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What Is Zone Diet?

By: Rachel Gillespe The Zone Diet is among one of the five popular diets of today. It was created by a researcher from MIT called Barry Sears. The diet is concerned with maintaining a balance of proteins and carbohydrates thereby keeping insulin levels steady.

Barry Sears theorized that obesity is caused mainly through insulin imbalance and he found that most diets recommended a program which was low in fats and high in carbohydrates. This leads the body to produce an excess of insulin and the result is obesity.

The goal of the Zone diet is to reach a level where the two hormones of eicosanoids and insulin are kept in careful balance. If you control these two in certain zones, your decrease the amount of fat in your body, increase blood flow, decrease inflammation, improve your mental and physical stamina and reduce your chances of having diabetes and heart disease.

Under the Zone diet, you try to keep your portion of carbohydrate and protein to a ratio of four parts carbohydrate to one part protein. The protein should be about three to four ounces at one meal which is what the FDA and USDA recommend amount. For the carbohydrates, most your intake should be restricted to fruits and vegetables with a minimum amount of rice, potatoes, bread and other grains. Under this diet you should use monounsaturated fats such as safflower oil and olive oil and other oils that are considered healthy for your heart.

According to Sears, the high carbohydrate diets encourage their followers to eat more car hydrates which increases insulin and in turn causes weight gain. Unlike the Atkins diet which requires its followers to maintain a diet high in protein without a thought to the fat content (which causes ketosis which can be unhealthy), the Zone diet strikes as optimal balance between carbohydrate, protein and fat intake.

The Zone diet considers fish oil an important supplement to the diet. Pharmaceutical grade fish oil contains omega 3 fatty acids that are important to the cells. In the past five years numerous studies have proved that Omega 3 fatty acids and fish are an important nutrient for a healthy diet.

An example of a Zone Diet meal would be:

Spinach salad with walnuts and apples and a walnut oil with lemon

3oz of broiled salmon
I glass of juice-fruit or vegetable
½ cup of brown rice

Who is the Zone Diet for?

Check with your doctor for any serious conditions before you start changing your diet. People who have heart disease may have a different plan under the Zone diet than those who have diabetes. The amount of food and the balance is important for a healthy diet and can be maintained throughout a person’s life.