ZONING YOUR KITCHEN

WHAT TO REMOVE FROM YOUR KITCHEN

Out of sight, out of mouth and mind. That’s Dr. Sears’ feeling about most grains and starches. Grab any processed starch you can find (breakfast cereals, flour, crackers, pasta, bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, cake, breadsticks, granola bars, and so on) and put all these products into a trash bag. Fill another trash bag with traditional starches like rice, potatoes, and grains. But you can keep barley and steel-cut oats if you have them on hand. Now look in your pantry to see if you have products rich in sugar, such as fruit rollups, chocolate, or candy. Put these in a bag as well. Now scour your kitchen for dangerous fats: butter, margarine, Crisco, lard, and most important, vegetable oils such as soybean, corn safflower and sunflower. Don’t even try to save them, just throw them out. Now take all these bags with unopened high glycemic-load products to the local food bank. As hard as it may be to remove these foods from your kitchen, your body will thank you later. These items are the worst offenders when it comes to raising insulin levels and increasing silent inflammation. These fall into the category of either high glycemic-load carbohydrates or pro-inflammatory fats. They are, literally, poison to your future wellness.

WHAT TO ADD TO YOUR KITCHEN

Your kitchen might be looking a little bare at this point. Not to worry. You are about to fill it up again—this time with low glycemic-load carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables. You’ll also add the right kinds of protein and fat.

CARBOHYDRATES

People usually buy fresh produce with the best of intentions, but time usually conspires against them. Salad greens wilt, berries become moldy, peaches become mushy, and we often end up throwing our money in the garbage. The easiest way around this is to simply buy only two or three days’ worth of produce at a time. Good idea, but highly unlikely in today’s world with its growing time constraints. Instead, stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables. Not only are they less expensive than fresh items, but also they are surprisingly more nutritious. This is because only the ripest fruits and vegetables are frozen. What’s more, they are frozen soon after harvesting, which seals in their vitamins and phytochemicals. Fresh produce, on the other hand, will lose many of these nutrients when it is transported and stored.

Canned fruits and vegetables are more problematic. You have to avoid any that are floating in sweetened syrups, which are added during the canning process. (The high sugar content reduces bacterial growth.) Also, canned produce often contains a much lower vitamin content than frozen produce. Nonetheless, they still make a better choice for Zone carbohydrates than the high glycemic-load carbohydrates that you donated to the local food bank.

Protein

Look for low-fat sources of protein and buy them in serving-size portions. It’s easy to purchase too much protein, which means you’re likely to eat more than you need. Let the butcher at the supermarket become your ally. If all the meat, chicken, or fish you can find is packed in 2-pound bundles, ask the butcher to repackage it in eight l/4-pound packages. Keep one of the packages in the refrigerator, and freeze the other seven. Or, buy in bulk to save money and repackage the meat in smaller portions yourself using freezer bags. Once you use one of the packages in the refrigerator, immediately replace it with one from the freezer. This type of portion control reduces the likelihood of thawing out too much protein (and eating too much), or worse, not having any protein (because you don’t want to thaw a huge package). You can apply the same trick to low-fat deli meats. Just have the butcher put a piece of wax paper between every ¼ pound of deli meat.

Eggs are a great source of protein that come in convenient portion-control sizes. Let me emphasize that I’m talking about egg whites, not egg yolks, which are rich in pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid (AA). For omelets and scrambled eggs, you may want to buy an inexpensive egg separator, or you can buy egg substitutes, such as Eggbbeaters. If you eat hard-boiled eggs, make sure to eat only the white and discard the yolk.

Packaged portion like low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat cheese, and canned tuna, salmon, and sardines are also great sources of low-fat protein. They provide you readily accessible sources of low-fat protein with easy-to-control portions. For vegan meals, purchase soy protein products like tofu, tempeh, or soy imitation-meat products. You can also purchase a pure protein powder (isolated whey protein tastes the best) that can be used to make Zone smoothie shakes with mixed berries or added carbohydrates such as oatmeal on the side to give you the correct protein-to-carbohydrate balance you need to maintain long-term blood glucose control.

Having easily accessible protein sources is key to staying in the Zone because it stimulates the release of glucagons, which helps stabilize blood glucose levels. In order to maintain stable insulin levels, you need to eat before you get hungry, or within a minute or two of feeling those first hunger pangs. Opening a can of tuna or grabbing a hard-boiled egg white from your fridge mixed with some precut low glycemic-load carbohydrates and a drizzle of olive oil can make an easy-to-prepare a meal in less than two minutes. Keeping hunger at bay by controlling your blood glucose levels is the key to staving off cravings for high glycemic-load carbohydrates like bagels, cookies, and cake.

Fat

Last but not least, you have to stock your kitchen with the right kinds of fat. You’ve already gotten rid of the pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats, which increase levels of silent inflammation, by throwing out the vegetable oils. Removing saturated fat from your diet is just plain common sense. Now you have to increase your supply of monounsaturated fats. You should buy a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil (for dressings & seasonings) and refined olive oil (for cooking). You should also keep a stock of nuts: slivered almonds, pine nuts, & chopped cashews are all great for making pestos or topping salads. Keep at least one avocado in your fridge for slicing into salads. All of these foods are great sources of monounsaturated fats.

American Heart Association Diet

This diet relies too heavily on high-density carbohydrates like grains, starches, and pasta (in other words, it follows the USDA Food Pyramid). As a result of increased carbohydrate intake, insulin levels can increase on this diet. Ironically, the number-one risk factor that best predicts future heart disease is increased insulin levels. Perhaps not surprisingly, the number of heart attacks is once again rising in America.

Atkins Diet

While The Zone is often lumped into the same category as the Atkins Diet by the popular press, nothing could be further from the truth. The Atkins Diet is the most extreme example of the high-protein, high-fat diets. You simply can't go around over-consuming fatty sources of protein (often rich in arachidonic acid) and think good things will be the long-term result. Sure, you lose weight quickly, but much of that initial weight loss is primarily due to increased urination to eliminate abnormal ketone bodies. However, on the Atkins Diet you are virtually guaranteed to regain the weight because continual ketosis adapts your fat cells to become "fat magnets" due to increased cortisol secretion to converted muscle into necessary glucose for the brain. Most importantly, the Atkins Diet increases silent inflammation - your worst hormonal nightmare.

South Beach Diet

In a nutshell, follow the Atkins Diet for two weeks to put your body in an abnormal state of ketosis (you'll lose water weight, which many people mistake for real fat loss); then reintroduce low glycemic-load carbohydrates, and you're on the South Beach Diet! After the first two weeks, the South Beach Diet is like a totally unstructured version of the Zone Diet. Because it pays no regard to the right balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates necessary to help control inflammation within fat cells and stabilize insulin levels, the South Beach Diet is not likely to satisfy hunger for any length of time, increasing the risk of failure.

Mediterranean Diet

This is the diet used in the Lyon Diet Heart Study, which demonstrated a 70 percent reduction in fatal heart attacks compared to a control group who followed the American Heart Association diet. Like the Zone Diet, the Mediterranean Diet keeps saturated fat intake low, stresses the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, and the liberal comsumption of Omega-3 fats. As good as these recommendations are, the Zone Diet actually encourages the consumption of even more fruits and vegetables than the Mediterranean Diet, with a corresponding decrease in the intake of unfavorable grains and starches. Therefore, the Zone will lower insulin to a far greater extent. The Zone also recommends even more long-chain Omega-3 fats than the Mediterranean Diet, which is important for the cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems. Finally, you would consume fewer total calories (thereby increasing longevity) following the Zone Diet compared to the Mediterranean Diet.