Recently, dietitians at the nonprofit group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in Washington, D.C., completed a nutrition analysis of all three phases of the South Beach diet and found that all three were high-fat diets. Here were PCRM’s results:

Phase 1 of the South Beach diet, lasting two weeks, is much like the Atkins diet, high in total fat (over 50% of total calories) and saturated fat (about 14% of total calories). In Phase 2, total fat content is about 44% of calories. Phase 3, the maintenance phase, is approximately 30% fat.

Small Portions

The main reason the South Beach diet may promote weight loss, at least short-term, is because the small portion sizes in its daily menu plans add up to “just 1,300 to 1,400 calories per day,” notes PCRM dietitian Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D, “which is significantly lower than most Americans’ regular diets.”

But portion-controlled dieting often requires will power, lots of it. The question always is: How long can a dieter stay in control? Is hunger being satisfied? If it isn’t, a dieter’s chances for long-term success are not good.

Bottom Line:

South Beach diet’s creator, Dr. Arthur Agatstan, is correct in asserting that diets full of highly refined carbs like white bread and sugary snacks contribute to weight gain and poor health. He is also correct in advocating “good” carbs like high-fiber fruits, vegetables, high-fiber beans, and whole grains.

But his diet, assert prominent researchers, is based on a very shaky concept - the glycemic index. Yale University’s Dr. David L. Katz recently noted that diets based on the glycemic index, like the Atkins and South Beach diets, are “so utterly wrong as to be insane” and would lead to ridiculous choices like ice cream over carrots, and French fries over baked potatoes.

Moreover, Dr. Agatston ignores the role of fat- and protein-rich foods in promoting obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer - a role confirmed over the past fifty years by hundreds of scientific studies, many of them exhaustive.

He also ignores recent recommendations from the world’s foremost experts on weight control. The optimal diet for curbing runaway rates of obesity and chronic disease, concluded a 116-page report from the World Health Organization in 2003, is one that is low in fat (all fats) and high in natural, high-fiber carbs like fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. Repeatedly, the experts discouraged the consumption of fat-rich, calorie-rich foods - staples of the South Beach diet.