By Stephen Bucaro

The latest buzz word for today’s diet scams and prepackaged food rip-offs is "low carb". "Eat all fat and meat you want and still lose weight." Yeh, when your cold dead body starts to dry up!

Let's make one thing clear, without carbohydrates you die. Carbohydrates; fruits, vegetables, and grains provide fiber, sugar, and electrolytes your body needs to survive. Without these vital nutrients, you die.

How did this carbohydrate stupidity get started? It started as result of confusion about a new discovery called glycemic index.

When you eat carbohydrates, your blood sugar level rises. Excessive blood sugar is not good for your body. To clear sugar from your bloodstream, your pancreas releases insulin. This causes sugar to be stored in your fat cells.

The fact is that you need some sugar in your blood because that’s where your energy comes from. Without blood sugar, neither your muscles nor your brain will work. But excess blood sugar is a problem.

New research has discovered that eating certain refined carbohydrates causes your blood sugar to rise much higher and stay high longer than eating whole carbohydrates.

Note: As you age, your pancreas becomes less efficient at producing insulin. As a result, sugar is not effectively cleared from bloodstream, resulting in diabetes.

The gylcemic index uses blood sugar rise caused by eating pure sugar as a guide for rating other foods. Pure sugar has a glycemic index of 100. To stay thin and healthy, you need to avoid foods with a gylcemic index higher than about 50.

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Do You Make These South Beach Diet Mistakes ?

- by Neil Stelling B.Sc, MBA

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The South Beach Diet works, for most people. Its low fat, low carb approach helps you lose weight quickly and easily. Health benefits are great too.

But there's some easy mistakes you must avoid.

Gain Weight in Phase 2

Most people do well being strict in Phase 1. But what happens when you switch into Phase 2 ? Often, you put some weight back on again. Why ? Because your body's starved of carbs for 2 or 3 weeks. At start of Phase 2 it grabs at every carb you give it, and turns them into fat. I learned this lesson hard way, gaining 2 lbs in my first Phase 2 week. So reintroduce carbs slowly when you go into Phase 2, and make sure they're good carbs.

Feel Hungry

Yes, if South Beach makes you hungry, you're doing it wrong. You don't need to feel hungry. Eat 3 meals a day, with snacks in between, choosing from foods allowed in your current phase.

Stay in Phase 1 for too Long