On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 07:15:16 -0500, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, Ken Stuart wrote:
>
>> (2) There is no exact ratio of C/P/F in any of Sears' books.   The term
>> "40/30/30" was popularized by Ann Gittleman in a widely distributed cheap
>> paperback.   The actual Zone diet, as explained by Sears, requires you to adjust
>> the ratios depending on whether you are hungry or not, and by whether you are
>> mentally foggy or not.
>
>Ken, Sears certainly did promulgate the 40-30-30 ratio in his
>first book, leaving relatively little wiggle room.
>
>_Enter the Zone_, p. 65: "And what is the beneficial ratio of
>protein to carbohydrate?  The ideal is about 0.75--that's three
>grams of protein to every four grams of carbohydrate.  That's the
>ideal.  But there's a range of beneficial protein-to-carbohydrate
>ratios that are still Zone-favorable--between about 0.6 and 1.0.
>Not higher, not lower."  That's Sears writing, not Gittleman.
>
>On page 71, Sears -- not Gittleman -- offers figure 7.3,
>captioned "Caloric Composition of a Zone-favorable diet."  It's a
>pie chart illustrating the 40-30-30 ratio.  Again, on page 72, in
>figure 7-4 we see the Zone-favorable diet represented as
>40-30-30.
>
>These comments and diagrams are all in the chapter entitled
>"Boundaries of the Zone."  Note also the "Rules of the Road to
>Reach the Zone," on p. 96 of the chapter "Your Dietary Road Map
>to the Zone."  Rule 2 is: "Every time you eat, make sure you
>maintain a 1:1 ratio of protein to carbohydrate blocks."

I'm not sure how this disproves my statement, rather than proving it.

P. 65 - "But there's a range of beneficial protein-to-carbohydrate
ratios that are still Zone-favorable--between about 0.6 and 1.0." certainly
proves it.

And note that precedes all the following figures on pages 71 and 72.   And,
those figures merely use 40%-30%-30% as an average Zone ratio, in order to
compare it with the SAD diet composition in the figure on page 70.  Only in
those comparisons with other diets does he use the 40%-30%-30% numbers.  Nowhere
in the actual text does he use it.   Undoubtedly these figures is where
GIttleman got her idea for her oversimplification.

As far as page 96's "rule", it is closely followed by page 87's Helpful Hints,
which start with " A slightly higher or lower protein-to-carbohydrate ratio will
still get you closer to the Zone."

In reality, Sears says - and the Table of Contents bears this out - that the
first book was intended for Medical Professionals, in order to get them to just
consider the concept, rather than as a Guide Book or Diet Book.  I think he was
surprised by how fast it caught on.   This is why the second book was "Mastering
the Zone" and has more specific instructions for what to do (but clearly many
people had already tried the Zone and failed).   It is in "Mastering the Zone"
in the section "Further Helpful Hints", where it is clearly stated on page 54:

" If you're hungry after a meal, then it means you have to readjust the
protein-to-carbohydrate ratio of that same meal until it generates the desired
responses. "

And there is more specifics in that section...


--
Cheers,

Ken
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