Why Supplements for the Zone Diet

If you are eating a diet consisting of Zone meals and snacks (and hundreds can be found at www.zonehealth.com), you will be getting adequate levels of protein balanced with low-glycemic carbohydrates providing a rich source vitamins and minerals. This is true even if you are reducing calories to lose weight as demonstrated by Stanford Medical School and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (place PDF button). However, there are two key nutrients that even the best-balanced Zone Diet may not be able to satisfy; omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols.

Dr. Sears always recommend consuming about 2.5 grams per day of EPA and DHA. Your grandmother ensured that when your parents had to take a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day before going to school. That tablespoon of cod liver oil contained about 2.5 grams of EPA and DHA. If you wanted to get that level of EPA and DHA today, it is possible just by eating enough fish. You might be surprised, however, by the amount of fish you would have to eat to reach these levels of omega-3 fatty acids as shown below:

Lobster	7 pounds per day
Tuna	2 pounds per day
Salmon	6 ounces per day

Unfortuantely, every fish in the world is contaminated with toxins like PCBs, so that even if you could eat enough fish to get an adequate intake of omega-3 fatty acids you would also be consuming large amounts of PCBs. The solution to this dilemma is the use of purified omega-3 supplements that provide adequate levels of EPA and DHA. That's why Zone Labs is the acknowledged world-leader in purified omega-3 fatty acid products.

Likewise getting adequate levels of polyphenols (the chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their color and provide you with powerful anti-oxidiative and anti-inflammatory actions) would require consuming about two pounds of non-starchy vegetables per day. If that level of vegetable consumption is too difficult, then consider using purified polyphenol extracts to ensure adequate levels of these key phytochemicals.