This diet looks fabulous! I am trying to restrain myself from rushing out to buy the book until I get a few questions answered. We've been doing the South Beach Diet for almost two years, with a break for pregnancy. Baby is coming any day, and we'll be going back "on the wagon" very soon. Sonoma looks like something fresh and new and fun! But I'm wondering....does the Sonoma diet, like so many others, use artificial sweeteners? I'd love to find an eating plan that uses something more natural...

I know, I know, many reports say that Splenda and all the others are very safe. They may be! I just like to eat foods that are halfway close to the way God created them!

None in Wave 1, but in Wave 2 you can use a small amount of honey, enjoy the natural sugars that appear in foods such as fruit, and 3 times a week you can have a piece of real dark chocolate

However, I don't see anything showing how much to limit honey. The only reference I've found just says it will be useful to sweeten some of the Wave 2 recipes.

The reference to sugar says to avoid sugar, particularly if it is in the first 5 ingredients on the list. So by that, I would assume that if a food does have sugar and it's way down on the list, and has very few sugar grams, then it would probably be ok, but you'd need to pay close attention so we don't fall back into old habits.

That was a fast reply! Thanks! We have local "grown" honey in our tea every morning for the allergy-fighting benefits.

What does the Sonoma Diet use in baking?

(so good to know about the chocolate....it's a NEED!)

I can't answer the baking question but Stevia is a natural sweetener .

I've never tried Stevia, though I am curious about it.

There aren't any recipes in the book for baked products, or references to baking that I've run across. But from some of the replies by the nutritionist on their forum, I get the impression that little bits of some things are ok, as long as you don't get carried away, and make reasonable choices. She explained that some ingredients are added for flavor or variety, even if they are not on your food list. You just have to be careful.

I'm not big on diets with strict taboo lists. It's food, not drugs. It's my impression that this book understands that leniency is necessary sometimes.

Many baked goods require a small amount of sugar to rise properly or achieve the right texture. Two teaspoons of sugar in a bread recipe isnt going to hurt anyone. It's not like we're baking a cake, right?

I'd try to search their website to find out, but all I'm getting are errors. They've had more technical problems this week than we have!

I think it was Hippocrates that said "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food."

So no "healthy" spice cakes???? (South beach has a spice cake made with splenda)

There's a cobbler recipe here: http://sonomadiet.com/public/foodand...s/dessert.aspx that offers a choice of either artificial sweetener or honey.

The Sonoma Diet doesn't really want you to use sweeteners of any kind. Certainly not in Wave 1. They want your system to get the sweet tastes out of your system. This applies to AS too.

I understand you wouldn't want to use sweeteners in the first wave. But I'm looking for an eating plan I can follow for life. Does Sonoma expect that you never eat dessert again? (other than fruit?)

(I was on the South Beach Diet where you're required to eat dessert...)

There are recipes for desserts such as fruit tarts and cobblers in the book, and you can create your own as long as you stick to the general guidelines. There is a difference in the types of desserts on South Beach and Sonoma, probably because Sonoma is based on the Mediterranean diet, and desserts are different over there. This style of eating isn't for everyone, though, and if you don't feel comfortable with the food choices, then you might not be able to stick to it long term. We'll try to come up with a dessert thread soon, to give ideas that might help give a bigger picture and you can see if it's something you might want to try

One thing I remember about South Beach was that by the end of Phase 1, I never craved a strawberry more in my life, lol. I gained a new appreciation for fruit Wave 1 of this diet may have the same effect.

Dessert is an option, not a requirement on South Beach. I think it was included in the sample menues just to ease the feeling of deprivation.
Dessert is really not necessary nutritionally.

Ok, I haven't read the book or anything so this is more just my .02 worth. Take it or leave it lol

While you probably wouldn't be able to make certain desserts a regular part of your diet, I think that after a while, when you've been on the diet for a longer period of time, it would be ok to *every once in a while* have something off-plan. You'd probably want to wait to do this until the diet really has become a new lifestyle for you, because otherwise..well..don't know about you all but I would be too tempted to go back to the way things used to be. I'd have to wait till the diet became more second nature, kwim?

Again JMHO!

~Liz

My understanding is that certain fruit desserts are OK during Wave 2 but you should avoid other desserts like cake, ice cream, etc. until you reach your goal and enter Wave 3. At that point, occasional dessert of this kind is OK. My impression from skimming the Wave 3 chapter (I'm still a long way from there! ) is that the Sonoma Diet wants you to consider carefully foods that are not on the list and reserve them for special occasions.

Thank you for all your help and comments! I got the book, and from a quick skim-through, I can see that this isn't the eating plan for me. Too limited, and not enough snacks! But, many of the recipes will work well for the South Beach Diet, so the book was worth buying.

Also, I like the portion guidelines on the plates!