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Zone Diet - A new way to lose weight… but in a healthy manner!

Zone Diet, is a fast catching term today. All most all-dietary programs are readily adapting to the idea of zone diet. What makes this sort of a dietary regime unique is not only its effectiveness in a short time but also the nutritional balance that it seeks to maintain throughout the dietary program.

Barry Sears, a former researcher in biotechnology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the first to conceive this unique idea about “Zone Diet”.

The term “zone” is capable of raising some eyebrows because of its unknown application in the dietary regime. It basically refers not to an abstract usage of word or idea rather points at an existing physiological condition where the food that we eat rules the hormones (insulin and eicosanoids) and maintain them in zones which are neither too high nor too low. Through this insulin control therapy there is greater fat loss, less chance of cardio vascular disease and optimum mental and physical performance. By the control of eicosanoids there is a sharp decrease of inflammation and also sharp increased blood flow that not only helps in the recovery of various chronic diseases but also help to achieve a high degree of physical performance.

The good thing about this type of diet is that it does not restrict any particular type of food. It tells you to restrict from carbohydrate rich food that includes grains, starches, pastas etc. As a source of carbohydrates and mono saturated fats it advises the intake of fruits and vegetables and other products like olive oil, almonds etc. Good health in entirety along with desired weight loss and checking of heart diseases and diabetes is the basic aim of the “Zone Diet”.

Zone diet is much safer than the 5 day diets normally advised where people are restricted to having a particular group of food per day, like one day is assigned to vegetables, one day to fruits, etc., instead, zone diet envisages a new routine that is much more healthy and effective. It recommends a diet that draws 30 percent of calories from fat, 30 percent from protein, and 40 percent from carbohydrates, or in simple words it is like filling one-third of a plate with low-fat protein, and then two-thirds with fruits and vegetables. This is where the zone diet gains an edge over the other dietary programs.

The basic advantages of this diet can be summed up as follows:

• It recommends the intake of a great quantity of fruits, low starch vegetables and in entirety is low in saturated fats.
• Intake of low nutritional carbohydrate is restricted.
• Helps to achieve desired results if followed correctly.

Although, this dietary program has not been rejected or accepted by the health organizations, it is fast gaining popularity because of its low risks and healthy programs. However, like everything it does also come with certain limitations, none of which thankfully are grave.

The basic limitations are:

• It is tough to understand and use of scientific methods does not make it any simpler.
• It completely restricts calories and hence formulates to be a too strict regime to adhere by.
• In certain cases owing to restrictions on a particular type of food certain essential minerals and vitamins are not taken in by the body which at times arises certain complications and hence dietary supplements are needed to avoid this.
• It is expensive to follow.

Although a lot of debate has been going on regarding this dietary regime which says that there is not a single scientific proof to say that insulin control helps in weight reduction, this program despite of controversies has been gaining acclamation owing to its healthy regime and dietary program and less side effects.