What You Must Know Before You Try Zone Diet!
The Zone diet was developed by Dr. Barry Sears. The diet is one that follows the 40/30/30 plan. That translates into forty percent carbohydrates, thirty percent fat, and thirty percent protein. Dr. Sears advocates a balanced meal plan in order to avoid certain diseases and lose weight.
The Zone Diet focuses on insulin production as the major facet of weight loss. Consuming foods that raise blood sugar and stimulate insulin production are bad for you. Excess insulin is stored as fat. When you eat foods that rapidly produce insulin your body is encourage to store fat rather than burn it for energy. Spikes in insulin are believed to cause heart disease and diabetes.
The Zone diet is specific about the types of foods that help keep insulin in check. Carbohydrates like those found in fruits and vegetables are better than those found in anything made from white flour. Processed foods are a no-no since they contain plenty of empty calories that turn to fat in the body.
The traditional eating plan of three meals a day and two snacks are eaten on the Zone diet plan. The snacks are added to keep participants from experiencing hunger and overeating at the next meal. The snacks shouldn’t be high in sugar or they will defeat the purpose of maintaining steady blood sugar levels. For the meals, a regular dinner size plate is divided into 40/30/30. The largest portion is carbohydrates and they are simple carbs like green vegetables, corn, cauliflower, and peppers. The size of the meat portion is about the size of the palm of the hand for a four ounce piece of chicken or steak. Excess fat needs to be trimmed before cooking.
Consumption of the proper amount of fat is essential because doing so slows digestion and provides a continuous source of steady energy. Slowing your digestion is good because you won’t feel hungry immediately after eating because your body will be busy digesting. The Zone Diet recommends eating good fats contained in nuts and canola and olive oil.
Foods that cause spikes in the blood sugar are avoided as much as possible. We know that candy, cakes, and other sweet treats can do this, but also more common foods. Breads, pasta noodles, and heavy starches will do the same thing. These foods are addictive and we often eat more than a serving size of them at any one time, without realizing it.
The Zone Diet provides many pre-packaged foods to make sticking to the diet very easy and affordable. And your weekly grocery list can be altered slightly to conform with this diet’s requirements. In fact, you could probably change your family’s menu to be consistent with the Zone Diet and they would not even notice. There are many great Zone Diet recipes that are kids favorites.
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