The Zone diet helps in loosing weight slowly and maintaining an ideal weight. It is recommended to manage blood sugar level. It is a calorie restricted plan.The zone diet is consuming calories in a balanced ratio of 40:30: 30. That is 40 percentages of carbohydrate 30 percentage of protein and 30 percentage of fat with special emphasis on lean proteins fruits and vegetables. Zone diet also insists on control of the portions you eat and the timing of your eating. Zone diet promotes weight loss or weight maintenance depending on your health condition and physical activity. According to zone diet blood sugar can be managed by eating at proper time and certain foods and can produce low glycemic index. Zone diet was developed by Barry Sears Ph D a former researcher in biotechnology at Massachusetts institute of Technology.
Zone diet has several products which can be used for convenience but it is not necessary to buy to follow the zone diet. The product from Zone diet are ZonePerfect Meals, ZonePerfect Nutrition Bar, ZonePerfect Shake Mix.The ZonePerfect Meals contain 4 blocks each. ZonePerfect Nutrition Bar is two ZonePerfect Food Blocks.The ZonePerfect Shake Mixes contain 2 ½ blocks each.One mini block is equal to 7 grams of protein or 9 grams of carbohydrate or 3 grams of fat. Proteins can be lean meat, while carbohydrates can be half an apple and fat can be nuts or olive oil. A mini block from each category of cryohydrate, protein and fat is a ZonePerfect Food Block. At least 11 ZonePerfect Food Block should be consumed daily.Fats consumed should be from monounsaturated fat sources like olive oil, olive, almonds, avocado and macadamia nuts. Main beverage consumed should be water that is 6 ounce or 8 cups per day. Even though there is no prohibition to any particular food some foods like unfavorable carbohydrates should be restricted to 25%of you total carbohydrate intake. You shouldn’t go hungry for more that 5 hours a day without meal or snack. You should eat a snack within one hour after waking up. Vegetarians can get protein from beans, legumes and soy products. In simple Zone diet is 1/3rd plate low fat protein, 2/3rd with fruits and vegetables.
Many celebrities like Demi Moore, Madonna and Jennifer Aniston swears by zone diet. Zone diet is not recommended for pregnant women, breastfeeding woman and children below 10 years of age.
Understanding The Zone Diet
The Zone Diet consists of watching what you eat to maintain proper insulin and is similar to the concepts of low-glycemic dietary principals. Barry Sears, a former researcher in biotechnology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes that controlling the levels of insulin will lead to a health happy life.
Another concept in the Zone Diet is the natural maintenance of eicosanoids. These are hormone like compounds formed by body tissues during self-healing responses to stimuli. They are formed from highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) that we acquire only by eating essential fatty acids (EFA) in foods or supplements.
The Zone is achieved when insulin and hormone levels are in a balanced state of homeostasis. If insulin levels aren’t too high, or two low, findings suggest that other hormone levels also find a better balance which results in better energy and a better feeling of a sense of wellness.
The principals of the Zone Diet suggest a moderate intake of protein, fat and carbohydrates. All carbs should come from low-glycemic sources which take longer to absorb and therefore induce a more mild insulin response. All fat sources should come from high quality fats, of fish and vegetable origins, but again they should be unprocessed whenever possible. The processing done to make vegetable oils (fats) generally serves to make them more harmful than unprocessed fats from the same sources.
Because most people are challenged to obtain high-quality levels of good dietary fats, the Zone Diet recommends that supplements of fish oils be utilized. When selecting a fish oil supplement, make sure that it is third party certified to be free of toxins. A process called “molecular distillation” has been proven to safely extract the essential fatty acids and leave all other toxins behind. If you do not choose a fish oil that is proven to be toxin free, you could be at risk of ingesting heavy metals and other industrial toxins which are stored in the fat tissues of cold water fish.
Overall there isn’t a substantial amount of medical evidence to support Dr Sears′ theories for the Zone Diet although many have claimed that the diet has worked well for them. Principals of low-glycemic eating, which overlap some of the Zone Diet recommendations, have been clinically proven to lower cholesterol and improve insulin response, so there is good science that overlaps with the Zone Diet. Might this be the right diet for you? Do you own research and then consult a doctor before making any dietary change in case you happen to have any risk factors which might put you in danger.
