The Zone Diet: Food Becomes a Potent Drug

Did you ever have a day when everything went right? You woke before the alarm, got to work on time, your work pleased the boss, you visited the gym and exercised in perfect form. It's likely you were in The Zone.

Some athletes refer to The Zone when they make a good play. Dr. Barry Sears, Massachusetts-based Ph D. in biochemistry, dedicated his life and career to constructing dietary technology to combat disease and increase performance, to keep you in his dietary version of The Zone.

The claims

Sears has developed a Zone Diet which he says allows you to accomplish the following goals:

¨ Lose weight permanently

¨ Reset your genetic code

¨ Prevent disease

¨ Achieve maximum physical performance

¨ Enhance mental productivity

¨ Reduce craving for sweets

¨ Balance hormone and insulin levels

¨ Positively impact depression, arthritis, cancer and alcoholism

¨ Boost immune system

How the plan evolved

Dr. Sears lost many men in his family to heart disease and he did not want to suffer the same fate. Earning a doctorate from Indiana University, he continued with post doctoral work at the University of Virginia.

Spurned by pharmaceutical companies because his work could not be patented, he was undaunted and created his own company in 1976, Lipids Specialties. He worked on such ground-breaking scientific phenomenon as AZT, the AIDS drug.

Sears viewed food as a potent drug, one consumed often and he reveres its anti-disease qualities. A Zone-favorable diet is 40 percent calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat and 30 percent from protein.

In his 1995 book, Sears divided foods into Zone-favorable and unfavorable. The Zone-favorable diet uses blocks to determine portions. If the food is Zone-favorable, twice as much can be eaten. If Zone-unfavorable, only half as much is recommended.

The only favorable grain is oatmeal. The long list of unfavorable grains are staples, such as pasta, bread, rice and tortillas. Vegetables like, lettuce, celery and broccoli are favorable but squash, potatoes and carrots are not. Fruits, such as apples and strawberries are favorable while bananas are not.

In his 1997 book, "Mastering the Zone," Sears expanded the Zone-favorable diet providing more than 100 additional recipes and added information on eating out and exercise.

Caution for people with chronic illnesses

Kidney disease

A Zone-favorable diet is heavy on protein, too high for patients with kidney disease, said Kathleen Zelman , registered dietitian and American Dietetics Association spokesperson on fad diets.

Most people need .8 grams/kilogram of body weight per day of protein. That is about 10 percent, significantly lower than the 30 percent recommended by The Zone. Increased protein forces kidneys to work harder to excrete waste products.

Diabetes

"Diabetes patients need higher carbohydrates," said Rita Panayioto, registered dietitian at the Diabetes Unit at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

The recommended range is 40 to 60 percent from carbohydrates and 10-20% calories from protein for people with diabetes because carbohydrates break down into glucose, the body's preferred fuel.

Heart disease

Low carbohydrate consumption usually leads to higher fat intake, which is linked to cardiovascular disease.

"It is difficult to control fat at that level of protein consumption," said Panayioto.

Although Sears recommends low fat meats such as pork, fish and chicken, The Zone diet may lead to higher incidence of heart disease if fatty meats such as organ meats and red meat are chosen instead of leaner counterparts.

Cancer

One of Sears claims is that a Zone-favorable diet has a positive impact on cancer. The diet promotes hormonal balance and high fiber, fruits, and vegetables, which are linked with reduced cancer risk.

Women's issues

"Following the Zone diet may leech calcium from the bones. That is of concern, especially for women," said Zelman who also has a private practice in suburban Atlanta. "We can't underscore the importance of getting enough calcium." Calcium is important for women to strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis.

The bottom line

"It's not something I recommend," said Shana Amar, registered dietitian at Emory University Hospital, in Atlanta. "The 40-30-30 doesn't promote a healthy balance. It makes carbs the bad guy. Instead people should follow the USDA"s recommendation, the food pyramid. The USDA has been around for years and its vested interest is people's health."