INTRODUCTION:

Fad diets are supposed to come and go like a breeze during the day. Some, however, have turned into religions for many.

Fad diets have a ton of followers and are typically riddled with questionable theories. Most have a M.D. backing their way of eating, and they cost you money to learn about or to do. What’s more, fad diets are rarely recommended by the food health professionals as a healthy approach to nutrition.

It seems like almost every year there is yet another fad diet craze going on. The media loves to exploit the emotional side of dieting because people are very interested about losing weight or getting into shape. I am going to tear apart some of the most popular fad diets over the last 20 years and that are still thriving as a sales force in the United States of America. Those such as Atkins, The Zone Diet, The South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, The Subway Diet, The Svelte Gourmet, and Body for LIFE.

Many of these diets are full of great well-written handiwork. Some have absolutely die hard and wonderful content. Often, for some of the diets, full pages are written in a way that include healthy approaches and skewed thinking into one. This combination, to the untrained eye, can all seem very believable and doable, even exciting. Add the fact that many of you recommend what works to your friends and family and the word-of-mouth marketing becomes viral. So, even today, with all of the science that proves how the body works, there are many myths and untruths that are being touted as fact by herds of people.

In my first article, I exposed The Atkins Diet. Now it is time for The Zone Diet to be exposed! You be the judge for yourself and choose for you, the most important person in your life.

THE ZONE DIET:

Does The Zone approach work to lose body weight: Yes.

Is it a healthy approach? Perhaps.

Barry Sears, Ph.D, has written books about diet, specifically with regards to hormones and their response to food. He was an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) as well as a research scientist at the Boston University School of Medicine. He is a research scientist, an author, and a patent holder. He is not a medical doctor (M.D.); he is a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D-he is a molecular biologist.) I point this out simply because until the moment of my own research, I was unaware that Dr. Sears was not a practicing medical doctor, but instead more like a professor or research scientist.

• Dr. Sears proclaims that he has “dedicated his research efforts over the past 30 years to the study of lipids.” In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize in medicine “for discoveries of the role that specialized hormones, known as eicosanoids, play in the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, and cancer.”
• Dr. Sears also proclaims, “…eicosanoids are only generated from dietary fat…” He “reasoned that one could apply intravenous drug delivery principles to nutrition in order to control these exceptionally powerful hormonal responses with laser-like precision. In essence, his approach treats food as if it were a drug.”
• “Since its publication in June 1995, The Zone has sold more than 2,000,000 hardcover copies, and became a #1 best seller on the New York Times book list. In addition, The Zone has been translated into 22 languages indicating a worldwide response to Dr. Sears’ research. His second book, Mastering the Zone, published in 1997, also became a New York Times bestseller with hardcover sales in excess of 500,000.” *1

Though the book and eating method have become popular, the science is lacking with regard to scientifically controlled studies to back the assertions and research conducted for this type of diet.

The book ‘The Zone‘ was written by Dr. Sears with the initial intention of it being a piece for his colleagues. Since its publishing inception in 1995, Dr. Sears has catapulted into the mainstream and The Zone Diet information is widely available from your neighborhood used book store to online critiques and postings such as can be found on Lance Armstrong's Website Livestrong.com.

I am pleased that Dr. Sears recognizes and identifies exercise and meditation as two methods to control cortisol and insulin levels. These are results that he states he is looking for with the nutrition approach he preaches. These are two contrasting approaches to get the desired results of controlled cortisol and insulin levels. The pros/cons to each could certainly be a lengthy topic of discussion in and of themselves.

Dr. Sears’ The Zone is closely associated to his research on hormones and what he terms ‘silent inflammation’ of which he uses as the basis for his recommendations. There is not sufficient scientific collaboration at this point to substantiate his claims, however.

Apparently the U.S. Government is trying to get away from using direct ratio’s or percentages when referring to diet. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends eating via their food pyramid which recommends consumption in cups and ounces instead of percentages. After a rough calculation, I estimate their recommendation for an active adult to be 15% fat, 65% carbohydrates, and 20% protein. For a sedentary individual the calculation is slightly different: 10% fat, 60% carbohydrates and 30% protein. This is a contrast from the USDA between 15:20:65 and 10:30:60 to what the Zone Diet recommends of 30:30:40.

My initial reaction is to say that the brain and nervous system operate primarily off of glucose for their energy, in other words: carbohydrates. If we reduce the amount of carbohydrate intake, the body seeks the glucose in the form of breaking down protein and/or fat which is a catalyst for ketosis, which is described in my article The Atkins Diet. That being said, Dr. Sears also asserts that ATP, adenosine triphosphate, the bodies primary energy source, is, “One of the little known, or little appreciated facts of the Zone diet is that it’s not about how many calories you eat, it’s how much energy you produce, that is ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the body’s primary energy molecule.)” *2

This statement creates ambiguity because it makes it look like fat is the better way to intake energy when compared with carbohydrate, and makes fat responsible for more ATP. This results in gluconeogenesis, which is another way of saying ‘the production of glucose from fat tissue and/or from protein.’ The issue with this process returns us to the ketosis discussion again. See my article The Atkins Diet, in which ketosis is described.

There has to be a cross of medicine along with research and collaborated published scientific studies for there to be clear understanding of what the body is doing with regard to energy breakdown and use. The paradigm is definitely in a shifting phase when it comes to how the body truly metabolizes and puts forth energy for use.

There clearly needs to be more molecular study done with regards to a higher intake of fat and lower intake of carbohydrate for a long-term healthy nutrition approach. Blindly eating more fats now and reducing carbohydrate intake as The Zone perpetuates appears to be arbitrary rhetoric when considering the current published scientifically controlled studies about ketosis, diabetes, and nutrition. See The New England Journal of Medicine, N Engl J Med 2008; 359:229-241, July 17, 2008, for a more comprehensive study on the long-term effect of increased fat as a nutrient source in the body.

I admit to being highly interested in the scientifically controlled studies to come with specific regards to the monounsaturated fats and their effect on diabetes and the diet as a whole. My internal intuition says that Dr. Sears is on to something, but that the line is very vague at this time. It appears to be feasible that monounsaturated fats (when traded out for saturated fats and trans-fats) could be a method of reducing the onset of diabetes in the long run, instead of increasing the likelihood of onset of diabetes. The NEJM publication above identified a high protein diet as an indication of elevated lipids after two years, which over time will lead to the onset of diabetes.

Now, consider Europe and The Mediterranean Diet. Life expectancy is greater in that European region than here for a reason! What is it? Science has yet to identify the real reason, but I feel that it will be in the realm of nutrition; more so than the exercise realm. The science can not come fast enough to prove or disprove the facts with regards to this.

The Zone approach points out their use of additional fat with Dr. Sears stating in an interview , “…add a dash of monounsaturated fat..,” with regards to the consumption of fat in the form of, “…olive oil, sliver almonds, or guacamole,” as an example. This is in contrast to the USDA with regards to the percentages to be consumed as a whole. The USDA does state, “Most of the fats you eat should be polyunsaturated (PUFA) or monounsaturated (MUFA) fats. Oils are the major source of MUFAs and PUFAs in the diet.“ *3

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends the following: “Limit total fat intake to less than 25–35 percent of your total calories each day.” They also recommend that a maximum of 8% of ones total fat intake should be from trans-fatty acids. They recommend that the remaining 92% of ones total fat intake should, “come from sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats such as nuts, seeds, fish and vegetable oils.”

I do not see a huge disparity between The Zone Diets recommendation for fat and the American Heart Associations recommendation, except for in the total quantity of fat consumed. In fact, the terminology used by the American Heart Association places the fat percentage at an acceptable level when comparing solely the daily fat recommendation between the two.

The U.S. Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, in her report ‘The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation 2010,’ recommends reducing the consumption of solid fats and, “choosing low-fat or non-fat diary products.”

The USDA also recommends the consumption of monounsaturated fats vs. the consumption of saturated fats, predictably.

So what does all of this mean? The Zone is recommending the same types of fats to be consumed for your health as the AHA, the USDA, AND the surgeon general. The main distinction being obvious: the ratios of fat, protein, and carbohydrate intake versus your total percentage of intake. As mentioned previously, The Zone recommends a ratio of 30:30:40, Fat, Pro, Carb & the USDA’s ratio is approximately 15:20:65, for an active adult. The Zone increases your protein intake and reduces your carbohydrate nutrient considerably in comparison to the mainstream government health recommendations.

I am cautiously upbeat about the continuing research related to ideas presented by Dr. Sears. I look forward to the continued studies results and verification or dismissal of assertions made due to the pioneering efforts of this persistent direction toward molecular involvement in our consuming habits. There is no doubt in my mind that genetics plays a vital, yet still undetermined, role in our dietary intake and many other facets of our lives. Time will tell. It is now up to the scientists to perform scientifically controlled studies to define and verify the assertions made by Dr. Sears, and to publish said results in the widely recognized international journals of medicine.

As a healthy approach to eating, based on my research thus far, The Zone beats the Atkins Diet approach hands down for a more healthy approach to diet and weight loss. Next, evaluate my other six articles on diets and weight loss which are: The South Beach Diet (3), Weight Watchers (4), Jenny Craig (5), The Subway Diet (6), The Svelte Gourmet (7), and Body-for-LIFE (8) and see how they compare to these two diet programs. And, as usual, the choice is yours to make!

 Thank you for your time, your attention, and your votes!