Agatston Arthur - The South Beach diet: quick & easy cookbook: 200 delicious recipes ready in 30 minutes or less

To our mothers, Adell Agatston and Selma Fisher, for their wonderful love and support over so many years.

And to my wife, Sari, for her continued love and support.

Since the publication of the first South Beach Diet book, Rodale has been a terrific home for us. I would like to thank Steve Murphy, Tami Booth Corwin, and Cindy Ratzlaff for their support, and my literary agent, Richard Pine, who brought us all together.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this book, especially Carol Angstadt, art director extraordinaire, Nancy N. Bailey, JoAnn Brader, Mitch Mandel, and Diane Vezza. Special acknowledgments to Mindy Fox, who did a truly great job spearheading the recipe development for this project.

Many people are now involved with the South Beach Diet, and I want to thank all of our partners and members of the brain trust for sharing our vision and supporting the goal of changing the way America eats. And thanks to Ariel Rodriquez, my executive assistant, for keeping us all on track.

Special thanks to my sons, Evan and Adam, who are sources of frequent advice, whether I want it or not. I want to give extra special thanks to three fabulous women, without whom this book could not have been written. Margot Schupf, my editor, has become a great friend and advisor whose excellent judgment and dedication to this project have been invaluable. As I've often stated, I'm not a diet doctor, but with the help of my fantastic nutrition director, Marie Almon, I don't have to be. Her knowledge and hard work have been critical to the production of this book. Finally, thank you to my CEO, my best friend, my main advisor, and my partnerwho also happens to be my wife, Sari. Her commitment to our common goals multiplies my productivity many times.

For everyone who has struggled with weight loss and related health issues in the past, I have great news: The diet debates are over! After decades of confusing messageslow fat one day, low carb the next day, and cabbage soup the day after that (the medical community was just as confused as the public), we have actually achieved a consensus of opinion regarding the principles of healthy eating. Experts agree that we should be consuming the right fats, the right carbohydrates, lean sources of protein, and plenty of fiber. These are the principles of the South Beach Diet, and they have been successfully used for weight loss and better health by millions of people around the world.

If you're already a follower of the South Beach Diet, you know the facts: The right fats are the Mediterranean oils including olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil, and omega-3 fish oil, as well as the fats found in most nuts. The right carbohydrates are the nutrient- and fiber-rich vegetables, whole fruits, and whole grains. Lean sources of protein include fish, chicken, and lean cuts of meats, as well as low-fat dairy and plant sources such as beans and soy. Our good sources of fiber come from consuming enough of the right carbs.

If the diet debates are over, then the challenge becomes how to incorporate these universally accepted principles into our everyday eating habits. I've learned from experience that dieters who have the most success are the ones who enjoy a wide variety of foods and diverse ways to prepare them. But we all share the burden of today's fast-paced society, when time is our most valuable commodity (after health) and other things are sacrificed. So many people loved our first South Beach Diet cookbook but said they didn't always have time to prepare the recipesthey wanted more recipes that could be prepared quickly and easily. This new South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook is our answer to those requests, and it's designed to help you make this way of eating a way of life!

For us to better understand what's changed in the American diet over the past 40 years and why those changes have led to our current epidemic of obesity and disease, it's helpful to start at the beginning. Really, the very beginning: the beginning of human existence on earth. Believe it or not, early man's eating and exercise habits determined what our healthy eating and exercise habits should be today.

Man lived for thousands of years wandering the earth in small tribes. Because of their lifestyle, these people were referred to as hunter-gatherers. What they hunted were game animals that grazed on grasses and were comprised of lean meat and (unlike grain-fed cattle and poultry) good fats. What they gathered were whole fruits and vegetables. All this hunting and gathering took a lot of energy and exertion, making regular exercise an integral part of their daily life.

Life for hunter-gatherers was difficult. It's not like they could open the refrigerator and get something to eat. But interestingly, they were drawn to specific foodssweet, salty, and/or fattywhose nutritional properties enabled them to survive. The available sweet foods were fruits and vegetables. Sweet berries are loaded with essential vitamins, nutrients (including antioxidants), and fiber. The salt in salty foods helps to maintain blood volume and is also essential for cells to function. Their attraction to fat led them to hunting big game, which were fattier than small game and were good sources of protien. Fat helps store energy as well as maintain important bodily structures and functions, such as the nervous system.

Our ancestors' craving for foods that were sweet, salty, and fatty drew them to foods that were essential for their health. And since there was no way to procure those foods other than hunting and gathering, for early man, they were the equivalent of fast foods. If you think about it, these patterns of being attracted to sweet, salty, and fatty foods are still the prevalent patterns in how we eat today. So our fast-paced lives are not the only reason we choose fast foods: Our natural taste buds that helped us survive in a natural environment now lead us to the worst food choices in today's very unnatural surroundings.

There is more to learn from early man that explains other of our modern health problems. Right now, 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 40 and 70 are prediabetic and 70 percent or more of those in cardiac-care units are found to be diabetic or prediabetic. What's the connection to early man here?

Type 2, or so-called adult onset diabetes (which unfortunately is now found in adolescents and even preadolescent children) occurs when the pancreas gradually burns out. It essentially gets tired of producing the excess insulin required to contend with the unprecedented amounts of sugar and starch (in the form of processed carbohydrates) in the American diet. This means that when sugar and fats flood our bloodstream after a meal, there is insufficient insulin to efficiently move these nutrients into our tissues for immediate fuel or for storage.

Another factor that stresses our pancreatic reserves is insulin resistance. As we gain weight in our bellies and our fat cells get bigger, a resistance to the action of insulin occurs. It takes greater quantities of insulin to move sugar and fat into our tissues. This results in higher insulin levels and a greater strain on our pancreas. This, in turn, raises our levels of blood sugar while the insulin is trying to work, which then leads to a more rapid and deeper drop in our blood sugar levels when the insulin finally does unlock our tissues to allow for absorption of blood sugar. This drop in blood sugar is known as reactive hypoglycemia and is responsible for severe food cravings in those with insulin resistance or prediabetes. Our actual insulin levels are elevated in this condition, just not high enough to do the job.