On Wed, 19 Jan 2000, Ken Stuart wrote:

> >This is incorrect, Ken.  The 40-30-30 ratio figures prominently
> >in both Entering the Zone and Mastering the Zone.
>
> If you think so, please find a quote.

Okay.  I don't have Entering the Zone here in my office, but my
memory is pretty good.  Go to the chapter titled "Boundaries of
the Zone" or something like that.  In it you will find a pie
chart titled "Caloric composition of a Zone-favorable diet", and
that pie chart displays the 40-30-30 ratio.  In the same chapter
you will find a table comparing the Zone with the American
Diabetic Association diet and some other diets that I don't
recall.  Once again, the Zone diet is explicitly represented as
40-30-30.  Finally, concerning just the protein-carb ratio, on
the first page of this same chapter you will find that Sears
asserts that the ratio should be between .6 and 1.0, "not higher,
not lower," to quote his exact words.  (I'm *certain* he says
that)  Elsewhere in the book there is a summary called "Rules of
the road" for the Zone diet.  One of the rules -- perhaps the
first one -- is "Whenever you eat, your protein and carb blocks
should be in a 1:1 ratio."  The size of protein and carb blocks,
of course, is defined so that this will result in a protein-carb
ratio of .75.

Turning to Mastering the Zone, which I do have here in my office,
you will find a number of assertions that emphasize the
importance of the 40-30-30 ratio.  For example, on page 39 Sears
writes, "Whey you total up all the blocks [of a Zone meal], they
should be in a 1:1:1 ratio."  Again, the blocks are defined in
such a way that this results in a 40-30-30 ratio of carbs,
protein, and fat.  Note also his statement on page 25, the
beginning of the chapter called "Your hormonal carburetor".  He
writes, "For the vast majority of individuals this carburetor
works best at a 1:1 ratio of protein to carbohydrate blocks (this
is how the block sizes for protein and carbohydrate were chosen).
Nobody's hormonal carburetor ranges very far from that."

Todd Moody
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