Dr Arthur Agatston MD is known for two things, The South Beach Diet and the Agatston Score, a measurement of artery calcification. Agatston Score Creation
The main South Beach Diet website isn’t currently available to Europeans, because of GDPR data protection law. There is a PDF of the South Beach Diet Handbook however.
The South Beach Diet Handbook PDF
The South Beach Diet has sold millions of copies (8 million in its first year after publication in 2003) and there have been spin off books, including The South Beach Diet Cookbook also written by Dr Agatston, which has sold 1.75 million copies.
Wikipedia calls The South Beach Diet a “fad” diet and a “modified low carbohydrate diet”. Dr Agatston, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine at the time, was seeing patients in his cardiac practice, near South Beach, who were following the American Heart Association’s recommendations but getting fatter and sticker.
Not wanting to follow the recommendations of Dr Robert Atkins MD about saturated fat, he started working on a diet, with a dietician from Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. After getting great results with his patients, Dr Agatston published the first book in 2003, naming the diet after South Beach, instantly making it sound cool.
The South Beach Diet does cut out white flour and white rice, but allows whole wheat, whole grain and soy flours. It is also accepting of dried fruits, egg substitutes, reduced fat cottage cheese, margarine, orange juice, and a whole lot more. Foodstuffs which other low carb and keto diets wouldn’t contemplate.
The South Beach Diet Cookbook contains over 200 recipes, including many from renowned Miami hotels and restaurants. This makes it ideal for those who don’t need to be strict about low carb. It could also be used for family gatherings and some of the recipes would be suitable for batch cooking and could be portioned before freezing.
Not all of the recipes are carby, however. All the recipes below are 10g carbs per serving or less ! More could be adapted.
Breakfast
Asparagus omelets, with goat’s cheese, vegetable frittata with Parmesan, sausage and cheese breakfast cup, hot scrambled tofu, turkey patties with fennel, grilled Canadian bacon
Appetizers and snacks
Lettuce wrappers with shrimp, grilled clams gremolata, salmon ball, baked tomatoes with crab, spiced pickled eggs, cottage cheese-stuffed celery, Reuben wrap, California wrap perky ham roll ups, peanut dip, Muenster and turkey roll ups with nut butter, black bean dip, yogurt cheese cucumber dip.
Soups
Asian-style gazpacho, peanut butter stew, walnut soup
Salads
Tuna and bean salad, Chinese beef and pepper salad, mixed greens with poppy seed dressing, artichoke salad with olives, vegetable salad, balsamic tomato and Mozzarella salad, chayote salad
Side dishes and accompaniments
Glazed bell peppers and snow peas, orange ginger green beans, sesame ginger asparagus, nutty summer squash with Asiago cheese, roasted red pepper cream, South Beach tomato sauce, Joe’s Stone Crab sweet onion dressing, South Beach green goddess dressing, herbed vinaigrette, South Beach ketchup, South Beach teriyaki sauce, South Beach cocktail sauce, South Beach barbecue sauce, South Beach ballpark mustard
Fish, shellfish and poultry
Ceviche, crab Royale, Macaluso’s broiled sea bass Staten Island-style, five spice salmon. broiled salmon with creamy lemon sauce, poached Hawaiian sea bass, Bombay-style sole, Florida red snapper, red snapper with avocado salsa, almond perch saute, cod with peppercorn and leeks, Le Bernardin grouper with baby bok choy and soy ginger vinaigrette, Smith & Wollensky asparagus crabmeat and grapefruit salad, Caribbean baked chicken with mango, tropical glazed chicken, coconut chicken, Bolo Restaurant & Bar’s Spanish spiced rubbed chicken with mustard greens onion sauce, spice rubbed chicken fingers with cilantro (coriander) dipping sauce, chicken Capri, spicy Chinese chicken kebabs, five spice chicken, ginger chicken, Doraku’s healthy bird, sesame-baked chicken, souffle-stuffed chicken
Meat
Steak and mushroom kebabs, beef fondue, filet Mignon with tomato topping, marinated steak, steak au poivre, Sicilian chopped sirloin steak, Smith & Wollensky grilled filet Mignon with roasted garlic and chipotle pepper chimichurri, sage and rosemary pork, garlic and soy grilled pork chops,
Vegetarian entrees
Tofu with salsa, baked portobello caps with melted goat cheese,
Desserts
Frozen strawberry dessert, Light as a Feather cookies, new-fashioned peanut butter cookies
THE NEW KETO-FRIENDLY SOUTH BEACH DIET is far more low carb and keto-friendly