Is the Zone Diet for You?

I'm convinced that the Zone Diet created by Dr. Barry Sears is the best current method we have to reach or maintain our perfect weight (which includes losing pounds if we weight too much and gaining pounds when we weigh too little, which some people do), maintain our greatest health, achieve fitness and live as long as possible.

I'm convinced that the Zone Diet created by Dr. Barry Sears is the best current method we have to reach or maintain our perfect weight (which includes losing pounds if we weight too much and gaining pounds when we weigh too little, which some people do), maintain our greatest health, achieve fitness and live as long as possible.

And only a short time ago, nobody had heard of the Zone diet. Dr. Sears published the first book ENTER THE ZONE in 1995. It's been criticized as too technical, and he's since said that he actually meant it to be read by health professionals not the general public), but it achieved bestsellerdom, and so have all the major Zone books published since then.

The Zone Diet Keeps Evolving

When Dr. Sears learned of the health benefits of soy based protein, he wrote and published The Soy Zone. However, later Zone books rarely mention soy as a wonder ingredient, so I believe he may have backed off on that. I know that some alternative health professionals disagree, and believe soy is potentially harmful.

When science developed the technology to clean impurities and toxins from fish oil, he wrote The OmegaRX Zone, and was one of the earliest pioneers promoting the health benefits of pharmaceutical grade fish oil, including the EPA and DHA Omega 3. This is now widely recognized, and you can buy fish oil from many sources, and you can hear it promoted on the radio through infomercials. However, Dr. Sears was one of the first.

And I believe his claim that fish oil/Omega 3 works a lot better for people who follow the Zone diet than for those who simply take fish oil but continue to eat a high carbohydrate diet.

Later, he connected the Zone diet to new information showing that most people in the developed world suffer from what he calls "silent" inflammation. Inflammation is our body's natural -- and good -- reaction to infection. We've all had times when our flesh got swollen and turned red, and maybe we ran a fever. The problem it that should happen only when we have an actual bacterial or viral infection. New research shows that our bodies react to our high carbohydrate diets as though we were infected, and we have a continual low, chronic inflammation, which leads to the host of chronic health problems many people in developed countries suffer as they age: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetitis, arthritis, and cancer.

The Latest Zone Diet Book

His latest book, TOXIC FAT, also relates recent research to the Zone diet and his previous recommendations. It turns out that fat cells are not the passive receptacles of fat calories that we think of as. They play an active role in the process of making us obese, and with silent inflammation to make us sick. Hence, the title of the book.

The solutions are the same: eat according to the Zone dietary recommendations. This is not a "diet" in the sense you temporarily restrict your calories to a certain level for a certain time or until you reach a certain weight level, and then revert to eating the unhealthy way that made you fat in the first place.

No, I prefer to think of it as an eating plan for lifelong health, ideal weight, fitness and eternal youth.

Based on anthropological research and studies of the diets of the few hunting and gathering societies that still exist, Dr. Sears found that cave dwellers -- which the human species was for hundreds of thousands of years of evolution -- ate a diet of around 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30%.

The 40% carbohydrates did not consist of cereal grains (which, except possibly for a few wild grains, we didn't eat) such as bread and rice. No, it consisted mainly of nutrient dense leaves and roots, with fruit in season.

The 30% protein did not consist of dairy products, eggs, or fatty meat. Cave people didn't keep cattle or pigs. It came from hunting lean, wild game and fishing (to a lesser extent).

The 30% fat did not consist of eating hamburgers, but the organs of the wild game and from nuts.

zone diet

Exercise is Not Part of the Zone "Diet," But is Part of the Zone Lifestyle

Plus, we got a lot of exercise in the process of hunting and gathering this food. It took more than a trip to the local supermarket.

According to Dr. Sears, one group of cave people boosted our intelligence by eating the shellfish they found along an inland lake's sort -- boosting their uptake of Omega 3s.

Of course, cave people suffered from food shortages and exposure to bad weather. And of course from wild predators, accidents and fighting with each other. So nobody is saying they lived in paradise. But skeletal remains show they grew up tall and strong -- unlike late agricultural people who were shorter and weaker bones.

(It's also unlikely they suffered much from infectious diseases, because the bacteria and viruses would have had problems spreading to many people who lived so far apart, but that's another story.)

Dr. Sears also points out in his book that, so far, the only way proven by science to prolong life (vitamins and other stuff makes us healthier while we're alive, but has not been proven to make us live longer), is caloric restriction.

That's keeping our diets to the minimum number of calories we need.

True, that sounds like a REAL "diet" - limiting how much we eat so we're hungry all the time. That's no fun, and people will not do it voluntarily for more than a short time.

The Zone Diet Keeps You Feeling Full and Healthy on the Minimum Calories

However, it turns out that when you follow the Zone diet, you are limited the number of calories you eat. That's because you're eating what's rich in nutrients (vegetables and some fruits -- not wheat or empty sugar). And because they are full of fiber, you feel full, not hungry. You can eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, yet still stay within the recommended guidelines, and still not consume the number of calories in the average candy bar, let alone plate full of spaghetti. And the protein and fat make you feel satisfied.

By adapting the way our long ago ancestors ate to our modern lifestyles, Dr. Sears has done humanity an enormous service.

The Zone Diet is how everybody on the planet should be eating for maximum health, fitness and length of life.