Zone Diet by Barry Sears
The Zone Diet was originally developed by Dr. Barry Sears, PhD. He worked as a researcher at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has spent many years studying lipids, and their inflammatory role in the development of chronic disease.
According to some sources, Sears began working on Zone Diet in the early 1970s, shortly after his father's death of a heart attack.
Back in 1982, the Nobel Price for Medicine was granted to research that proved a relationship between the hormones called "eicosanoids" and the development of certain diseases. These included diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the immune system and cancers. Somehow, this moment is also supposed to have turned Dr. Sears' attention from his own studies of lipids towards a related subject: the relationship between food and hormone production inside the body.
In 1995, Dr. Sears published his first book on the Zone Diet: Enter The Zone, The book became a number one worldwide best-seller, selling four million copies. Since then, Dr. Sears has published 10 more books on the same subject.
What is "The Zone"?
Dr. Sears defines the zone as an ideal state of body and mind, in which we feel fresh and energized, and function to our maximum efficiency. The term is borrowed from the language of athletes. The goal of athletes is to reach their peak performance zone. This lasts a few minutes, or the time it takes to burn a match. Dr. Sears believes he can offer a way to make us "stay in the zone" as long as possible, even for a lifetime. 'Enter Zone diet' became key terminology that Sears and acolytes use to encourage people believe this posibility.
Although the Zone Diet claimed to be the answer for staying in the zone, many athletes who follow this diet complained that it didn't help them improve performance levels. On the contrary, they complained of losing concentration and of worse results.
The Zone diet history in theory
Inspired by the 1982 Nobel moment, Dr. Sears launched his theory about dietary fat dreiving from eicosanoids which can lead to certain diseases. According to Dr. Sears, the key for a healthy body is a good hormone level. In order to regulate hormones like insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids, the body uses essential substances from food. As a result, food is considered by Dr. Sears the most powerful drug that our body uses every day.
So where does the problem lie? We feed our body every day, and still get become ill and fat. The problem lies in what we eat, and in what amounts. The modern individual eats "junk food" which does not fulfill the body's needs. Dr. Sears even criticized the US Department for Agriculture (the USDA). For decades the USDA had encouraged people to eat a diet rich in carbohydrates and poor in fats and proteins. Up to this point, there is little difference from other dietary theories (e.g. Atkins and South Beach Diet). But Dr. Sears doesn't connect Zone Diet directly to vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients. He sees food as an instrument to control the blood insulin level.
According to Dr. Sears, while human DNA has not changed much over the last 100,000 years, our eating habits have. In the prehistoric era, the human being ate fruit and meat, a diet rich in proteins and fats, and poor in carbohydrates. Developing this hypothesis, Dr. Sears established the optimum ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat which any individual has to respect in a daily menu. This is widely known as the 40-30-30 ratio.
... and in practice
Up to now, although he has published 11 books about this subject, Dr. Sears has not yet provided any scientific proof that Zone diet works as he claims. The opinions of researchers contradict each other on this subject.
Yes, the Zone diet is good as a diet to lose weight. Many people who followed it the diet agreed they were losing around 1.5 pounds a week. We also have the testimonies of many people who could not lose weight with other diets, but succeeded with Zone.
Zone diet works well for overweight people, but is it really a way of life? Zoners strongly believe that it is. Some food experts approve of the Zone as "a good diet". After all, it encourages consumption of lean grilled meat, vegetables and fruit.
The Zone is also considered user-friendly, as it is easy to follow. For example, one meal should consist of one slice of lean meat (poultry or fish) the size of your own palm, and the other two-thirds of the plate should be stuffed with fruit and vegetables.
Nevertheless, some nutritionists and experts highlight at least one problem of the Zone diet. It limits the consumption of esential nutrients that our body needs to function properly. The first nominees are carbohydrates, which are transformed into glucose, the body's favourite source of energy.
Up to now, many questions about the scientific rhetoric of Zone diet still remain unanswered. This is especially true when it comes to its efficiency in preventing cardiovascular diseases, cancer or type II diabetes. But thousands of people (including many celebrities) claim it has worked for them. They say they have no intention of feeding themselves in another manner until the end of their lives.