LAST MONTH WE DISCUSSED THE BASICS OF THE ZONE by Dr. Barry Sears. In a nutshell, this way of eating is about energy management. You manage your personal energy by controlling the ratio of carbohydrate to protein that you eat at every meal. This ratio controls the ratio of insulin to glycogen that your body produces which controls your energy level as well as the rate at which your body stores/burns fat. It’s quite simple. It’s basically the way our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate and the way we’re adapted to perform optimally. Maybe in another 20,000 years humans will have adapted to the mass production of cereals and grains, but I suspect we will not even need to eat to feed a physical body by then! Until then, this month I promised to cover the benefits of eating in the Zone, the Soy Zone, and how to make eating in the Zone easy. I will also cover a bit about kids in the Zone.

BIOLOGICAL QUARKS

Sears reports that the Zone can protect your heart. It does this in several ways. First, the Zone, plus exercise, can help you lose weight. Obesity is a known risk factor for heart disease. Another lesser known risk factor is hyperinsulinemia, otherwise known as too much insulin in the blood. Too much insulin in the blood contributes to the production of substances called bad eicosinoids, which Sears believes to be the primary molecular building blocks of heart disease. Aspirin may be heart protective because it decreases the production of eicosinoids.

What the heck is an eiconsinoid? The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for their discovery in 1982. They are a superhormone in the body and are made by every living cell. Acting at the cellular level, they control all the body’s hormonal systems and virtually every physiological function. They are very difficult to study because of their complexity, their ability to act at very low concentrations, and their fleeting existence. They are the biological equivalent of quarks, foundational, but rarely observable! Examples of eicosinoids are prostaglandins, lipoxins, leukotrienes and hydroxylated fatty acids. The eicosinoids are a control system of checks and balances. For simplicity we can think of them as “good” eicosinoids and “bad.” When the balance of good to bad gets out of whack, the body tends toward disease. Eicosinoids may be implicated in virtually every disease state from heart disease to cancer to autoimmune diseases like arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

YOU WON'T ZONE OUT

All this disease prevention stuff is good, but what’s the Zone good for on a day-to-day basis? Sears claims the Zone will help you:

AN EASY TRIP INTO THE ZONE

In the Zone, you consume roughly 40 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from protein, and 30 percent from fat. There’s an easy way to eyeball these amounts without having to rely on counting grams. The right amount of protein per meal is roughly the size and thickness of the palm of your hand (your palm size is right for you.) The amount of carbohydrates per meal is the size of your open hand if they are low-density carbohydrates, like green beans for example. The amount of high-density carbohydrates likes potatoes or pasta for example is about the same size as your portion of protein. Add a teaspoon or two of healthy oil, like olive oil and you’re in the Zone, baby. Three “square” meals and two snacks per day will keep you in the Zone. Zone snacks are 1/3 of a Zone meal and Sears advocates eating a Zone snack in the late afternoon and a half-hour before bedtime. There are several recipes for Zone-compatible brownies, fudge, and cookies that I’ve tried and found quite tasty. Even my sugar-aholic husband found them palatable. These make great easy snacks. They are basically traditional recipes modified with added soy protein powder and slow-release sugars (like rice syrup or fructose).

THE ULTIMATE ZONE

Using soy for some or all of your lean protein requirements puts you in the ultimate Zone---the Soy Zone. Sears believe this is the most powerful version of his Zone technology. Soy protein has an even smaller effect on insulin levels than animal protein. It also stimulates the release of glucagon to a greater extent than animal protein, again working in your favor of maximizing your insulin/glucagon ratio.

Soy has other well-known benefits owing to its rich endowment of isoflavones, a class of phytochemicals. Genistein and daidzein are two isoflavones that bind to estrogen receptor sites. As little as 20 g of soy protein per day is thought to help protect against some breast cancers and ease menopausal symptoms. Daidzein is similar in chemical structure to some of the new drugs used to prevent bone loss after menopause. Genistein also appears to inhibit the signals that tumor-promoting growth hormones send to target cells.

Sears does not recommend isoflavone supplements, but advocates getting your soy from food sources like tempeh, tofu, soybeans, soy-meat substitutes, and soy protein concentrate powders.

KIDS IN THE ZONE

The rate of childhood obesity has doubled over the last decade and the early incidence of Type-2 diabetes is increasing alarmingly. Set your kids on the road to healthy eating early on and you give them a life-long benefit. Plus your kids should be less cranky and have better mental and physical performance as well!

Ease the transition of getting your kids into the Zone by offering familiar foods in balanced portion controlled amounts. An ideal after-school or pre-game snack is half an apple (or a cup of grapes) and a piece of string cheese. Alternatively the new Balance Gold bars taste like a Snickers bar and are hormonally balanced. Add some protein powder to kids’ pudding to balance the carbs and add a little fat in the form of whipped cream (go easy!) Make sure there are some protein sources that your kids like available to them for snacking. A lot of kids like good-quality deli meats rolled-up and dipped into a sauce. Substitute Canadian bacon for traditional bacon. Hard-boiled eggs with the yolks removed and filled with hummus or another kid-friendly topping are a good choice. Nachos can even be balanced by limiting the number of chips and adding a little ground beef or turkey. Keep pre-cut veggies and fruits around for the carbohydrate source. Easy accessibility is the key.

Teach your children how to eat a balanced snack or meal and that low-fat is not necessarily the mantra as the media would have us believe. Balanced eating is the answer and balanced eating includes a modest portion of the good fats. Fats contribute to eating satisfaction both psychologically and physiologically.

RECIPE: Awesome Very Purplicious Blueberry Smoothie

Serves 6

(Note from the author: This will be the last article for a time as I am feeling a calling to move on to explore some new territory in working with children, including cooking with kids and playing with Indigo children. It has been my pleasure to serve the Lightworker community in this capacity and I look forward to whatever new adventures await us together. - Cynde)

© 2002 The Cooking Hearth

The discussion above is informational only and not intended as medical advice. In your pursuit of well being, you may need the services of a licensed health care practitioner and this information is not intended as a substitute for those services.

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