43 What is the Zone diet?
Description
This article is from the Diet FAQ, by Claudia McCreary cookignnewsletter@chef.net with numerous contributions by others.
43 What is the Zone diet?
The Zone diet is described by Barry Sears, Ph.D., in his book The Zone: A
Dietary Road Map. It recommends balancing one's intake of protein,
carbohydrates, and fat so that, along with every 7 grams of protein, 9 grams
of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fat are eaten. Carbs contribute about 40% of
total calories on the diet, while fats and proteins each contribute about
30% of the calories. (This varies from current dietary recommendations from
the American Heart Association and similar groups, which recommend 30% of
calories from fat, 55-65% calories from carbohydrates, and 10-15% of
calories from protein.) Serious athletes are advised to ingest 4.5 grams of
fat for each 7 grams of protein, resulting in a diet in which approximately
40% of calories are supplied by fat. Sears believes that the diet, which
restricts calories, carbohydrates, and saturated fats, and limits protein to
the amount required for the individual (which depends on the individual's
lean body mass and activity level) prevents excess formation of insulin and
leads to optimum mental and physical performance (i.e., "being in the
Zone"). The goal of the diet is to switch the body's metabolism from a
carbohydrate-burning mode to a fat-burning mode.
There are a number of Internet-based resources on the Zone diet, including a
variety of Web pages and a mailing list. Russell Swan's Zone page
(http://www.cs.umass.edu/~swan/zone.html) provides a list of pointers to
other pages. To subscribe the Zone diet mailing list, send an e-mail message
to majordomo@fish.com, and put the command "subscribe zone" (without the
quotes) on a line by itself in the body of the message.
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