The South Beach Diet is a diet that replaces "bad fats" and "bad carbs" with "good fats" and "good carbs". This diet uses the glycemic index and requires dieters to eat complex carbohydrates that digest slowly in the body instead of simple, refined sugars that require little energy to be burned in the body. A journal is very beneficial to those on this diet to record daily food consumption. A journal makes it easier to calculate carbs and fats while helping the dieter realize their daily food intake.