The
Truth About the Zone Diet
One of the
most effective ways to safeguard your health, live longer, and
alleviate the impact of aging on your body is to eat a good diet. The
Conscious Evolution Institute offers strong diet and nutrition plans
in combination with our various Hormone Replacement Therapy options
in order to help you maximize the potential benefits of therapy. The
Age-Free Zone Diet is one of many viable diet options if you are
looking to improve your health and reduce your risk of a number of
Age-Related Medical Conditions
Age-Free
Zone Diet
This diet
was created by a man named Doctor Barry Sears. The goal of this diet
is to simultaneously help you lose weight and help you live an
optimized life full of vitality. The central premise of the Age-Free
Zone Diet is that there certain factors which contribute to the aging
process which can be controlled, and that four of the factors which
speed up the aging process the fastest are free radicals, cortisol,
blood glucose, and insulin. The goal of this diet is to control and
reduce the levels of these Aging-Associated Factors through lifestyle
and diet so that you can balance them in order to significantly
reduce your mortality risk.
Zone
Diet Overview
Goal
of the diet is to balance hormone levels in order to slow down aging
Calorie-restricted
diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates
Involves
the use of diet supplements
Who
Should Consider the Zone Diet?
This diet
is best for individuals that love meats like chicken, fish, and pork,
and also for individuals that don't feel that they can completely
restrict their carbohydrate consumption but would be able to limit
their consumption modestly.
Who
Should Not Consider The Zone Diet?
This diet
is not suitable for individuals that need to limit their protein
consumption, such as individuals with kidney problems. If you have
Type-Two Diabetes, you should discuss this diet with your physician
before initiating your plan because most medical professionals
recommend eating slightly more carbohydrates than are allowed in this
diet.
The
Specifics of the Zone Diet
This diet
is not explicitly designed as a plan to lose weight, but
caloric-restriction plays a significant role in the diet, making it
also effective for people that want to lose weight. Sears is a fan of
caloric restriction because he is of the opinion that restricting
calories is an effective means to limit the impact of aging even in
individuals at a healthy weight.
The
Age-Free Zone Diet is a combination of lifestyle changes and diet,
which combine in an effort to optimize health and wellness. The three
primary factors of this health plan are dieting, moderate physical
activity, and meditation.
Although
lifestyle choices play a big role in this diet, the primary focus of
the plan is scaling back calories consumed in the daily diet by
avoiding simple carbs and limiting total carb consumption. By tightly
controlling the consumption of carbohydrates, the body does not rely
so heavily on insulin, which is responsible for converting
carbohydrates into glucose.
In
addition to controlling insulin, the diet plan also impacts the
balance of a number of different hormones, including Melatonin, DHEA,
Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, Progesterone, Estrogen, and
Thyroid Hormone, all of which are important to maintain properly in
order to optimize one's health. In men, for example, efforts are made
to optimize Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone Secretion and to
limit DHEA and Estrogen Levels in the body.
How
Does the Zone Diet Slow Down the Effects of Aging?
Based upon
the theory behind this diet, Caloric Restriction is an effective
means both to lose weight while also limiting the negative impacts of
elevated Insulin and Blood Sugar. Living by this health plan also
limits the impact of Free Radicals on health. Free Radicals are the
byproducts of oxygen reactions in the body which can damage cells if
not controlled effectively.
Sears does
not recommend severe caloric restriction, however. The goal of his
diet is to intake just enough carbs to function optimally without
experiencing unnecessary side-effects of over consumption.
Maintaining these limited-yet-optimal levels will still give your
body all the energy it needs to sustain itself effectively while also
keeping Insulin, Glucose, and Free Radicals in check.
A
high-protein, low-carb diet is the central feature of this diet plan,
but the Zone Diet also involves the use of anti-aging supplements and
antioxidants. In spite of these recommendations, Sears insists that
exercise and foods play the most significant role in balancing
hormone production in order to enhance longevity.
How is
the Age-Free Zone Diet Organized?
The Zone
Diet takes a common approach to stimulate metabolism: spreading out
meals and snacks throughout the day. In the case of this particular
method, the dieter will ideally eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with
two snacks distributed between meals. Every meal will involve four
courses per meal for men, and three courses per meal for women. Each
meal will have one source of fat, one source of carbohydrates, and
one source of protein. This diet plan even comes with a diet cookbook
which provides fourteen days worth of meals as well as a number of
additional, helpful recipes.
To provide
a more clear vision of what you can expect from your meals with this
diet, breakfast might involve fruit salad, low-fat cheese, and soy
patties. Lunch would involve reduced-fat cheese, turkey breast,
lightly dressed tossed salad, and a fruit choice. An example of a
Zone Diet Dinner would be grilled fish, grapes, green beans, and
tomatoes topped with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
In
addition to meal plans, the Age-Free Zone Diet Book will provide you
with examples of a number of quality choices for your meals and
snacks in general, and provide you with knowledge needed to maintain
a healthy diet.
The
Rules of the Zone Diet
Eat
within an hour of waking up.
Never
wait for longer than five hours between meals and snacks. Eat
something light even if you aren't hungry.
Every
snack and meal should involve protein.
Place
an emphasis on vegetables and fruits and make strong efforts to cut
back starches, grains, pastas, and breads.
Never
skip snacks.
Consume
at least sixty four ounces of healthy drinks every day.
Always
have a small snack a half-hour before physical exercise.
How Do
Nutrition Experts Feel about the Age-Free Zone Diet?
Experts
agree that there are a lot of good ideas behind the Zone Diet, but
there are certain aspects which have not been fully proven. One
niggling point with regard to the Zone Diet is that Sears asserts
that an important aspect of the diet is discovering ideal
carbohydrate consumption to slow down aging, but he makes no special
effort to help the potential dieter to discover what that personal
limit is. The Diet Plan also provides no specific information
regarding how to make the diet fit the needs of the individual.
A lot of
what Sears supports is backed by compelling medical research.
Responsible caloric restriction is highly correlated with reduced
mortality. Elevated Insulin Levels do wreak havoc on the body and
increase the risk of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Finally, free radicals do have the capability to damage healthy cells
and increase the rate of aging from wear and tear as well as
potentially damage the genes themselves.
The
potential issue with regard to these scientifically-backed aspects of
Sears' diet approach is that he takes the basic scientific wisdom and
goes further, inferring benefits that may or not be the reality. One
major issue that many nutritionists have with this diet is that the
Zone Diet involves a lot of unneeded supplements that are sometimes
combined in potentially damaging ways.
The Zone
Diet is based on 1,500 calories per day for males and 1,200 calories
per day for females. This level of caloric restriction will guarantee
weight loss for individuals that are overweight or obese, but his
plan does not provide necessary levels of certain nutrients, such as
calcium and B-Vitamins, from nutrition alone. The lack of these
vitamins from the diet is mitigated through the use of mineral and
vitamin supplements.
In
general, this diet recommends too much protein and not enough fiber
and carbs. The result of this is that you may experience constipation
and fatigue. Also, Sears believes that this diet is ideal for men and
women with Type-Two Diabetes, but most experts with experience with
diabetes patients generally advocate a diet with more carbs than the
Zone Diet recommends. Of course, you could take the advice of the
Zone Diet and alter it slightly to account for these dietary
discrepancies in order to amplify the positive potential of a diet of
this kind.
Still, the
diet is too high in protein and too low in complex carbohydrates and
fiber, which could leave you low on energy and constipated. And while
Sears advocates the diet for people with type 2 diabetes, most
diabetes experts recommend a diet much higher in carbohydrates than
the plan provided in the book.
Age-Free
Zone Diet Approved Recommendations:
Healthy
Fats, Limited Complex Carbs, Proteins with Every Meal, Vegetables,
Fruits, Caloric Restriction
Age-Free
Zone Diet Things to Avoid:
Low-Fiber,
Processed, High Fat, and High Carb Foods
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