"SouthBeach" news and stories

Starting today, Slashfood will be on the ground at Food Network's South Beach Wine & Food Festival, now in its 10th year. For four days, we will be attending events showcasing the talents of the world's most renowned wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities.

The star of the festival this year (and every year) is Amstel Light's Burger Bash, hosted by Rachael Ray. This competition draws the best of the best in the burger industry -- all fighting for the title of "Judge's Best" and "People's Choice." This year's competitors include Michael White, Michael Symon, Bobby Flay, Shake Shack, Spike Mendelsohn and last year's "Judge's Best" winner, Michael Schwartz.

Tonight, we'll be live tweeting from Burger Bash. Find out who's talking smack, who comes with the biggest entourage and more importantly, who can claim that their burger is the best.

Check back here throughout the next four days for interviews with celebrity chefs like Fabio Viviani and Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef and Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink.

Also check our Facebook and Tumblr pages for behind-the-scenes photos!

For more coverage leading up to the event, check out these articles from our partners:

• The Burger Bash Lineup - EATER
• Behind-the-Scenes at SoBe Wine & Food Festival - HuffPost Food

Before ya'll start in, yes I know you can have carbs, but they aren't the "fun" carbs!

This is my 2nd annual New Year's cleansing using the South Beach diet as my guide of choice. After having gone through many diets throughout the years, I find that the South Beach is the easiest for me personally to follow. Through 2007 I stuck to it as closely as I could on the edible side, with the random slip up involving chili cheese fries or Frito pie. But on the beverage side I tend to backslide quite a bit with a nightly wine habit that I enjoy with much fervor! Let's not forget margaritas, can anyone really have just one?

I realize I will never have the body of a Victoria's Secret model, but I do what I can to stay healthy and fitting into my jeans. So here is one of my favorite recipes from phase one. Do you have any to share?

P.S. I am going to the movies tonight and I am sneaking in nuts. So sad!

See Mexican Chicken Soup after the jump.

Just about any diet will work if you stick to it, even if your diet consists of eating only banana bread. The problem with diets is that people do not stick to diets and even if you love banana bread, there are so many other good things to eat out there that it would just be too boring. Not to mention, of course, that very restrictive diets are not usually the healthiest ones.

Forbes has worked out their list of the top 10 diets that work. They correctly point out that restriction is the reason that many diets fail. Because most people will only have enough willpower (or interest) to stick to a diet for a short time, a very restrictive diet will produce maximum results quickly and is more likely to be selected by someone looking to lose weight. This is not the right way to lose weight. Diets are also a multi-billion dollar business, so there is a question as to whether the originators of some diets actually want people who try them to maintain their weight loss.

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Last week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published some findings about the effects of long-term weight loss with a low fat diet. The study was done in the context of the popularity of low-carb diet regimens (Atkins, South Beach), which are not necessarily low in fat. Supporters of the low-carb diets have suggested that it is low-fat, high-carb diets that have contributed to the US's obesity problem. The JAMA's conclusion? From the abstract, "A low-fat eating pattern does not result in weight gain."

No. Effin'. Way.

I am not poking fun at the JAMA, because, like, they're doctors and stuff. However, I am poking fun at everyone who 1) finds this information the least bit surprising, and 2) will twist the information and use it as license to reach for a dozen doughnuts with utter abandon.

No, no o ye of little restraint.

 

Today’s Miami Herald features an article about Afterglo, a new restaurant from dentist-turned-restauranteur Tim Hogle (Miami’s Tantra) and former Nemo chef Michael Schwartz.  The theme of this new South Beach venture is—surprise—food to make you beautiful.

Hogle calls it “beautritional” cuisine. While much of the menu includes notoriously healthy fare, the emphasis at Afterglo is admittedly on good looks, not good health.

If beauty is a complicated thing, so are the menu offerings at Afterglo. How about “chile- and mint-sparked bison ceviche,” or a wheat grass martini.

Unfortunately, the article doesn't really say how much of the food tastes. I guess maybe that isn't the point if you're eating for beauty.

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