Diet guru struggles to stay on own plan

By Carolyn Susman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 24, 2004

He's only human, and that means the author of the best-selling The South Beach Diet (Rodale, $24.95) is an admitted chocoholic who battles to keep his weight in line, just like almost everybody else.

From Katie Couric on down, Miami cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston -- he's still practicing medicine -- has been upfront about his frailties in the diet department.

"I cheated a little bit over the holidays," he responds when asked about his adherence to the world-famous plan he developed for his patients.

"My wife said I was the only one not on the South Beach diet."

That could be. His publisher says the book ranked first on the list of bestselling nonfiction last year.

Based on a low (processed) carbohydrate diet -- not all carbs are bad -- that includes "good" oils such as olive oil, the eating plan is aimed at preventing heart disease, lowering cholesterol and reversing adult-onset diabetes.

This is accomplished after a two-week "detoxing" period when all carbs are removed, followed by the gradual introduction of whole fruits and whole grains. This allows people to lose their carb cravings along with an average of 7-14 pounds, he says.

"We actually encourage maximizing the good carbs, rather than limiting all carbs," he stresses.

Agatston's lastest book, The South Beach Diet Cookbook (Rodale, $25.95), includes more than 200 recipes based on his approach to weight control and disease prevention.

Although his diet differs from the low-carb, high-protein diet advocated by the late Dr. Robert Atkins, Agatston thinks the attacks on the doctor, based on Atkins' weight at death, are inappropriate.

"The attack on him personally was unethical.... He never looked overweight to me. You can gain a lot of weight when in heart failure at the end. (The medical examiner's report on which the attacks were based) was not an autopsy. It was very flimsy evidence to go and attack him."

But Agatston did say that "the information was not there when (Atkins) developed his diet. He thought it necessary to go into ketosis (a starvation-like state) to lose weight, depleting your sugar stores.

"We did our studies giving enough veggies and good carbs, and (the dieters) still lost their (carb) cravings."

Our screwed-up diet is to blame for most of our ills, Agatston has said, because we don't eat the fruits and vegetables we should, or get the natural good oils and fats from fish and nuts that our ancestors did.

Our processed-food diet has resulted in an out-of-balance consumption of "bad" carbs, such as white flour and sugars, that threw us over the edge as a population when the low-fat craze first hit.

People didn't understand, or want to, that stuffing themselves with low-fat pastries wasn't the path toward healthy eating.

He fell into the trap himself, he said, before he developed his diet plan.

"We now know what causes the (food) cravings, the drop in blood sugar. I used to get it. I gobbled up a low-fat muffin in the doctor's lounge. I thought I was fine, but you keep eating. You're always hungry. It's almost impossible (to control).

"We recommend strategic snacking, every few hours. I won't be hungry. I won't get that drop."

Doctors, as well as dieters, are glomming onto his plan, he said, because it makes sense to them.

"People are understanding the basic science behind it. So many are doing it in schools and offices. Our sense was that we'd improve blood chemistry and decrease waistlines. What we didn't appreciate is how much better people feel."

And how does he feel now that he's the rock star of the diet scene?

"Most days, I feel like a regular cardiologist. But Bette Midler was here (giving a concert in Miami) a few days ago. The publisher arranged for us to meet her.

"We went backstage, and there was a big group of people, and she came out and was so nice. And then they're all asking to take pictures with me! That was a unique experience."