Zone Living Articles
Zone Diet: Everything You Need to Know
Starting a new eating plan or trying to reign in poor eating habits can feel daunting. The beauty of the Zone Diet is whether you are starting, need a diet refresh, or want more convenience, we have you covered. Get a sense of what the diet is all about with our macro guide. This will tell you the types of proteins, carbohydrates and fats that are ideal in the Zone. Want to know exactly what you can have and how much? Try the food block method or counting macros. Both approaches give you the tools to know how to eat in the Zone while teaching you how to incorporate all your favorite foods too. If fast and convenient is your speed, Zone Foods take the thinking out and make meal prep easy. See what method works for you. Pick What Works For You No matter which approach you choose to get you to the Zone you'll always end up in the same place. It really comes down to how much time you want to spend and how precise you want to be. A perfectly balanced Zone meal should control hunger and fatigue for 4-5 hours. The Macro Guide Committing to an eating plan can be overwhelming at first. Why not see if you like the foods and how you can adapt it to what you are already eating. Our macro guide gives you a brief tutorial on the Zone Diet along with a list of the protein, carbohydrate and fat choices that are most ideal in the Zone. Hand-Eye Method The hand-eye method becomes very helpful when you're at a buffet, eating in restaurants, having a catered work lunch, or going to a get-together with friends. All you do is simply divide your plate into three equal sections. On one-third of the plate, you put low-fat protein about the size and thickness of the palm of your hand. The other two-thirds should be filled with colorful carbohydrates, primarily non-starchy vegetables with limited fruits. Finally add a drizzle/dash of monounsaturated fat (olive oil, nuts, avocado) to complete the meal. Counting Macronutrients Using an app to log your foods already? No problem! Fitness apps like myfitnesspal or Lose-It allow you to plug in your macros for a meal or the whole day. This is a great option if you don't want to spend too much time calculating. It allows you to use food labels or tally the totals from each meal to gauge whether you’re in the Zone. If you are calculating total calories as a percent, aim for about 40% of calories from carbohydrates (non-starchy is most ideal), 30% from lean protein, and 30% from heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. Each meal is about 350-400 calories, at least 25 grams of lean protein, less than 12 grams of heart-healthy fat, and about 35 grams of net carbs (total carbohydrate minus fiber). The carbohydrates you choose should come primarily from low-glycemic choices like those in non-starchy vegetables. Zone Food Blocks If you are someone who likes to be as precise as possible, an athlete, or have a defined health goal, counting your macros (protein, carbs and fat) with Zone Food Blocks is the most precise way to get to the Zone. This even gives you an idea of how to fit the occasional indulgence in so you can still stay on plan and not overdo it. If you haven’t already done so, enter your measurements into our Body Fat Calculator. Your results from the Body Fat Calculator will include how many Zone Blocks you should consume. Our Food Block Guide will help you assemble meals and snacks that fit your lifestyle. Zone Foods Zone Foods were designed for those looking for easy ways to get to the Zone with minimal effort. Each Zone food has the balance you’ve come to expect from Zone plus they’re convenient, nutritious, easy to prepare, and taste great Other Helpful Tools: 7 Day Zone Diet Meal Plan How do you Zone? Let us know in the comments below!
Olive Oil Benefits
Olive oil has been prized for thousands of years for its health benefits. As to why remains a more open question. As a source of polyphenols, extra virgin olive oil is relatively low compared to berries and other sources of polyphenols like unrefined cocoa powder, as shown below: Polyphenol source amount per 100 g increase in polyphenols compared to olive oil. The numbers above indicate that when comparing the identical weights of various food sources, berries contain four to ten times more polyphenols than extra virgin olive oil. Unrefined cocoa powder contains more than 100 times the polyphenol levels compared to the same weight of olive oil. So, maybe it is not the polyphenol content that counts for the touted health benefits of extra virgin olive. If not, then what else might be in extra virgin olive oil? I believe the answer is the unique anti-inflammatory phenols contained in extra virgin olive oil. A little terminology is always helpful. A polyphenol is defined as containing two or more phenyl groups in a molecule. A phenolic compound has only one. Furthermore, most polyphenols are composed of polymers that are not absorbed, whereas a phenolic compound contains only monomers easily absorbed. There is nothing magical about a phenol group per se since benzene has a single phenyl group, and no one touts the health benefits of consuming benzene. It is the structure of the phenolic compounds that make extra virgin olive oil so unique. Here they are shown below: The first two compounds are tyrosol and hydroxy-tyrosol which are potent anti-oxidative compounds (1,2). The third structure is oleocanthal which has anti-inflammatory properties (3). To be correctly termed as a polyphenol means the compound must contain at least two phenyl groups, and none of the active compounds in extra virgin olive oil meets that criteria. For comparison, I have enclosed the structure of a true polyphenol with three phenyl groups. This specific polyphenol (a delphinidin) is found in blueberries, maqui berries, red wine, and black beans. Unfortunately, most of the delphinidins and other polyphenols found in fruits and vegetables are in the form of polymers. As a result they are poorly absorbed into the blood. It is only chromatographically purified extracts of the maqui berry that you will find delphinidins as monomers. That is why the polyphenols found in purified maqui extract are highly bioavailable, just like the phenolic compounds found in extra virgin olive oil (4). If the active ingredients don’t get into the blood, they will not do you much good. Getting back to extra virgin olive oil, what you are looking for is the levels of phenolic compounds, not the polyphenols. Most marketers of olive oils don’t have a clue what those levels are because they are challenging to analyze. We are currently doing 3rd party testing on the Zone Extra Virgin Olive Oil batch we just received from Italy and plan to post the results shortly. Even though its hard to test these compounds, one easy way to know it's a quality oil and contains phenolics is the cough test. Take about one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and put it on the tip of your tongue. It should taste like melted butter. The lack of any bitter taste indicates low levels of free fatty acids. Then use your tongue to flip it to the back of your throat. If it contains high levels of phenolic compounds, you will get a coughing response. The greater number of coughs you get from this test, the higher the levels of phenolic compounds. This simple test is why Italians refer to a “two-cough” extra virgin olive oil as their standard of excellence, not the total levels of polyphenols. The Zone Labs Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a “two-cough” oil. References 1. Karkovic MA et al. “Hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol and derivatives and their potential effects on human health.” Molecules. 2019 24:2001. 2. Angeloni C et al. “Bioactivity of olive oil phenols in neuroprotection.” Int J Mol Sci. 2017 18:2230. 3. Pang KL, Chin KY. “The biological activities of oleocanthal from a molecular perspective. Nutrients. 2018 10:570. 4. Schon C et al. “Bioavailability study of maqui berry extract in healthy subjects.” Nutrients. 2018 10:1720.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Q/A Video with Dr. Sears
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), not refined olive oil, is one of the richest of all oils in terms of polyphenols. In this video Dr. Sears discusses why he considers EVOO one of the best oils out there, how it compares to other oils in the consumer marketplace, the health benefits, and how to pick a quality oil. See what he has to say.
Allulose: A Natural Sugar for Better Glycemic Control
One of the critical factors for the success of the Zone diet is improved glycemic control. This concept simply means that blood sugar levels are more stabilized from one meal to the next. The benefits are lack of hunger, better mental cognition, and reduction of inflammation. For decades, the diabetic research community has known that fructose has been the ideal simple sugar for better glycemic control. The reason is that fructose has a glycemic index that is five times lower than glucose. Consequently, this means less glucose enters the blood, and the result is better hormonal control. Part of the reason is that much of the dietary fructose never reaches the blood because bacteria metabolize it in the gut. That’s why I have always used fructose as a primary carbohydrate in Zone bars and shakes. It just makes scientific sense. Unfortunately, like politics, science is also prone to social media. In 2004, a short letter was written observing a correlation in the rise of obesity with the increase of high-fructose corn syrup (1). Keep in mind that high-fructose corn syrup is about 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose which is virtual identical to the composition of table sugar. Then came several popular diet books such as Fat Chance claiming our obesity epidemic is caused by fructose (2). One problem with that theory is that fruits are rich in fructose, and no one has ever advocated the stopping of fruit consumption. Another problem with that theory is that high-fructose corn syrup consumption peaked in 1999 and has declined by 40 percent since that time (3). Today the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup is below the level it was in 1990, and our obesity epidemic continues to increase. Rather than cursing the darkness of quasi-scientific misinformation, the best policy is to embrace new science. Now an alternative sweetener has come to market that might have even better glycemic properties than fructose. That’s why I am excited about allulose. Allulose is a natural sugar found in low quantities in various fruits. What is unique about allulose is that 90 percent never enters the blood and thus goes directly to the colon to improve gut health. Consequently, the FDA doesn’t consider allulose to be a sugar because it is not absorbed, but the FDA also doesn’t treat it as a fiber. It's like a “phantom” carbohydrate. However, what it does do in the gut is to increase AMPK levels (4). One of the consequences of activating AMPK is that you live longer (5). Thus, allulose can be considered an “anti-aging “sugar. Now that allulose can be produced in large amounts by biotechnology, it has been recently granted Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) status meaning it can be incorporated into food products. This opens up an entirely new potential for our next generation of Zone shakes and bars for enhanced glycemic control. For example, with the replacement of fructose by allulose in our ZoneRx shakes (currently available in Chocolate and Vanilla), the decrease in total carbohydrates now allows for the addition of extra berries to each shake to achieve a truly Zone balance. The amount of berries we recommend for better glycemic control is based on science not guessing. I recommend adding two blocks of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries). That is also about 1 cup or about 6 oz of berries. This amount adds even more polyphenols and fermentable fiber to the final ZoneRx shake while maintaining the Zone macronutrient balance needed for optimal hormonal control. Of course, it also makes a complete meal that tastes likes a gourmet dessert in seconds. For maximum convenience, just purchase frozen berries (they have a higher nutrient quality than fresh berries) and keep enough already thawed in the refrigerator to make about two Zone shakes. As the leader in nutrition for the last 30 years, we are the first company to have shakes using allulose. Our ZoneRx bars containing allulose are under development and will be available shortly. The more science we can bring to your kitchen, the easier it becomes to retake control of your health by being in the Zone. ZoneRx Chocolate and Vanilla Shakes Now Contain Allulose References Bray GA et al. “Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.” Am J ClinNutr 79:537-43 (2004) Lustig RH. Fat Chance. Penguin Books. New York, NY (2012) USDA Economic Research Service. “Per capita sweetener deliveries show steady downturn largely due to reduced demand for high fructose corn syrup.” Sugar and Sweetners Data (2021) Shintani T et al. “d-Allulose, a stereoisomer of d-fructose, extends Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan through a dietary restriction mechanism: A new candidate dietary restriction mimetic.” Biochem Biophys Res Commun 493:1528-1533 (2017) Ingram DK and Roth GS. “Glycolytic inhibition: An effective strategy for developing calorie restriction mimetics.” Geroscience https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-020-00298-7 (2020)