically eliminate artificial trans fats from all their foods by July 2008. Many more cities are sure to follow. When we watch TV today, we see more and more advertisements for whole-grain foods. And the terms good carbs, good fats , and glycemic index are now common in both the media and our daily conversations. These are all clear signs that the diet debates—and diet confusion—are over.
    Here’s just a small sampling of the scientific studies that support our diet philosophy.
    Low fat a failure. In 2006, the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial reported the results of a 7½-year study involving nearly 49,000 women between ages 50 and 79. One group followed a low-fat diet, decreasing their fat intake to 20 percent of calories. They were informed that the diet was not intended to promote weight loss and were encouraged to maintain their usual energy intake by replacing fat calories with calories from other sources. The other group, the control group, received diet-related education materials and continued to eat a normal, higher-fat diet. Researchers found no benefit to the low-fat diet in terms of cardiovascular health, nor did it reduce the occurrence of breast or colorectal cancer.
    Mediterranean diet a winner. In 2006, a Spanish study (the PREDIMED Study) divided 772 adults at high risk for cardiovascular disease into three groups. One group ate a low-fat diet, while the other two ate a Mediterranean-style diet that, like the South Beach Diet, was rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, lean meats, and good fats. One of

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