So I've started eating more tofu, soy milk, and soy cheese lately, just to add variety to my zone. But I want to make sure I'm not eating too much of it. Dr. Sears recommends consuming no more than 50mg of isoflavones per day, but how do you tell how much isoflavones is in a particular soy product. This morning I had 2 blocks of tofu mixed with 2 blocks of berries, it was great, and the other day I made a berry smoothie with the Westsoy unsweetened almond flavored soy milk. It was great too. But I worry. Is there some source where you can find out how many isoflavones each soy food contains?

Becky, for those products which don't have the isoflavones listed on the label, you can probably get a basic idea from looking up similar generic products in a food database online.

I am not sure how you find out about how many isoflavones you are consuming, but I personally avoid any source of soy that is processed or manufactured. I would not eat any soy that tries to turn itself into another food.

Is the 50mg maximum of isoflavones per day still a current recommendation?

"all of the traditional soyfoods, such as tofu, soy milk, tempeh and miso, are rich sources of isoflavones providing about 30 to 40 milligrams per serving." (see http://www.soyfoods.com/nutrition/i...ion.html). There's a table on the site, too, showing isoflavones mg by food. One cup of soy milk is 20mg. 4 oz of tempeh is 60.5mg. 4 oz of tofu is 38mg.

So if 50mg is the max, that's only about one meal a day that can be made up of soy protein. Wouldn't that would make Vegetarian Zone not doable?

i think I found the answer to my above question. Sue wrote this in 2007 --

"Soy is not a food to be avoided in the Zone. Barry Sears is indeed in favor of consuming soy products. In fact he's written an entire book about it, "The Soy Zone". Soy foods offer excellent insulin control. Here's a quote about soy nuts from page 39 of "The Soy Zone" by Barry Sears: "These are soy equivalent of peanuts , and they make a great Soy Zone snack by themselves." He goes on in the book to say he is not in favor of using soybean oil for cooking oil because of it's high omega 6 content (page 45 of "the Soy Zone"), but he doesn't advise avoiding soy foods. He does however, caution one not to consume soy isoflavones that have been isolated in pill form. He details his reasons in "The Soy Zone" (see pages 223 to 226). Barry writes that he does not think high consumption of soy foods can lead to over consumption of isoflavones, and writes that he is comfortable recomending that people eat a lot of soy. He states that if one has concerns about overconsuming isoflavones, a compromise would be to have 1/3 of their soy protein intake from foods made from "alcohol-extracted soy protein concentrates" (most all soy "meats"), because they contain no isoflavones. The traditional soy products such as soy beans, tempeh, soy milk, tofu, soy flour, textured soy protein, and soy grits contain the most isoflavones. Soy protein isolate powders contain about half the amount of isoflavones as compared to the traditional soy products. "

Hey Larry, how's the Zone going you? Thanks for posting that!

Hi Sue - I've been on it a little over two weeks. So far so good. My bloodwork last week was very good --Total Cholesterol 215, HDL 56, LDL 148, Trig 56, with B12 slightly low. I'm also at my ideal weight - 163 lbs.

I did the Zone for two years '07 - 08 and had very good results then, too, (Weight -16 lbs, Total Cholesterol -33%, Triglycerides -74%, HDL +48%, LDL -41%). But I continued to have sinus congestion so I tried some other diets (Very Low Carb and then Low Carb Vegan). The Low Carb Vegan really cleansed me to the point that I was wasting away and got down to just 152 lbs which scared me so I started eating fatty meat again in February and gained the weight back but I was constantly thirsty and because of the stress of worrying about trying to gain my weight back I started to get anxiety attacks. I'd had them before a few years ago but had improved and gotten off of Prozac. Now I'm back on Prozac and Xanax to try to get it under control. The anxiety is very uncomfortable and scary but I've been through it before and I know that it will improve after I've been on the Prozac long enough for it to start taking effect. I think the Zone Diet and fish oil will be especially helpful.

So my near-term goal is to just get back to a normal, peaceful state of mind. Long term, I want what everyone else does - anti-aging and optimal health.

This is a great forum and you've been super helpful.

Larry... Are you taking Fish Oil ?

Yes, I started it about a week ago, 4 caps before breakfast. I just ordered the polyphenols, too.

Thanks for sharing your info, Larry. Excellent that you've started taking fish oil and polyphenols. They have a synergistic effect. There's a recent blog by Dr. Sears that talks about the positive effect of fish oil on anxiety. I've had very good results in that regard with the Zone and fish oil. I take Omega Rx, Sea Health Plus and Polyphenols XT. It's a great combination. Also, if you don't want to lose any more weight the way to maintain in the Zone is to add some extra monounsaturated fat to meals and snacks. Doubling or tripling the amount of added fat blocks should be enough. If you do this and find your body fat is increasing you'd simply drop back to the usual amount of fat in your meals and snacks.

On Soy isoflavones, an interesting article:
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(The analysis revealed that an average intake of 54 mg per day of soy isoflavones for between six weeks and 12 months was associated with an average 21% reduction in the frequency of hot flashes, compared with placebo.).
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Still within the parameters that you posted from Dr. Sears. And no I am not suggesting that YOU have hot flashes, lol! Just might be helpful for the other half of the population, and this seemed the appropriate discussion to post it. Here's the article:
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Lee Swanson Research Update

Soy Isoflavone Efficacy against Hot Flashes is Supported
April 2012

A meta-analysis of 17 clinical trials has determined that isoflavones from soy may reduce the frequency of hot flashes by 21%. The analysis also revealed that soy isoflavones were effective in reducing the severity of hot flashes by about 26%.

"Soy isoflavones appear to be a good first approach to alleviating hot flashes. Since there is often a large placebo effect, women taking supplements with the right soy isoflavone profile will likely see at least a 50% reduction compared to doing nothing," said study co-author Melissa Melby, PhD, from the University of Delaware.

Isoflavones are well-known phytoestrogens—active substances derived from plants that have a weak estrogen-like action.

Isoflavones from soy have been shown to provide a number of health benefits, including the promotion of heart health and the maintenance of bone health in post-menopausal women. The new meta-analysis provides strong support for the efficacy of soy isoflavones to reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes.

Scientists from the Japanese National Institutes of Health, the University of Delaware, Stanford University, the University of Minnesota and an industry consultant identified 19 trials for their systemic review and 17 for their meta-analysis.

The analysis revealed that an average intake of 54 mg per day of soy isoflavones for between six weeks and 12 months was associated with an average 21% reduction in the frequency of hot flashes, compared with placebo.

In addition, this dose and duration were associated with a reduction in the severity of hot flashes by 26%, compared with placebo.

In terms of the specific isoflavones, supplements that provided at least 18.8 mg of genistein "were more than twice as potent at reducing hot flash frequency as lower genistein supplements," said the reviewers.

"Supplements providing a total of 50 mg of total isoflavones will be effective as long as they also provide at least 19 mg of genistein," said Mark Messina, PhD, industry consultant and co-author of the study.

Menopause; Published online ahead of print.

[quote]
Also, if you don't want to lose any more weight the way to maintain in the Zone is to add some extra monounsaturated fat to meals and snacks. Doubling or tripling the amount of added fat blocks should be enough. If you do this and find your body fat is increasing you'd simply drop back to the usual amount of fat in your meals and snacks.
[/quote]


Thanks, Sue. I think I will up my fat a bit. According to the online calculator I am supposed to be eating 16 blocks of C/P/F a day. I sometimes find it to be too much food even though I'm having lower volume things like tomatoes, tomato paste, cucumbers, water chestnuts & berries for most of my carbs. Would it be okay to reduce my blocks to about 13 along with the added fat or is following Dr Sears' calculator formula the best way to go for total blocks per day?

The hardest thing is having a big breakfast within an hour of rising. Maybe it would be okay to have a snack then and a breakfast later. ??

Thanks

[quote]
... Maybe it would be okay to have a snack then and a breakfast later. ??
[/quote]
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YES, you could have a balanced 1 or 2 block snack/mini-meal within one half hour of waking
and then larger (breakfast - 2 or 3 blocks), later...

Larry, as long as you are eating something within an hour of rising, that is fine. It doesn't have to be a full meal. A snack is appropriate, as well.

As for dropping blocks, I would not recommend dropping whole blocks. You may need 16 blocks of protein for your body's needs, depending on what the bodyfat calculator says. You could drop your carbs down by 1 block per meal, and you would still stay within the P/C ratio in the Zone. Just add some extra fat, though, as you are not trying to lose weight.

thank you John and Cranberrycat. Great advice.

YW ;-)

Larry,

The guideline to eat within an hour of waking is intended to make sure you don't forget to eat breakfast altogether. Tu have some leeway there with the timing. You can split your 16 blocks however you like as long as you don't go more than 5 waking hours without a Zone snack or meal , don't eat more than 5 blocks at one time, and eat an evening snack. Some possibilities for splitting 16 blocks: 4 bl/4 bl/2 bl/4 bl 2 bl,1/3/2/3/2/3/2, 2/2/2/2/2/2/2/2.

No, you should not drop to 13 blocks if your requirement is 16. The block requirement is the amount of dietary protein needed daily to maintain your current muscle mass at your activity level. When a person eats less protein than they require their body will cannibalize its muscles to get the protein it needs. The result, you lose muscle; not a good thing.

Absolutely. Eating within an hour of waking is a guideline...

A few years ago (perhaps more than a few--time flies by), I had a good friend who posted in these forums, she was a very active forum poster. She had lots of success with the Zone, as she had a large list of conditions, one being fibromyalgia, another being rheumatoid arthritis. These conditions basically prevented her from eating within an hour of rising. She was concerned that she was breaking a huge Zone rule by not eating, but reality was that she was not even able to get up out of bed! Sometimes she would lie awake for a few hours before getting up and getting something to eat.

We all discussed it here in the forums, and I believe that she ended up writing in to Zone Labs to find out more information, regarding whether it was OK to eat later, if she wasn't really DOING anything after waking up. I don't recall who she had gotten the answer from, if it was Barry, or perhaps it was Dave Shreck. But, bottom line was that as long as she wasn't really doing anything, her basal activity was still very low, and it was ok for her to go longer without eating. And, that is where I first heard that eating within the hour of waking was a "guideline" and not a hard-fast rule!

So, sometimes, I even break this rule (or guideline) and actually stretch it out to 1 1/2 hours or so... it solves a lot of problems for me, because eating a bit later thereby reduces the amount of time between breakfast and lunch, so that I am able to keep less than 5 hours between breakfast and lunch.

And, the obvious point is that we all need to eat SOMETHING in the morning after we wake up. Our bodies need the fuel. But, our bodies don't necessarily know the difference if we pass that 60 minute mark, it just cares that we eat at some point, otherwise NO FUEL!

thanks, ladies. I've fallen into this, for now -- 1-block snack upon arising, 4-block breakfast, 4-block lunch, 2-block afternoon snack, 4-block dinner, 1-block bedtime snack. and that's 16. I've doubled my fat and my meals are usually 4P, 3C & 6-8F. This feels comfortable and I have an appetite. If my pants start getting tight I'll lower the fat.

Sounds great, Larry.

Then ther's another whole ball of wax (correct idiom?)
Intermittent Fasting ....
<grin>