I have a quick question. Do the canned fruits need to be in water, low sugar, no sugar added, etc...? And if it is suppose to be in water, I can't find anything like that. The only thing I can find is in "light syrup." If someone could help me out that would be great.

Fruit in heavy syrup is definitely not Zone favorable. Fruit in light syrup or water will be acceptable, but drain the light syrup off because it adds carbs you don't need. It's better to stick with fresh or frozen fruit.

I usually drain and rinse any canned fruits that we eat. Mandarin oranges we use on salads and my kids love them also.

Thank you Matt and Sue. I have been draining the fruit like you have said. So it doesn't matter if it is "no added sugar" or just regular (besides the heavy and light syrup)? Or is it suppse to be "reduced sugar" or "no sugar"?

Fruit with sugar added would be unfavorable carb.

A somewhat related question... I made a fruit salad using all fresh fruits (plum, kiwi, cherries, mango) plus water packed mandarin oranges. Would 1 cup of this salad be the correct amount to add to 3/4 c. cottage cheese and 1 1/2 t. almond butter?

By the way, almond butter ROCKS! I had never had it before & am seeking new ways of using it. Any ideas?

Hi Hillary,

I'd say a cup to 1 1/3 cups woudl do it.

Some uses for almond butter:

mix into plain yogurt with sone alcohol free almond extract

mix with a little soy sauce and water and use for a sauce with Zone pasta

my favorite, just eat a small spoonful! :)

Thanks, Sue. I'm going to bring a large batch of the fruit salad to a July 4th party. The host is grilling, so I should be able to put a Zone balanced meal together.

Is the Zone pasta whole wheat or high fiber? I'm finding that in the 7 days I've been Zone-ing, I've been preparing meals for myself because of dietary restrictions that my youngest daughter has (no high fiber). If it's not high fiber, I can make pasta dishes for the whole family.

It's funny - 1 daughter keeps Kosher, 1 doesn't eat seafood and 1 has the high fiber issue. Dinnertime has become quite interesting, considering I love to cook. :hehe:

You're welcome Hillary!

The pasta is neither of those (depending upon teh definition of high fiber for you daughter's particular needs). You can read all about it here:

http://www.zonediet.com/products/pr...pasta.aspx

That sounds like a great salad to bring to the party on the 4th.

Good thing you like to cook! :)

Hi!

The zone pasta has 27 grams of total carb per 2 oz serving, and of that there is 5 grams of fiber.

Ingredients: Durum wheat semolina, pea protein isolate, soy protein, high amylose maize starch, and egg white.

As I have posted in other threads, I am not a believer in spending lots of money on the pasta. If you look at the ingredients, the carb in the pasta is the same carb found in most other pasta, which makes this an unfavorable carbohydrate. So, if you are going to have zone pasta, you would want to treat it as an unfavorable carb, and not have it very often, or use it in condiment portions, rather than the serving size suggested on the label. Better yet, save yourself some money and just have regular pasta--like I said, condiment portions, or that "once a month" out of zone meal.