Dr. Arthur Agatston, Chief Executive Officer of The Agatston Center for Preventive Medicine, has written a new book, The New Keto-Friendly South Beach Diet, a low-carb, high-fat dietary approach consistent with a ketogenic diet that allows for more flexibility. “The new book, written with the help of my colleague, Dr. Judi Woolger, reinforces the basic principles of the keto diet while adding enhancements that make the approach more convenient and more sustainable over time,” Dr. Agatston said. The all-new keto-friendly program is based on Dr. Agatston’s original best-selling South Beach Diet, published in 2003. His approach was at the cutting edge of healthy eating as it recommended lowering sugar intake and prioritizing nutrition over cutting calories. The original South Beach Diet and other follow-up books together sold over 20 million copies. The new book outlines an updated version of the original program with the latest weight loss science. The South Beach Diet is now a Tivity Health brand.
As a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet there is no way around discussing dietary fats when you’re thinking about a ketogenic diet. This is going to be the vast majority of what you’re actually eating, so it’s going to be the biggest determining factor in the overall effects of your diet. This makes for an interesting problem - since most people are at least a little skeptical about dietary fats. Again, fats are not bad for you and they don’t make you fat. Over-eating is a problem, and you need to be concerned with your intake since they’re very calorie-dense. Fats provide 9 calories per gram, which means a few hundred grams too much can easily add up. Fortunately, fats tend to be quite filling and a good ketogenic diet balances them with fibrous vegetables and high-quality proteins. Carbs are short-term fuel, Fats are back-up fuel. This is the basic pattern that we see - and its why the ketogenic diet works.
Energy from stored fat is plentiful - usually in the 10,000s of calories per person. This is an enormous amount of energy to rely on and it shows through in your exercise performance. Getting your body to use fats as fuel does require you to force it a little. Carbohydrates are the obligate source, so a diet that limits carbs and provides a balance of high-quality fats is going to be the best way to establish a long-term efficiency with fats. This is where most of the benefits of the ketogenic diet come from: reductions in poor carb-eating habits and the benefits of a fat-efficient metabolism. This is the root of improved endurance performance as well as the ability to shift more body-fat during long-duration exercise. The fats you use - as well as what you combine them with - play a crucial role in the way that it all works. Over the past century, everything has been ‘bad for you’ at some point. Saturated fats were the devil in nutrition during the late 20th century: everyone thought that saturated fats directly caused heart issues.
The science has shown this - and every other one-factor cause - to be false. The reputation about them persists, however: you’re going to hear plenty of people saying that a high-fat diet causes heart problems. Obviously, this is far from correct, but it’s stuck around and we’re going to have to address it. These are the bad boy of dietary fats: they’ve got a bad reputation but they’re not all that bad for you. Saturated fats are essential for various hormonal processes - from supporting testosterone production to supporting body-fat metabolism. They’re not just one thing, but a family of different fats with different structures and a single shared characteristic. For now, all you need to know is that saturated fats are not bad for you unless you eat them in excess. This is where the problems come from. On the contrary, dietary sat-fat intake is important and MCTs are a great example of high-quality saturated fats.
They have mild benefits to fat loss, as well as being perfect for the ketogenic diet and how it supports fat loss and exercise performance. Saturated fats should make up no more than 1/3 of your diet, however, since they provide a limited benefit after a certain point. Excess is anything above this, so try and limit them within your diet beyond a certain point. These are the middle of the road - they’re not associated with as many problems as saturated fats, but they also don’t have the reputation for excellent health benefits we see with PUFAs. These fats should also be at roughly 1/3 of your dietary fat intake and provide a well-balanced array of benefits. They’re going to be mildly superior to your standard saturated fat but won’t actively adjust heart health. The main role they should play in your diet is as a replacement for the lower-quality saturated fats since they provide fuel without as many risks. Obviously, excessive consumption is still a concern since you’re going to be over-eating. These are the characteristic “healthy fats” you’ve heard about.
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