Wow, I had never heard of "glycemic index" before and I have been on various diets since age 8 or 9.  I have drastically cut down on caffeine but will never give up a coffee or two a day.  I will be interested to hear how you do on this one.

Good luck. I'll be interested to hear about your success!!

Interesting theory on the effects of caffeine. My mother's always been a big coffee drinker -with milk and sugar, and quite thin most of her life (she's put on some weight since she quit smoking a few years back). Then again, with coffee cup in one hand, she's always got a huge glass of ice water in the other - probably helps. Not to mention smoking is probably an appetite supressant. Don't diet pills contain caffeine?

Yeah, my great aunt Helen always has a coffee cup in one hand and a cigarette in th other.  She's in her late 80's or 90's now and has been skinny all her life.

I have a feeling that a lot of it has to do with genetics.  There are also very conflicting studies on coffee.  One shows that it aggravates diabetes, another shows that it can prevent diabetes.

A lot of diet pills contain caffeine because caffeine is a stimulant.

I'm currently under the notion that I just eat too much and don't move enough   But, we'll see how this goes.  You can have whole grains, cereal and health carbs, so it is very different from the "low carb" diets that are around.

My Fiance was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes aswell. It also goes under some other names such as Insulin Resistance Syndrome or Syndrome X. The Glycemic Index matters a lot when it comes to Type 2 Diabetes but also, if you not very active you should also try to curb your carb intake a little too. There is a book called "So you have Syndrom X" (or similar to that) which can tell you a lot about what you have, how it affects you, how you got it and how you can control is. There is also a lot to read about it if you search google or another search engine.

My Fiance and i have tried to create our own diet based on the Glycemic Index and Carb count of food. We just have a GI level we try to stay under and a carb count per day and it seems to be working, but we are only in the early stages and have been doing it for 2 weeks.

Keep us posted on your results as i am interested to know how your diet goes.

Yea the south beach seems like a good diet.  I sort of do the same thing with not eating foods that hike up my glycemic index, but of course i slip sometimes.  But the best part about it is that if you slip you simply do the induction phase for as long as you feel is right. 

The Induction phase is pure hell if you love your starchy carbs, but if you honestly make it through that phase without cheating, i really think the rest of the diet is much much more manageable.

Yeah....Just because you're starting it, doesn't mean it hasn't existed for a long time. I've been doing it for a while now. It's low carb. Not only that...it's low calorie, too. The book is full of "eat till you're full" and "I don't want you to ever be hungry" type of stuff....but when you actually make the recipes from the book, the meals are very small. Some of them are really good, though. And it worked very well for me. I don't understand what everyone's deal is with low carb. South Beach IS low carb, and its OK. You're not going to hell...all the jokes at SNARK (?) and BOING BOING are by people who like to make fun of crap they don't understand. Some people (like myself) grow up eating LOTS of PASTA and BREADS. And they don't realize it until they do something like cut it OUT of their diet. (whether temporarily or otherwise) Yes, I eat more steaks and chicken now, but I also eat many more vegetables than I ever had before. Mostly because you can only eat so much steak, etc. You've gotta have half a plate of vegetables to help fill you up. But the great thing is, you get that full feeling without the heavy debilitating "drowsiness" that you get from eating a bowl of pasta. And, as South Beach points out, carbs are high on the Glycemic Index. The diets used by diabetics in order to control their condition are what helped to start the whole low carb trend in my opinion. It doesn't jive with them because they are either people who are vegetarians, and associate low carb with devouring whole animals, or they just haven't hit that age where their metabolism has slowed down and can't relate to people who are putting on weight. (ie: they are young and know not what awaits them). I was skinny as hell until I hit like, 26 or so...then the kid came along two years ago (I was 30) and I realized I was 220 lbs. I'm 185 now. My back doesn't hurt. I eat better than ever. I feel great. And I'm not lying to myself by saying it wasn't low carb just to make myself feel better. You shouldn't either. The GI and carbs go hand in hand. I'm sure I'm too late, but you should explain it to people that way instead of refusing to join in what you think of as some crazy trend. I'll give you that people have taken advantage, and that Atkins makes it seem like eating the burger from McDonalds and tossing the bun is a healthy way to eat. But I never once did anything like that. If I'm going to eat a burger without a bun, its going to be at some place where the burger is actually meat and not styrofoam.
Anyway, I don't mean to rain on your South Beach parade. I hope it works as well for you as it did for me.

What is the Significance of Glycemic Index?

• Low GI means a smaller rise in blood glucose levels after meals

• Low GI diets can help people lose weight

• Low GI diets can improve the body's sensitivity to insulin

• Low GI foods can help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise

• Low GI can improve diabetes control

• Low GI foods keep you fuller for longer

• Low GI can prolong physical endurance



How to Switch to a Low GI Diet

• Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran

• Use "grainy" breads made with whole seeds

• Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat

• Enjoy all types of fruit and vegetables (except potatoes)

• Eat plenty of salad vegetables with vinaigrette dressing


Glycemic Index Link

Sounds interesting. However, I *think* that the US, while the fatest nation in the world is not the largest consumer of coffee per person. I could be wrong there. Coffee *might* be a contributor but not the cause or even the major cause of obesity in the US.

I think that the problem with coffee in the US is that we don't drink just coffee.  We load it with cream and sugar and drink it in excess.  However, just like anything, if you have a predisposition to something, certain chemicals will aggravate it.  I, personally, didn't gain weight until I started chugging coffee (which will be the hardest habit to break for me- I can't do the full induction phase of South Beach because I'm too addicted to caffeine.)  However, I also had my first thyroid surgery around the time I became a caffeine addict (gave me energy I was lacking) so what happened to me is not "normal".  But, you never know what can be contributing to it.  But, like I also said, there are very conflicting studies on it.

My Fiance was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes aswell. It also goes under some other names such as Insulin Resistance Syndrome or Syndrome X.

Actually, Syndrome-X and Insulin Resistance are precursors to type II diabetes.  Diabetes is Diabetes.  It's not hyperglycemia, insulin resistance or Syndrome-X (which is really a scientific way to tell that you are at risk to develop diabetes and other diseases).  The reason this is important is that you can control insulin resistance (which can or can't be part of Syndrome-X) and you can prevent Syndrome-X from developing into diabetes with proper diet.

I have always known that I was at risk.  I also know that if you really don't want to be diabetic, staying at your ideal weight or slightly below will help more than just about anything you can naturally do.  But, being the moron that I am, it took the real diagnoses of "diabetes" to make me change my evil ways.

Before South Beach, I was following a Doctor prescribed "diabetic" diet.  Unfortunately, it left too many "fudge factors" in it.  Though I was losing weight, my glucose levels weren't being lowered. 

And, to Ash the anonymous, did you actually read and study the South Beach Diet and the science behind how it works?  Did you actually learn about the Glycemic index?  By your post, it sounds like you think that it is still low carb like Atkins.  It's not.  It's the *right amount* of carbs built with the right amount of fiber. Fact is- we typically simply eat too many carbs.  Did you also learn about digestion and how that affects the effects of insulin?

To be brief, the whole point of this diet is to eat things that will slowly digest.  Simple carbs (like sugar, white bread, potatoes) digest quickly and enter the blood stream quickly and gets stored as fat quickly.  Simple carbs also do not satiate hunger like whole grains, protein and fat do.  However, a whole grain bread will not digest quickly and will digest even slower with protein.  Another thing that was mentioned that gets overlooked- eating something acidic with a meal (especially with carbs) slows digestion. Slow digestion means a more level glucose level which means you can use your new energy.

And, yes, the portions are "small".  Of course they are.  You don't get fat by eating the right size servings.  You get fat because you eat too much and move too little.  The servings in the book are the correct portion sizes.  There is no miracle diet.  You can't just eat everything you want and lose weight.  Calories are calories.  If you eat too many, you gain weight.

My point about the diet is to get my glucose down.  I don't want to go on medicine.  The weight lost is just and added benefit.

You get fat because you eat too much and move too little

It seems so simple, and yet it is so hard to follow!

Good luck Karma! Let us know how it goes.

Thank you for writting this. As someone who is supposed to take 3 shots a day (shame on me I do not take all of my meds and such nor do I make it to all appointments) I have never been turned onto this. I will have to look into this & start it myself, couldn't hurt.

I know this whole "white bread is bad" theory has got to be old because my grandma always said "the whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead".  I think that was a simplistic rule to remind one to eat whole grains that, like you said, take longer to digest.

Yep, I am sure that a lot of the simple carb thing has been known.  They might not have known *why* it was bad, they just knew it was bad.

One of the things that have apparently screwed up "dieters" is the low fat craze.  They discovered how bad cholesterol was.  Before realizing that there was bad *and* good cholesterol, they went crazy- the egg became evil and all the low fat stuff came out.  But, low fat is not low calorie, and low fat digests faster so you become hungry faster because of the drop in blood sugar.