General fitness, health and nutrition · Public discussion

Zone Diet and Inflammation

Started by [email hidden] (Larry Weisenthal) · · Last activity · 6 posts · 723 views

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Original section
General fitness, health and nutrition
Published
11 January 2005
Last activity
13 January 2005
Original author
[email hidden] (Larry Weisenthal)
Posts
6
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Public discussion
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  1. Barry Sears has a new book out (and recently appeared on the Today Show
    to publicize the book). He says that avoidance of "inflammation" is
    key to avoidance of diseases such as cancer. He says that the key to
    avoid inflammation is to consume the Zone Diet and to take high dose,
    pharmaceutical grade fish oil. It is therefore of interest that, among
    the four popular diets compared head to head in the just published
    randomized trial (Danzinger, et al. JAMA 293:43-53, 2005), the Zone
    Diet was the only diet NOT to reduce C-reactive protein levels
    (C-reactive protein is the most commonly referenced measure of
    background, micro-inflammation which is supposed to be reduced on the
    Zone Diet.

    Diets which WERE effective in significantly reducing inflammation were
    (1) the Atkins Diet, (2) the Weight Watchers Diet, and (3) the Ornish
    Diet.

    Once again, a "Zone" myth bites the dust. But Sears continues to
    laugh, all the way to the bank.

    - Larry Weisenthal

  2. Quoted message said:

    Diets which WERE effective in significantly reducing inflammation were
    (1) the Atkins Diet, (2) the Weight Watchers Diet, and (3) the Ornish
    Diet.

    The interesting point would be to find out what makes Atkins similar to
    Ornish and both different from Zone... 🙂

    The only thing that really comes to mind is that Zone, as written, is much
    more calorie restricted than both Atkins and Ornish.

    Mirek

  3. Quoted message said:

    Diets which WERE effective in significantly reducing inflammation were
    (1) the Atkins Diet, (2) the Weight Watchers Diet, and (3) the Ornish
    Diet.

    The interesting point would be to find out what makes Atkins similar to
    Ornish and both different from Zone... 🙂

    The only thing that really comes to mind is that Zone, as written, is much
    more calorie restricted than both Atkins and Ornish.

    Mirek

  4. Kinda hard to swallow that [censored]. Considering that the Zone is not all
    that different from any other low-carb diet including Atkins. Kinda
    like telling which is worse for your health, coke of pepsi.

    TC

  5. You are correct TC. Just consider the differences between eating large
    amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids versus saturated fatty acids.
    On the so-called Atkins diet, no allowance is made for which fatty
    acids to eat, although his follower may now be trying to become
    politically correct now that he's not around to defend his orginal
    claims.

  6. TC said:

    Kinda hard to swallow that [censored]. Considering that the Zone is not all
    that different from any other low-carb diet including Atkins. Kinda
    like telling which is worse for your health, coke of pepsi.

    TC

    "[censored]," indeed. That's exactly the point. Look as Sears' website now.
    He's touting his new book on inflammation as "the most important Zone
    book every written. If you only read one (Zone Book), this should be
    the one. The answer to all the human health maladies. INFLAMMATION.
    And the key to controlling inflammation is not just the Zone Diet (now
    beginning to be de-emphasized) PLUS high dose, pharmaceutical grade
    fish oil. ... And, did I mention, would you know that Sears is now
    selling his own super duper pharmaceutical grade high test FISH OIL.

    They used to do this sort of thing back in the 19th century. Quack
    ideas and snake oil.

    And the only diet which DIDN'T significantly reduce inflammation
    was...the Zone Diet.

    What is really apalling is the number of Celebrity A list people which
    got taken in by this quack scare mongering, pseudo-endocrinology
    ("obesity is an endocrinologic disease, not a calorie/exercise disease"
    is an accurate paraphrase of what he once wrote). He predicted that
    the statin trials would fail to reduce heart disease. He claimed that
    the Ornish Diet was producing insulin resistance (when objective, third
    party peer reviewed research showed it reduced insulin resistance). He
    claimed that the success of certain athletic teams and athletes was
    owing to the Zone Diet, in the complete absence of real evidence to
    support this. And he claimed that the Zone Diet was uniquely effective
    in reducing inflammation, which is the true key to health and avoidance
    of our most feared diseases.

    He was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

    But he is living proof that there is no correlation between being right
    or wrong on one hand and financially successful on the other hand.
    - Larry Weisenthal

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