I'm just looking at the vegetarian 7-day meal planner, it specifies low fat this and lot fat that, and I'm thinking,

Would it really hurt if I wasn't fussy about getting low-fat ingredients?

See, I've already got a reasonably active lifestyle, usually walking 30 minutes a day or more, and exercising on top of that regularly. Not athletic of course, but I think enough. And the problem with getting everything low-fat is that it tends to push you into the type of food purchasing market I don't really want to be in, where there are processes I don't know much about happening to food to appeal to people who think paying more for "99% fat free" food will buy back their health.

I remember reading in Enter the Zone that Sears said that he added extra fat to diets at atheletes quite happily, and that wasn't problematic, so long as you were in the first level of the zone where at least you were balanced in terms of protein vs carbohydrate and hence not having insulin reactions to food taken in. I realise that there is probably a level where a sympathetic CNS response will probably stimulate pancreatic insulin release anyway, but I'm not talking about that, just using as much olive oil as it takes to cook the food properly, as well as small amounts of high quality fats like the right nuts etc.

So, which of these low-fat recommendations are there because it is very important to avoid that type of fat because of the hormonal implications, and which are there to just keep the fat level down for those who sit around all day? Or should I just suck it and see for a while, and get a lipid test done?

[quote]Posted By Sam on 05/19/2008 3:53 AM

So, which of these low-fat recommendations are there because it is very important to avoid that type of fat because of the hormonal implications, and which are there to just keep the fat level down for those who sit around all day? quote]

Hi Sam!

The Zone isn't really a low fat diet. It's moderate in fat. We choose lean proteins and low fat dairy to avoid saturated fat. Avoiding saturated fat reduces inflammation levels and promotes cardiovascular health. Then we add heart healthy monounsaturated fat to keep the balance at a moderate level of fat.

In regard to the question you asked about getting the lipid test, as long as a person's eating close to Zone recommended amounts of fat and is not excessively overweight, the types of fat they eat will effect that result more than the amount of fat they eat.

Then there's the anti-aging caloric restriction part of the Zone to consider. Eating more fat than you'll burn is simply going to lead to too many excess calories to allow you to stay in the Zone. You'll store the extra fat not used. Excess stored fat produces excess inflammation in the body.

Athletes are burning much more fat every day then the average individual because they are training for many hours daily. Fat is burned for all you energy needs when your insulin is within the levels of the Zone. Therefore they need to add the extra fat to meet their energy needs and prevent losing the small amount of stored body fat they have. The average person exercising as you described is most likely going to gain stored fat if eating as you described. It will simply provide them with more fat than they will be burning for energy on a daily basis.

I've been eating in the Zone for over 13 years, and I haven't succumbed to the gimicky fat free foods offered by the food industry. There are plenty of good Zone favorable foods readily available.

> The Zone isn't really a low fat diet. It's moderate in fat.

Depends on your definition of "low" Sue. ;-)

I think I'm right in saying the main stream Guideline Daily Amount for fat is about 70g per day. If a typical Zoner is on 12 blocks, and each block of fat is 3g (including fat hidden in protein) that makes 36g of Fat on the zone diet, almost exactly half that "recommended".

So the question is: does Half = Low?

Like you said, depends on your definition. In this case, I'd say half is not low.

Well, from my perspective... half is low. I feel that The Zone is a low fat diet in comparison to how we would eat off the zone. If, of course, you are going by recommended diets, like the food pyramid, then it is moderate. But who actually eats that way? I don’t think many really. I know I eat hardly any fat these days in comparison to how I used to eat fat and personally I find it 'tough'... but to add more fat causes me to gain or not lose, so I remain 'low fat'.