Looking for a Zone Diet food list? You
should keep in mind that there's no
forbidden food in the Zone diet. Yes, the
Zone instrumentary classifies foods into
most favorable,
moderately
favorable and
least favorable.
But there are good reasons for that.
Why
Classify Foods
Everybody can tell from experience that
certain foods make us feel better than
others. This is due to their content, which
does not just feature macro nutrients, but
also fiber, vitamins, minerals and other
chemicals. Some of these substances are good
for us, some are bad. Our bodies do not
tolerate certain substances, which cause
allergies. Certain substances have prove bad
for most people.
LDL cholesterol, for example, causes
cardiovascular diseases, and derives from
dietary fat.
USDA Food Pyramid & Alternatives
US Government recommends a diet primarily
based on foods processed from grains: white
bread, bagels, pasta. Up one level on food
pyramid, we find fruits and vegetables, then
proteins and diary products, and on the
upper level fats and sugar. Zone diet argues
that this diet made America a nation of
obese people, proving high risk for “modern
diseases” like type II diabetes or
cardiovascular affections. Dr. Barry Sears,
the founder of Zone Diet
,
also sees the USDA food pyramid more as a
marketing instrument, based on the myth that
fat makes you fat and low-fat foods do not.
As a reaction to this severe criticism,
the American Heart Association produced a
new food pyramid, that keeps bread, cereal,
rice and pasta group at the bottom, but
recommends "whole grain or enriched
products". This is an improvement, the
zoners say, but not as good as it might be.