Personally I have only heard good things about the south beach diet. A search online shows Doctors who support the south beach diet and doctors who are against it. Like the atkins diet the South beach diet focuses on carbs. But it doesn't eliminate carbs completely, the diet simply tells you to eat 'good' carbs. The South beach diet was developed by Dr. Arthur Agatston. Dr. Agatston claims that his miracle diet will help "participants lose weight, lower their cholesterol, reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes, and eliminate cravings without feeling hungry." Here you can find Dr. Agatston's famous diet: http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/diets/south_beach_diet/ "The South Beach Diet is not low-carb. Nor is it low-fat. Instead, this diet teaches participants to rely on the right carbohydrates and the right fats - the good ones. As a result, participants lose weight, lower their cholesterol, reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes, and eliminate cravings without feeling hungry. Some call it the “updated version of the Atkins diet” "According to Agatston, at the end of two weeks, most participants on the South Beach Diet are 8 to 14 pounds lighter. He notes the weight loss does not happen because participants eat less, but rather because eliminating simple carbohydrates has broken a bad eating cycle. As a result, participants continue to lose weight after the initial two-week period." **************************************************************************** Dr. Joseph Mercola, author of the "total health program" has a different story to tell about the South Beach diet. He gives 12 reasons to avoid the South beach diet. The reasons are as follows: Reason 1: Gets the "Good" Carbs Wrong -- At the Risk of Many People’s Health Reason 2: Severely Misguided Advice Can Lead to Dangerous Levels of Mercury and PCBs in You Reason 3: Advice on Milk May Worsen a Common Allergy Reason 4: Buys Into the Old Myth of Saturated Fat -- at Your Expense Reason 5: Recommends Aspartame ... Widely Recognized as a Health Hazard Reason 6: Dangerous Misguidance on a Serious Trans-Fat Issue Reason 7: Even More Misguidance on Fats Reason 8: The Lack of Nutritional Insight Can Be Carcinogenic! Reason 9: An Effective Diet Can Eliminate Dependency on Statins, but This One Does Not Reason 10: Many Will Not Even Temporarily Lose Weight Reason 11: Too Lax on the Exercise for Most Readers Reason 12: Most Will NOT Lose Weight Permanently with this Diet Read the full article with descriptions and explanations on each reason here: http://www.mercola.com/2004/jun/9/south_beach.htm