Zone Diet Food List

Dr. Sears encourages a different way of thinking about eating. We are not just eating food, but use it as a powerful “drug” we “inject” in our body five times a day, following a precise prescription: the 40-30-30 ratio and daily protein needs. The good side of Zone Diet is we can make our own prescription: calculate our precise “drug” need, plan our meals and consult the Zone diet food list to choose the most favorable items.

Looking for a Zone Diet food list? You should keep in mind that there's no forbidden food in the Zone diet. Yes, the Zone instrumentary classifies foods into most favorable, moderately favorable and least favorable. But there are good reasons for that.

Why Classify Foods

Everybody can tell from experience that certain foods make us feel better than others. This is due to their content, which does not just feature macro nutrients, but also fiber, vitamins, minerals and other chemicals. Some of these substances are good for us, some are bad. Our bodies do not tolerate certain substances, which cause allergies. Certain substances have prove bad for most people. LDL cholesterol, for example, causes cardiovascular diseases, and derives from dietary fat.

USDA Food Pyramid & Alternatives

US Government recommends a diet primarily based on foods processed from grains: white bread, bagels, pasta. Up one level on food pyramid, we find fruits and vegetables, then proteins and diary products, and on the upper level fats and sugar. Zone diet argues that this diet made America a nation of obese people, proving high risk for “modern diseases” like type II diabetes or cardiovascular affections. Dr. Barry Sears, the founder of Zone Diet , also sees the USDA food pyramid more as a marketing instrument, based on the myth that fat makes you fat and low-fat foods do not.

As a reaction to this severe criticism, the American Heart Association produced a new food pyramid, that keeps bread, cereal, rice and pasta group at the bottom, but recommends "whole grain or enriched products". This is an improvement, the zoners say, but not as good as it might be.

Zonediet is not just a diet, it it is a lifestyle

The Zone Diet food pyramid puts vegetable and fruit group at the bottom. Low fat protein comes next, and then mono saturated fat. At the top lies the bread and pasta group. Zone Diet also recommends drinking eight glasses (eight-ounce glasses) of water per day.

Although the Zone food pyramid has not been accepted as a better solution for a healthy diet, many testimonials claim that it really works.

Zone Diet Advantage: Your long-term weight-loss solution!

Zone Diet Food List

Zone favorable foods are:

  • low-fat protein (chicken breast or skinless turkey breast, egg whites, most seafood, mushrooms, soy products);
  • carbohydrates from vegetables and fruit;
  • mono saturated fats that have a high HDL cholesterol level and low LDL.

Unfavorable means not forbidden, but not recommended. For example, the Zone Diet does not tell you not to eat pasta or rice, but to think of them as “condiments”. If you eat one meal out of the Zone, this does not mean that your previous efforts are wasted. The next 40-30-30 ratio meal will bring you back “in the zone”.

There are some well known medical reasons which encourage the Zone approach to food. Type II diabetes risk is higher if you eat high glycemic foods (potatoes or high processed foods: white bread, pasta, rice, sugar). Cardiovascular diseases are likely when LDL cholesterol level in the blood (known as “bad cholesterol”) is much higher than HDL cholesterol level (also named “good cholesterol”). This difference is caused by a diet in which we frequently ingest saturated and polysaturated fats, with high LDL level.

The Zone diet food list is provided by block directories, as they specify favorable and unfavorable foods. See The Zone Diet Block Method

Zone Diet Advantage: Your long-term weight-loss solution!