Hello,
I would like to know if the zone diet is good for anxiety. I've read here about the atkin diet but not alot about the zone . I'm just looking for a safe,healty diet to help anxiety and depression. Is this the type of diet that the program is recommends. If you could help and give experiences with this diet I would gladly appreciate it.

p.s. also if you could give me some links on whether or not this is a safe diet. I read one page that says it is and one that says it is not. Also could you recommend which zone book is the best to buy.
thank you,
Jen

Dear Jen,

You were asking if anyone has experienced benefits from the zone diet. I am a very big endorser of this diet "philosophy." I could write you ten pages about how I feel about it, but I'll just say I first went on it to lose weight in 1997. I thought I had tried to lose weight sensibly by almost eliminating fat and munching on things like boring rice cakes all the time, and still gained weight. After learning how the zone works and sticking to it really religiously, I lost the 20 pounds I wanted to very, very easily. But I got lazy and started to cheat more and more. But I always had it in the back of my mind and tried to always keep close to the 40-30-30 balance. Then a bout of depression made me think I "deserved" being comforted by all the chocolate and bread I wanted, which were my comfort foods...and all high-glycemic carbohydrates. The result was not only deeper depression but greater and greater anxiety, inspite of taking anti-depressant and -anxiety meds. Then I started to self-medicate with alcohol for the anxiety. I won't go into details about how hard I crashed, but it was bad, bad. I've been back to the zone now for a month, plus no alchohol, caffeine and sugar (well, almost). Like Lucinda said, moderation in everything. A piece of birthday cake won't be the end of me! I don't believe this way of eating would be in conflict with any healthy, respected way of eating, such as Weight Watchers and Diabetes Recommended Diets, which I am familiar with. It's not really even meant to be a weight loss program. Absolutely anyone, at any weight, should eat this way, I believe.

About what books to read, I have 4 good ones:

"Enter the Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears, the creator of the Zone. He did the Nobel Prize winning research that led to this book.
It gets very technical about body physiology, the how and whys of the ways food affects us. It explains how to apply the theory of the zone balance by using "blocks." They may seem too complicated at first, but if you stick with it and wade through the explanations and get a basic understanding of it, it'll really seem simple in the end. It'll really make you want to read the nurtition analysis on everything you eat. It contains a few recipes and food analysis charts.

"Fat Burning Nutrition" by Joyce & Gene Daoust, both certified nutritionists, and key members of the original team that developed the 40-30-30 diet. Their book is shorter, less technical and cuts to the meat of the matter. It has meal suggestions.

"Mastering the Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears has some educational material, but more meal suggestions and recipes than his first book.

"Zone Food Blocks" by Dr. Barry Sears is entirely a reference guide. It has about any food item you can think of broken down with an analysis of its respective parts: Protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

If you have more questions, please contact me at cwood001@san.rr.com. Good luck!

Cris