it's rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein…Most importantly, it doesn't leave out any major food groups" (par. 2). However Moore also has some doubts about how 'foolproof' the South Beach Diet is, and warns that the phase one claim of rapid weight loss is actually mostly a loss of water weight, not fat. This would seem to dispute the claim that most of the weight loss is fat from the waist area, however Moore is only speaking about the first two weeks, not the long-term. Not all experts are so ambivalent, however. For example, Dr. Fuhrman, author of Secrets to Healthy Cooking, had some rather harsh words for the South Beach Diet: "The unscientific and false claims of the popular and ill-advised fad diet offer potentially dangerous advice for the general public and heart patients. This is especially remarkable and worrisome, because the South Beach Diet was written and is promoted by a cardiologist" (par. 2). Fuhrman has three primary objections to the diet. The first is that it promotes yo-yo dieting (gaining and losing weight repeatedly) which has been proven to more damaging to a person's health than simply maintaining their weight, even if it is high. The second objection Fuhrman has is that Dr. Agatston provides no scientific evidence to back up his claim that dieters will "lose belly fat first." The third problem Fuhrman has with the South Beach Diet is that it permits the dieters to eat foods that are high in animal fat, which Fuhrman claims is far more dangerous to the body than carbohydrates could ever be. For these three reasons, Fuhrman believes that "Agatston's South Beach diet does a disservice to America" (par. 16).

As with just about any health or diet aide, or health or diet program, there are strong opinions about the validity of the claims being made on both sides of the fence. The South Beach Diet is no exception. Some experts praise it as the greatest thing since sliced bread,...

On the plus side, it promotes mostly healthy food choices, including all of the major food groups and it doesn't require the dieter to completely starve themselves. It has also been shown to live up to its claim to break the 'vicious carb cycle' and provide rapid weight loss in the first two weeks. On the con side, much of this weight loss may actually be water weight, and there is no scientific proof that the belly fat will be the first to go. In addition, there is concern about the diet's allowance of animal fat and that it might lead to yo-yo dieting. Taking all of this into consideration, it is impossible to simply label the South Beach Diet as either "Good" or "Bad," or even "True" or False" because there are pros and cons to the diet, which is to be expected considering nothing in this world is utterly perfect.