Hi everyone,

I just started to look into the zone diet a few days ago and I have a couple questions...

When a food has protein, carbs and fat (or even 2 of the 3), what do you count it as? For example, avocado has fat and carbs, but the Zone book lists it only under fat. And what about drinking milk or soy milk? Both contain a decent amount of all three macro-nutrients, not just protein.

Is it just me or do the P/C/F ratios of the Zone Bars and Zone Shakes not make any sense at all? Wouldn't it make sense for each bar or shake to be a 1 or 2 or 3 block meal? It looks like the shakes (for example) are just a bit over 2 blocks P, almost 3 blocks C, and either 1 or 3 blocks F (depends on if you count 1.5g of F toward each P block).

Anyone "in the know"?

Greg

Hi Greg,

Many foods have a combination of nutrients. Milk and yogurt are generally counted as combination protein/carb (counts as 1 l block protein and 1 block carb). However, other foods may not have as high of a concentration of other nutrients, and so we generally don't count a few extra grams here and there. That is basically to make life easier, so that we are not bogged down by doing algebra problems every time we sit down to eat! LOL!

Zone bars are a balanced 2 block meal/snack. You can eat 1/2 for a snack. I don't use the shakes, and I can't speak to the balance of P/C/F. I was under the impression that they were at least balanced, and that all you had to do was add milk.

The instructions on the shake mix are to add 1 packet to 8 oz (1 cup) of 2% of milk, lactose free milk, or soymilk for a balanced 3 block meal.