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 lasers in on insulin production as the major precursor and cause of weight gain. Eating foods that cause a spike in insulin production cause weight gain. This happens because highly sugary foods spike insulin production. Insulin attacks the sugars and loads it into your cells storing it fat. These spikes in insulin production are negatively correlated with diabetes and heart disease. That is, they cause diabetes and heart disease.
Some foods moderate insulin production and allow the body to slowly or more regularly produce insulin. For example, the sugars (carbohydrates) in fruit and vegetables are better than those in white flour. White flour causes insulin levels to spike! In addition, processed foods are bad because contain empty calories that cause similar spikes in insulin production.
On the Zone Diet you′ll eat 3 daily meals and two snacks. Your snacks, of course, will prevent hunger between meals and prevent you from overeating during meals. Choose carefully though and avoid empty calories that will spike insulin production. Your meals will adhere to the 40/30/30 rule. Meaning 40% will come from vegies like corn, cauliflower, beans, squash, peppers and the like. 30% of your calories will come from protein. A good portion measuring device is to eat a piece of protein (chicken, steak, fish etc.) that is about the same size as your palm. And any excess fat should be removed before eating.
Eating enough fat is very important because good fats slow digestion and provide steady energy. Slower digestion means that your body will work on digesting and you won’t immediately feel hungry. The Zone Diet suggests good fats like olive and canola oil and recommends eating nuts as they contain good fats as well.
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 plan offers no special pre-packaged foods to buy so the plan is cost effective. The weekly grocery list is fine with a few simple changes to reflect healthier choices. The foods are ones that children are used to eating so there is no problem fixing Zone approved meals for everyone in the house. They may not even notice the changes in many cases.
Tags: Weight loss
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