I just reserved four of the Zone books at my local library. They should be in soon. In the meantime, I was wondering what Dr. Sears says about milk.....
Thanks,
Carole


P.S. What kind of protein bars do you like? I saw Dr. Sears has one, but they're $2 each.

Hi CaroleSP... I can answer that one for you... 1 cup of skim milk is a mixed protein-carb, contains one block of protein and one block of carbs. I sometimes use it for one of my snacks, with 1 tbsp 1/2 & 1/2. A better choice would be to add maybe a tsp of peanut butter blended in a blender... I hope you enjoy 'The Zone' as I am...

Could you drink 1% or whole milk to get the fat into the block, and make it complete? Or is that bad because it's mostly saturated fat?
The reason I ask is because Schwarzbein has a similar nutrition balance as Sears, but she doesn't recommend milk. But, she says if you do drink it, make it whole so the fats balance out all the milk sugars. Sometimes it's confusing if you read more than one theory. You don't know which way to turn, which way is really THE WAY...
Carole

Yes you could drink 1% milk, it has something like 2.56 grams of fat. You need about three per block, so the 1% would be close enough. I like to push the fat to the limit myself... hence, I add a little more Also it is good to remember it is the Protein/Carb ratio that keeps you in 'The Zone'. But I beleive keeping the fat down to the %'s help you lose better. I'm sure Zone Coach could explain it a little better.

That will be A LOT of very dry reading with some redundancy.
There is nothing wrong with milk. All dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. ) along with soy (tofu) is considered a "combo" food and therefore everything is counted ~~~ Protein, Carbs and Fat.
I prefer to make my own, but in a pinch, I will have the Zone Perfect bars, Apex (not Zone balanced) or Balance Gold. I find the commercial bars are either too sweet or taste like.....

Yes, you can. It is desireable to keep saturated fat to a minimum though.

The sugar in milk (lactose) is a carb. Saying "balance it out by using whole milk" could certainly work in "keeping you in the Zone" (by slowing down the insulin response to the sugar), but a better choice would be to use skim milk and add a favorable - monounsaturated fat (like a macadamia nut).
The theroy appears to be the same, however, Sears strongly encourages the use of monounsaturated fats.
Saturated -vs- unsaturated fat doesn't have anything to do with "keeping you in the Zone" or on body fat loss, however, we know all the other health benefits to reducing sat fat and increasing monounsat fat.

That is correct. Dietary fat does not directly impact insulin. It will however slow down weight loss if eaten in excess.
Dr. Sears frequently mentions "fine-tuning your hormonal carburetor" in his books, along with "it takes fat to burn fat". Those would be good areas for anyone to re-read if they have a book. Those subjects can also be found on the zoneperfect and drsears sites in the FAQ sections.