Shame on the Berkeley Wellness Newsletter
Last Updated Aug 2007
It's been a long time since I have had to address critics of the Zone Diet since
there is now such an overwhelming amount of scientific support for my concepts of
dietary hormonal control. But an editorial in the Berkeley Wellness Newsletter in
November 2006 caught my eye. In this editorial, John Swartzberg, the chairman of
the editorial board, voices his skepticism about any diet other than a high-
carbohydrate diet. He criticizes "the Zone Diet because of its unfounded
biochemical claims." He adds that high-protein diets are simply not good for you.
Yet in that same issue, there's a story on higher-protein diets that says, "no one
knows what the optimal protein intake is, but according to the Institute of
Medicine, which advises the government about nutrient needs and other health
issues, the 'acceptable' protein range is 10-34 percent of daily calories." The
Zone Diet recommends about 30 percent of calories as low-fat protein, which means
it is in accordance with the Institute of Medicine, even if the Berkeley Wellness
Letter doesn't like it. Apparently the editor of the Berkeley Wellness Letter has
never read any of my books because if he had, he would realize that the amount of
protein actually consumed on the Zone Diet is similar to what the average American
is currently eating in absolute terms because the total calorie consumption is
reduced.
In what appears to be contradictory, the next issue, December 2006, features a
story on the benefits of lowering the glycemic load of the diet, a major principle
of the Zone Diet.
Finally, I guess that another "unfounded claim" of the Zone Diet is that excess
insulin makes you fat and keeps you fat. In 2005, the Joslin Diabetes Research
Center at Harvard Medical School announced its newest dietary recommendations for
treating obesity, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes. These recommendations were
basically the tenets of the Zone Diet. Although the Berkeley Wellness Letter might
not like the Zone Diet, apparently Harvard Medical School and the Institutes of
Medicine do. That's good enough for me.