Living Low Carb (54 page)
Authors: Jonny Bowden
The
health
effects of the diet are caused by a different—though related—pathway. Remember that the Zone diet was birthed in the midst of a highcarb, low-fat diet mania. All of us in the field of nutrition were seeing clients who had virtually cut fat out of their diets (and almost always replaced it with carbohydrates). They thought they were eating healthfully. It was not unusual in those days (and even now, for that matter) to see a woman eating a bagel and orange juice for breakfast, a salad for lunch, a nonfat frozen yogurt for an afternoon snack, and pasta for dinner, then wondering why she wasn’t losing weight. The Zone almost single-handedly put the argument for inclusion of good fats in the diet back “on the table.” And it is through the inclusion of this fat that the Zone diet is thought to have one of its most significant health effects.
Here’s how it works. The body makes an entire class of “superhormones” called eicosanoids out of the “raw materials” of essential fats. Eicosanoids are made by every one of the 60 trillion cells in your body. They don’t circulate in the body—they’re made in a cell, they do their action in the nearby vicinity, and then they self-destruct, all within a matter of seconds, like those little tapes they used to give Peter Graves on
Mission: Impossible
—so they are virtually undetectable in the bloodstream. But their importance on human health is incalculable. The 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for eicosanoid research. Your doctor may not know much about eicosanoids, but he or she has undoubtedly heard of prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are eicosanoids made by the prostate gland and were one of the first groups of eicosanoids to be studied.
The type of fat you eat influences the kinds of eicosanoids you make. Eicosanoids come in many “flavors” and types, but for our purposes we’ll identify two major classes: the “good” and the “bad.” The good are responsible for preventing blood clots, reducing pain, and causing dilation (opening) of the blood vessels, among other things. The bad are responsible for promoting blood clots, promoting pain, and causing constriction (closing) of the blood vessels. The point is not to get rid of
all
the bad ones, but to have a balance between the good and the bad. (For example, if you didn’t have eicosanoids that promoted blood clots, you would bleed to death from a minor wound.) Aspirin works by knocking out
all
eicosanoid production for a while, which is a little like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Corticosteroids do the same thing. The fat included in the Zone diet specifically fosters the creation of good eicosanoids and an optimum balance between the good and the bad.
The insulin connection is this: insulin stimulates the key enzyme involved in producing
arachidonic acid
, which is the “building material” of the bad eicosanoids. So by controlling insulin levels with the Zone diet, you not only lose weight, you also reduce many of the symptoms and health risks that come from an imbalance of good and bad eicosanoids. The promise of the Zone is that controlling insulin will result in increased fat loss, decreased likelihood of cardiovascular disease, and greater physical and mental performance. By controlling eicosanoids, you will have decreased inflammation and increased blood flow, which will help improve virtually every chronic disease condition and improve physical performance.
So, What Can You Eat?
A lot. The best protein choices on the plan are skinless chicken, turkey, all kinds of fish, very lean cuts of meat, low-fat dairy products, egg whites, tofu, and soy meat substitutes. For carbohydrates, Sears likes all vegetables except corn and carrots and all fruits except bananas and raisins. The heavy starches, such as pasta, bread, cereals, rice, and the like, are used very, very sparingly. For fats, use olive oil, almonds, avocados, and fish oil.
It’s really simple to make a Zone meal, actually, and doesn’t require a lot of complicated calculations. All you have to do is divide your plate into thirds. On one third of the plate, put some low-fat protein—a typical portion would fit in the palm of your hand and be about the thickness of a deck of cards. Then fill the other two thirds of the plate with vegetables and fruits. Once in a great while, part of that two thirds can consist of pasta or rice, but again more as a condiment than a main dish. Add a dash of fat, and you have the basic Zone meal.
The Zone as a Lifestyle: Who It Works for, Who Should Look Elsewhere
The one criticism you hear about the Zone from the average person is that it is difficult to follow. Technically, if you’re trying for the exact proportions of 40/30/30, that’s correct. The fact is that you really
don’t
have to achieve Zone-perfect proportions to get the beneficial effects—an approximation works perfectly well—but the lack of precision may be a problem for people who like their diets very exact and specific. Some people find that thinking about food in terms of Zone “blocks” is cumbersome. If you happen to love doing the math, and the computations of grams, calories, and so on is something you eat for breakfast, this is the perfect diet for you.
This is a great program if you are not overweight but just want a healthful way of eating that will in all likelihood reduce your risk for a number of unpleasant diseases and conditions. If you are only moderately overweight and believe you are not insulin-resistant (i.e., do not have a particular problem with carbohydrates), it’s a great way to eat, but you will have to watch calories. If you are very overweight or very sedentary—or both—this program is probably too high in carbohydrates for you, and you might be better off using one of the more carb-limited programs (such as Protein Power or Atkins), at least to begin with.
The other thing to consider is whether you can tolerate this level of carbohydrate. If you are carb-addicted, getting 40% of your calories from carbs may seem outrageously high. The program
does
allow things that trigger carb cravings—like bread and even pasta, albeit in small amounts—but for some people, small amounts are too much. Remember, it
is
entirely possible to create Zone-perfect meals using only vegetables and fruits as carb sources, and if you can live with that, you will do fine.
JONNY’S LOWDOWN
It’s hard to underestimate Dr. Sears’s contribution to the current nutritional zeitgeist. He almost single-handedly forced the dietary establishment to reevaluate the prohibition on fats. I have a few minor disagreements—I don’t believe saturated fats from natural sources like butter and eggs are a problem, and I also don’t agree with his position that supplements aren’t necessary if you are eating correctly (a position, to be fair, that he has modified considerably in recent years). That said, the Zone template of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat is darn close to ideal as a starting point for a healthful diet. I’m a huge believer in biochemical individuality and not in the “one size fits all” diet mentality, but we still need a basic template from which to individualize our diets; the Zone is as good a basic template as exists anywhere. Some people may need fewer carbohydrates; some may even need more. But the 40/30/30 plan sure beats the USDA Food Guide Pyramid as a place from which to begin constructing an individual diet plan.
Every week, it seems, a new “get in shape” book hits the stands, each promising the answer to the question: how do I get in shape as quickly as possible?
Since it’s impossible to change your body without tackling your diet, most of these books offer dietary advice—or even an entire dietary program. But unlike the other programs covered in this book, these programs are primarily focused on exercise and fitness.
True, many of the “diet books” I review in
Living Low Carb
have exercise components, and some of them even have well-thought-out fitness programs that are integral to the plan. But they’re still essentially books on nutrition and diet. The books in this section are primarily books on fitness. And yes, there’s an overlap; and yes, some books could have fallen into either category; but if an author is primarily known as a fitness professional rather than a nutritionist, I included him or her in this section.
My primary purpose here is to evaluate for you the nutritional component of the plans discussed, although I’ll tell you what I think of the exercise program as well. Fair warning: I’m much more predisposed to like the exercise gurus who admit they’re no experts on nutrition and don’t try to be; I’m much less predisposed to like the ones who pretend to know everything.
Interestingly, it’s the latter group that aggressively promotes the worst and most out-of-date information.
And one more thing. I’m including these books because many readers will use a fitness-oriented book to get in shape rather than a diet-oriented book. That’s fine. I just want you to know which ones have decent dietary info and which ones don’t.
Jillian Michaels rose to fame by being the trainer on the hit TV show
The Biggest Loser
. Her fitness book has a lot of the same wisecracking sassy charm that she has on the show. The dedication is “To The Inner Badass Living Inside Us All,” which should pretty much tell you all you need to know! It’s fitness (and diet) with an attitude.
And it’s not half bad!
There are seven basic rules.
• Stick to your magic number (i.e., figure out how many calories you need and stick with it)
• Eat for your metabolic type (more on this in a moment—it’s the key to the dietary part of the program)
• Eat every four hours, and no skipping meals
• No Processed or Junk Foods—Period! (Love the “Period!” with an exclamation point—nice touch)
• Beat the Bloat—Sodium and Water Consumption (guidelines for consuming both)
• No Booze
• Get It in Writing (you’re going to keep a food diary)
The key to the whole dietary program is rule number 2, eating for your metabolic type. Now, let’s be clear: discussing the whole concept of metabolic type (and the controversies around the different systems for determining it) would fill another book. The point here is that “one size
doesn’t
fit all,” and Jillian gets points for embracing this. Her take on the issue is to divide people into three broad metabolic groups—Slow Oxidizers, Fast Oxidizers, and Balanced Oxidizers—and to provide different dietary guidelines for each.
The terms “slow oxidizer,” “fast oxidizer,” and “balanced oxidizer” didn’t originate with Michaels—they’ve been around since the first system of “metabolic typing” started coming out, and nutritionist Oz Garcia used the same division in an early book called
The Balance
. “Oxidizer” is really shorthand for metabolism, and you could read “slow oxidizer” and “fast oxidizer” as code for “slow” and “fast” metabolism, with “balanced” being a kind of middle-of-the-roader. (My good friend, nutritionist and naturopath Glen Depke, created an interesting variation on it called “Nutritional Typing,” which I discuss in my book
The 150 Most Effective Ways to Boost Your Energy
). The point is that different people respond differently to different combinations of protein, carbs, and fat; and, according to the premise of
Making the Cut
, you can get much better results by determining which “category” you’re in and then eating appropriately (as opposed to simply following a “one size fits all” dietary plan).