Definition

The Zone Diet program is a food management system that claims to promote optimal metabolic efficiency in the body by balancing the hormones insulin and glucagon. Insulin is responsible for converting, in the blood, incoming nutrients into cells. Glucagon regulates glucose in the liver. The Zone's food plan consists of a dietary intake of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat.

Origins

In 1995, Dr. Barry Sears, Ph.D., a former biotechnology researcher for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, authored The Zone. Since that time, the book has sold over one million copies. One of the more popular carbohydrate-restrictive diets, the Zone's success has recently spawned several Zone "knock-off" diets. The Zone Diet is based on a program Dr. Sears developed almost twenty years earlier to treat