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and handing out photocopies of the Foods to Enjoy and Foods to Avoid lists and the meal plans.
    I was amazed by my patients’ success. After years of frustration with the low-fat diet, I was now witnessing wonderful results as their belly fat seemed to melt away and their cholesterol improved, triglycerides dropped, and prediabetes and early type 2 diabetes reversed. I was also surprised and gratified to learn that my patients were mailing and faxing their photocopied diet guidelines to friends and relatives around the country. (Of course, this was before e-mail!)
    The South Beach Diet Goes Prime Time

    Because of the diet’s success, we began sharing our results at national meetings. First we reported consecutive cases, and then we undertook a small clinical trial. We compared our good-fat, good-carb approach to what was then called the American Heart Association (AHA) Step II Diet, which was very low in fat and high in carbohydrates (it has since been supplanted).
    Of a group of 60 overweight participants, half went on our diet and the other half went on the AHA Step II Diet. After 12 weeks, five of the low-fat dieters had dropped out, but only one of the South Beach dieters had quit the program. In the end, the South Beach dieters lost nearly twice as much weight as the low-fat dieters and actually had greater improvements in their blood fats. Notably, their blood triglycerides improved dramatically. Just as I had, they lost a lot of belly fat (which was significant when measured by their waist-to-hip ratios; see “Why Your BMI Can Be Misleading” on Chapter 6 ). The low-fat dieters did not have the same success.
    In spring 1999, after we presented our results at a national meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, a Miami TV station asked me if they could offer the South Beach Diet to their viewers. I said fine, and hundreds of South Floridians went on the diet and lost weight. The response was incredible, and the South Beach Diet series became an annual event for the station for 3 years running. I continued to prescribe the diet to my patients, and people urged us to write a book. Its publication in 2003 seems like yesterday.
    Scientific Support: The Diet Debates Are Over

    In the 5 years that have passed since the publication of the original book, we have received thousands of testimonials documenting people’s good results on the diet. You will find stories like Jen P.’s (above) throughout this book. There have also been numerous scientific studies reaffirming our healthy eating principles, including, notably, the importance of good fats and good carbohydrates. In fact, the latest USDA Food Pyramid, released in January 2005, reflects these same principles.
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    living THE SOUTH BEACH DIET

    Jen P., age 43: Now I Love Life and All the People in It

    I have found a new life with the South Beach Diet. In April 2006, I was 41 years old, 5-foot-6, and 156 pounds. I weighed 30 pounds more than I had before I got married in 1997. I was smoking two packs a day and drinking a whole pot of coffee before 10:00 a.m. for an energy boost. I never ate breakfast, and I never exercised. My meals consisted of fast food and anything processed that I could eat on the run. My total cholesterol was 287, and that was with medication. But I didn’t care.
    Then two things happened that made me take stock of my life. First, my grandmother died. She had been living with my mother with the help of hospice care, but I helped take care of her the last week of her life. I had been very close to my grandmother, and this was very difficult for me. Then, just 3 weeks later, my father died suddenly of a stroke. His death was shocking so soon after the loss of my beloved grandmother.
    Following the funerals, I felt a strong, overwhelming need to live and cherish every moment of every day, I decided I needed a complete overhaul of my lifestyle. My supervisor at work told me that she was on the South Beach Diet, and it was