July 3rd, 2008 by admin

Excerpted from: The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life © 2008 by Arthur Agatston, MD. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold.

In this country, our epidemic of obesity and diabetes really took off over the past three decades and has continued at a fast clip right up to the present. Coincidentally, the 1980s was when the federal government, along with medical groups such as the American Heart Association, began to aggressively promote the benefits of a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. This was eventually reflected by the first USDA Food Pyramid, published in 1992, which emphasized bread, rice, pasta, and cereals as the basis of a healthy diet. Fats and oils were to be used sparingly. Was this the wrong advice? Did it have a role in the fattening of America? I believe the answers to these two questions are yes and yes.

Read the rest of this entry »