On Tue, 18 Jan 2000 08:11:56 -0500, "Dr. James Alpigini" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Usual disclaimer:  I caught a baseball with my face once.  My face lost.
>That is as close as I came to being part of the medical profession.
>
>The ratio is 40% 30% 30% (carb, protein, fat)
>
>I would not recommend the Zone as a diet.  The calories are restricted to
>the point where you can impact your metabolism, and most likely cause
>muscle loss in the process.

A lot of misconceptions here.

The Zone Diet does not really have anything to do with these ratios.

The idea behind the Zone Diet is to keep the body's hormone system balanced,
even and well functioning.  When this is happening, then all of the other
systems work better.

Dr. Sears discovered that the best way to do this was to control the levels of
the "eicosanoids" in your body - the most well known of which are the
prostaglandins.   Aspirin works by inhibiting the effects of the prostaglandins,
and the research on the effects of aspirin were what inspired Sears in his
investigations.

Sears' research brought out that the essential fatty acids had a strong effect
on eicosanoid levels, and so his first try on controlling eicosanoids involved
supplementing with EFAs.

But he found that what should work according to the theory, tended to stop
working after a few weeks of initial success.   His first experiments were with
some sports teams, including the Stanford women's swim team.

After examining more closely the points at which the good results stopped, he
found that it was when the athletes carbo-loaded for a big event!   Thus, he
realized that diet had the strongest effect on hormone levels, and carbohydrates
had a strongly adverse effect, when taken to excess.

He then investigated the optimal diet for controlling hormone levels - ie
keeping hormones in a zone - hence the name of the diet - and found that the
amount of carbs by weight should be somewhere between 0.6 and 1.5 times the
amount of protein.   The amount of protein is figured as what is necessary for
all bodily systems to function optimally and avoid muscle mass loss, and varies
depending on the amount of exercise and activity (and the identical calculation
is used by Drs. Eades in Protein Power).   Then fat is added depending on
whether the person needs to lose weight or gain weight.   The athletes ate close
to 65% fat ( a lot of nuts!) in order not to lose body mass.

The proportions vary from person to person, and the "40-30-30" figure is taken
from a pop diet loosely based on Dr Sears research, and doesn't have much to do
with the Zone diet.   In fact, a specific part of the diet - often glossed over
- is that you are supposed to observe your reactions to a meal (in terms of
subsequent hunger and energy) and adjust the proportions of carbs, protein and
fat accordingly.

Another part of the Zone diet involves supplementing with Fish Oil ("Omega 3")
capsules which help keep the eicosanoid system in balance, especially after a
lifetime of overeating carbs and Omega-6 fatty acids (like corn oil).

Sears has specifically noted that the Paleo diet eaten in pre-neolithic times is
optimal for keeping hormone levels balanced, and agrees that most diseases of
civilization comes from the diet of civilization, ie agriculture.   He
recommends shopping by only going to the outer aisles of the super market (ie
meat, dairy and produce) and avoiding the inner aisles with their packaged and
processed agricultural products.

PS  The easiest way is rebut the claim that the Zone diet leads to muscle loss
is to note that Arnold Schwarznegger is a Zone diet adherent! :-)


--
Cheers,

Ken
[log in to unmask]