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Understanding South Beach Diet Jargon

While you don't have to be a brain surgeon to follow the South Beach Diet, the plan does mention terms that may sound unfamiliar to you, especially if you do not have a background in organic chemistry, anatomy, or medicine.


It is important to understand these terms so that you will not feel alienated by the resource you chose. This article will help you understand some of the terms that you will encounter while you’re learning about the South Beach Diet.

Carbohydrates and Sugar
When you look at the atomic structure of sugars and carbohydrates, you will see specific arrangements of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms to make up one carbohydrate or sugar molecule. Monosaccharides, or simple sugars, make up carbohydrates. Glucose, the body’s main energy source, is a monosaccharide.
One monosaccharide molecule can bond with another monosaccharide molecule. The result is a disaccharide, which manifests familiarly as table sugar or sucrose. Sucrose is composed of two monosaccharide units: glucose and fructose. Fructose is also known as fruit sugar because it is naturally found in fruits and honey.

Monosaccharide molecules can bond with other molecules to form more complex units known as polysaccharides. These are often called complex carbohydrates. Starches, fiber, and glycogen fall under this category. Glycogen is found in animals while fiber and starches are found in fruits and vegetables.

Glycemic Index
Foods that are rich in carbohydrates, such as apples or licorice, are synthesized by the enzymes found in our body as soon as they are consumed. The end products are monosaccharide units, specifically fructose, galactose, and glucose. Glucose is the most important because it plays an important role in our body. Our intestinal cells actively absorb glucose. This will then be transported to different parts of our body through the blood.

The creation of the glycemic index (GI) is based on this mechanism. The GI ranks foods and food types according their ability to raise the levels of blood sugar in the body on a scale of 0 to 100. The GI contains three levels: high, intermediate, and low.

Foods with low GIs have a score of less than 55. These are peanuts, most vegetables, soy milk, and some fruits such as apples. High GI foods have a score of over 70, thus it can make the levels of blood sugar in the body rise quite rapidly. Some examples of foods with high GIs are white bread, doughnuts, rice cakes, and corn chips.

The South Beach Diet is built on the principle of selecting foods with low GI because these can make you feel fuller longer, thus making you eat less.
 
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