South Beach Diet creator argues for moderation
By DAVID ROGERS, Daily News Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 — To what he sees as two extremes, Dr. Arthur Agatston offers an alternative.

To Agatston, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, the diet debate is not low fat versus low carbohydrate.

Agatston thinks that creating a leaner, more healthy body is a matter of eating a balance of moderate amounts of fat, protein and carbohydrates.

The creator of The South Beach Diet will appear Sunday evening at a by-invitation reception and fund-raiser for the Foundation for the Advancement of Cardiac Therapies — or FACT — at the Palm Beach home of Don and Stephania Conrad.

The growing phenomenon of obesity in America, Agatston said Monday during a break from his practice, has been fueled by decades-old American Heart Association recommendations — modified somewhat in recent years — that emphasize high carbohydrates and low fat.

The problem is that Americans eat too many processed foods that are low in fat but high in simple sugars.

"The processing takes out the fiber from grains, which also takes out most of the nutrients," Agatston said. "It's rapidly digested and causes a big swing in blood sugar, so we're basically walking around hungry all the time."

That hunger results from the succeeding drop in blood-sugar level. Consuming so much sugar has created insulin resistance in many Americans, a condition that makes losing body fat difficult and can precipitate the onset of diabetes.

But natural sources of low-sugar carbohydrates, such as asparagus, broccoli and many other vegetables (excluding most root vegetables), as well as beans and grains, provide vital nutrition, Agatston said.

The South Beach Diet warns against eating too many starchy foods, such as white potatoes and white rice, because these foods have high rankings on the glycemic index. Foods with a low rank on the glycemic index satisfy hunger and reduce cravings, he said.

The prominent alternative to the low-fat approach, the Atkins diet, does not differentiate between beneficial and harmful carbohydrates, and beneficial and harmful fats, Agatston said.

That diet was created by the late Robert Atkins about 30 years ago. "He lumped all carbs together," Agatston said. "It is the processed carbs that are the problem, not the whole grains or vegetables or whole fruits, which are also carbs and supply all our important vitamins and nutrients.

"The other thing that he didn't realize is that saturated fat isn't good for our blood vessels, and it isn't good for long-term weight loss or preventing diabetes. What we've learned in the subsequent 20 years — and this science really wasn't available to Atkins when he developed his diet in the ’70s — we know that the good fats — the Omega-3 fish oils, the canola oils, the Mediterranean oils — are good for our blood vessels."

Agatston's diet emphasizes lean cuts of meat with less saturated fat, such as Canadian bacon, some cuts of chicken and fish, including orange roughy and salmon.

The South Beach Diet gained national attention last spring, and its popularity shows no signs of waning. Since it debuted last year, The South Beach Diet, has sold more than 5 million copies and remains near the top of the New York Times best-sellers list. Another Agatston book, The South Beach Cookbook, will hit bookstores in mid-April. And, in a few months, Agatston anticipates announcing a line of whole-food products to debut next year.

Agatston created the diet to help patients stave off heart disease and lose body fat.

"The feedback we get is how much better people feel," Agatston said. "It's a combination of not having swings in blood sugar and getting good nutrients. They focus better. They feel much better than they ever did before. On the diet they have more energy because it's really the way we are meant to eat."

At the Conrad reception Agatson is scheduled to attend, FACT co-founders Drs. Mehmet Oz and Chauncey Crandall will unveil a rendering of the foundation's planned headquarters, a heart disease research and education center.

Oz is a heart surgeon at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. Crandall is a local heart surgeon. FACT has signed a contract to buy land in downtown West Palm Beach from the Palm Beach Opera.

For more information, call 655-7464.