The Gold Coast Diet

Follow The Gold Coast Diet and reverse your risk of ten serious diseases. That's the promise of this diet. The plan contends that eating refined and processed carbohydrates triggers hunger, leads to weight gain, and raises the risk of diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and arthritis. The diet eliminates refined carbohydrates and trans fats, lowers intake of saturated fats, and increases consumption of whole, minimally processed foods.

Some of the Gold Coast Diet's rules are limiting saturated fat intake to less than 20 grams (less than 15 grams for those with heart disease or certain other conditions) and avoiding packaged foods with trans fat such as baked goods with hydrogenated (or partially hydrogenated) oil. You will also need to throw out the high-fat cold cuts and processed cheese products. And you'll eliminate all processed foods that have sugar (also called corn syrup, brown sugar, or dextrose) listed as the first or second ingredient.

What makes The Gold Coast Diet a different weight loss plan?

This is a member of the high-fiber diet family, due to its emphasis on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Unlike other high-fiber diets, it specifically emphasizes lowering saturated fat and eliminating trans fat. This plan makes shopping for the healthiest products easier. It provides information on brands, user friendly rules to figure out if a food is healthy, and other techniques that make it easier to eat a diet with more whole-grains, lower saturated fats, and less trans fats.

What is The Gold Coast Diet weight loss plan?

The Gold Coast Diet offers a lifestyle change. It provides you with the tools to eat healthier, whole foods, and gives a reasonable exercise plan to help you achieve success. There are no phases, no detox or wash-out period, and no maintenance plan. This is a long-term eating plan for the long-term.

The following are some of the main principles to follow on the Gold Coast Diet:

• Eliminate white bread, white pasta, white rice, pretzels, breakfast bars, baked goods made with enriched flour, wheat flour, and bleached or unbleached flour. Replace them with products made with whole wheat flour or other whole grain flour, and whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, oats, and millet.
• Eliminate margarines and vegetable shortenings made with hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated oils. Replace them with butter or healthy spreads like Smart Balance. Use packaged foods made with canola oil, olive oil, or butter.
• You can eat all vegetables and beans, including potatoes and sweet potatoes with their skin on. (Yes, you really can eat potatoes.)
• You can eat all fruits, but avoid canned fruit.
• Use flaxseed oil for salad dressings.
• Choose either soy or fish every day. Try to eat two to four servings of fish every week.
• You may occasionally eat butter and full-fat cheese. Generally, you should choose low-fat dairy products.
• Eat three balanced meals a day. Snacks are not necessary, but you can eat a healthy, whole food snack if you are hungry.
• You may eat one daily sweet treat in controlled quantities. A slice of cake, for instance, should not be larger than one inch thick.

The Gold Coast Diet plan provides sample meal plans based on gender and activity level. Although you don't have to strictly follow the portions, you can get a good idea of what and how much to eat. A sample fourteen-day menu gives recipes, sample foods, and healthy products to eat. The diet provides specific product names for each category of food to help you with shopping.

It also offers tips to help you read food labels wisely. For example, when choosing whole-grain pasta, look for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 grams of fiber per 25 grams of carbohydrates.

What are the weight loss expectations?

The Gold Coast Diet offers no specific weight loss expectations. It does promise weight loss if you change your eating and exercise habits. You should see these results within five weeks.

Is exercise promoted?

The Gold Coast Diet greatly promotes exercise to lose weight and keep healthy. The plan recognizes that many people are busy and have little free time. The Gold Coast Diet provides a ninety-minute circuit training program that includes aerobic exercise and strength training. You should workout up to thirty minutes, three times per week using the outlined program, and do a ten-minute core exercise twice weekly. The plan encourages you to add in additional aerobic exercise like swimming or walking. You can get details on the diet's 30-Minute Fitness Routine in the book and its accompanying DVD.

The routine requires equipment like dumbbells, a step bench, and a jump rope, all of which are relatively inexpensive and can fit into your home.

Are supplements recommended on the Gold Coast Diet?

Some recommendations include a multivitamin or multimineral, vitamin E with selenium, calcium with magnesium, vitamin D, and fish oil with EPA and DHA (especially if you don't eat fish).