The South Beach Diet Cookbook

Some varieties from the original book. Doctors/authors philosophy spot on.

"The Southbeach Diet Cookbook" was written to provide a number of recipes to complement the original "The Southbeach Diet" book.The cookbook opens with an overview of the diet program. It describes the diet though not in the detail of the original book. It explains what you need to do to get your fridge and pantry 'southbeach' friendly. It explains what is allowed in terms of diary, meat, oils, pasta, snacks, beverages and more.Next the book has a question/answer session with Dr. Agatston. In this section he updates some of the information from the original book (milk and yogurt are now allowed in phase 1 for example) and he gets into more detailed regarding different types of food.Then comes the core of the book. The recipe categories include breakfasts, appetiziers and snacks, soups, salads, side dishes and accompaniments, fish shellfish and poultry, meats, vegetarian entrees and desserts. Each recipe indicates what phase it is appropriate for and many of the recipes are pictured in mouthwatering photographs!Sample recipes include Vegetable Salad with Feta, Homestyle Green Bean Casserole, Pan Seared Pecan Grouper, Whole Wheat Vegetable Lasagna, and Apple and Almond Souffle. Over 200 recipes.One very nice feature is the inclusion of recipes so you can make many of your own condiments. Unfortunately ketchup, barbeque sauce and many other "toppers" are laden with high fructose corn syrup. So Dr. Agatston includes the details on how you can make your own.Overall the quality of recipes is very good. The one negative I have is the total avoidance of sugar and reliance on sugar substitutes. I would rather use real sugar in moderation than sugar substitutes like aspartame. He has a recipe for strawberries with velvety chocolate dip and suggests you use sugar free chocolate syrup. Instead why not use a high quality cocoa bar and melt it down. This is healthier than the faux sugars like malitol,which are in sugar free products and so much more satisfying.Dr. Agatston has some wonderful recipes in this book from top chefs and restaurants and they are worth buying the book for. But many of the desserts with the fake sugars and fat free sour cream fall flat. Moderation is key. Use the real deal in a tiny quantity like the French do.

I'm a long time (as these things go) south beach dieter: I started in January 2003, lost 30 pounds by July 2003, and have kept it off. I bought this cookbook because of the initial buzz that there would be some really interesting new recipes. Unfortunately, the first two I tried were bombs. The oven roasted chick peas had very little flavor and a really odd texture (maybe I didn't roast long enough? Perhaps, but they still could have used some kick to the flavor.) Based on reviews here, I next tried the salmon in creamy lemon sauce, billed as having a remarkably rich and creamy taste. It was average at best; the sauce was thin and the flavor one-dimensional. At this point, I actually printed out an Amazon lable to send the book back. However, I had tagged one last recipe to try--the oatmeal pancakes. These were dynamite! I had tried some VERY expensive lo-carb pancake mixes that yielded odd little things that tasted like bad synthetic omelets, and had sort of resigned myself to no pancakes. But the oatmeal pancakes recipe here? Beautiful cakes, fabulous flavor, good texture. I made a whole recipe, ate 3, and put the rest in a bag in the frig. Then every morning, I popped some in the toaster oven, where they heated up beautifully. Re-inspired, I went back to the cookbook and made escarole with white beans. Another hit! Tonight I will try the salmon with 5-spice seasoning and lime juice, and see how that is. I think now that I will keep the book, and see what other jewels I can come up with.

The South Beach Diet cookbook has many helpful suggestions for meals based on the South Beach Diet. The diet is separated into three different phases and the cookbook has menu ideas from each phase to aide the cook in meal planning. I have not been a person who liked the idea of diets in general. They seemed so unnatural. The South Beach Diet is designed to encourage people to incorporate meal planning for every day, not just on "diet" days. This book allows anyone who wants to eat healthfully to be able to do so on all days!

I got this used like new and it came in MINT condition for just over $9 and free prime shipping. This is for the hard cover book, it is larger than most books which I like as it is easily accessed from the kitchen counter reader. I tried using the digital editions but found it too cumbersome and had to print out a lot of information wasting ink, thus wasting a lot of money.I highly recommend and do suggest you look at the used like new books, mine looks brand new and saved me over $10.00.I hope this helps, Cheers and Vidimo Se!

Next to the original SB Diet book (blue), this is the best one. It actually has many Phase 1 and 2 recipes that the average person would want to eat, diet or no diet. In my "Non-Diet" recipe book, I have four recipes from this book that I regularly use, not for diet maintenance, but because they taste so good and are easy to make. Good cook book ... the best in the SB Diet cookbook collection.

This is my second time buying this book. We have used all of our South Beach books so much through the years that the pages were falling out. Great recipes for a healthy lifestyle.

This book is most informative as to letting you know what foods are really important for your health compared to what we think are important. It lets you create for your family, meals that actually work in providing what is really benificial and not what is synthetic junk foods that we are all accoustomed to eating; even foods we are told are 'good' for us. The recipes are easy to follow, quick to prepare and suprisingly to me, very good, not like a 'can't eat this or that' diet. It helps you know what are the good foods really are. Excellent.

This book is a must they said with the Dukan diet, a French doctor who discovered this diet, brilliant my husband can recommend it for sure and he keeps going back to it. This book gives you loads of ideas on the diets and what you can eat to fill you up. woth a read it you want to try, you must like meats....

i started this diet 15 days ago after reading the book and now i'm 6 1/2 lbs. lighter. the first two weeks are really amazing. the weight just kept falling off. now that i'm on phase 2, weight loss is slower but i'm only just 2 lbs. away from my target weight. what's more,it's a healthy way of loosing weight. i recommend it to anybody wanting to loose weight.

Great range of recipes if you live in America, not England where i do live!!Either I missed that detail or it wasn't clear in description. Book now donated to local charity shop.

great Book, easy to understand, fun to cook with an by it, combined with exercise works a treat. Ladies noticed as well my weight loss. All in all, with exercise, healthy eating and a bit common sense absolutely worthy recommendation.

great recipes and super photos. the only downside is that the recipes aren't listed in order of the phases which would have been helpful. Great addition if you are a South Beach fan.