Customer Reviews

The Top 100 Zone Foods: The Zone Food Science Ranking System

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

i am a zone follower and i think that the zone is a great lifestyle to follow but i was defintetly disappointed in this book. all of dr. sears other books about the zone have been great but i found this book to be a repeat of the other books.. i wish i had of saved my money....i would suggest everyone buy a week in the zone..it is a great book...much better buy than this book!

I followed the Zone diet a few years ago and lost 30 pounds with not too much effort. I recommend that you read his original book "The Zone" or "Mastering the Zone" (not as good) rather than relying on this book alone. It's a sensible diet that works. While you can make a hormonally correct meal with ham and ice cream, this book takes you into more nutritionally sound territory.

Be sure to read the other Zone books first so that you understand the whole idea of the program. This book will help you put more variety into your diet so that you won't get tired of it and will stay with it longer.

This book is more about the nutrition facts of vegetables, meats and fruits. And there's info on vitamins as well.

Since I started the zone diet 1 week ago, I watched my blood sugar go from 260 (after meals, considered diabetic), drop to 176 (considered borderline). I don't use too many of the zone recipes, rather I adapt my normal cookbooks to the zone way of cooking, which is very easy to do.

This book, the top 100 zone foods, was very good for me because it lists the nutrition facts of each fruit, vegetable or protein. And the amount of each vegetable that would make up 1 zone block. You, the cook, decides how to mix and match your daily veggies and fruits in your own recipes.

After reading this book, I found out that artichokes and eggplants lower blood cholesterol, kale is rich in folate (which helps prevent artery wall damages), apples and okra have soluble fibers which help stabilize blood sugars, and onions are more powerful at lowering blood sugar naturally than medications (which have a slingshot effect - they work for a short time, and if you stop taking them, your blood sugar goes right back up).

Just these facts were worth it for me to buy this book. Like all Chinese, we believe food and medicine is the same. I'd rather do it by diet than having to spend $$$ for medications. Besides, all medications have long term side effects.

The only reason I gave this book 4 stars, is because they don't have information on a lot of asian veggies that we eat on daily basis - gailan (chinese broccoli), amaranth leaves, pea shoots, bamboo shoots, gobo (burdock root), opo squash, wintermelon, bean sprouts, daikon (icicle radish), loofah squash, yo choy, sen choy (red spinach), tree ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, etc etc. It would be great to see Dr. Sears include more "exotic" fruits and veggies in his next version.

Understanding "The Zone" is one thing. Developing menues, based on "The Zone", is another thing. Thank you, Dr. Sears, for providing so many alternatives for those of us who have neither the imagination nor the time to develop such recipes on our own.

The amount of research necessary to create such a variety of recipes is more than I could possibly do on my own, and greatly enhances the pleasure of being in the zone.

The book,"The Zone", provides a thorough explanation of the concept. This book, which, along with the recipes, contains brief explanations of the "zone" concept along with tables and charts, is an excellent complement to "The Zone", and I recommend it highly.

Actually, this is one of my favorite Zone books. Maybe it has to grow on you.

When you start studying what biochemist Barry Sears writes about, your eyes may glaze over. You only really need one book to begin with, it's just a matter of assimilating a new kind of information about how to balance your nutrition.

This one has an excellent section describing most of the Zone basics, and it sharpens the focus on the nutritional attributes of the best foods - information you cannot get in the other Zone books. Dr. Sears lays out his formula for ranking all the nutrients in food straightforwardly, and you find out HOW MUCH better for you broccoli, caulifower, or spinach are instead of cereal, pasta, or bread.

Since no foods are actually forbidden in the Zone, the proportions are still up to you. Of course, if you insist on consuming hydrogenated oils, you do so at your own risk!

In my opinion, we live in an age with too many refined and processed foods. Barry Sears has given us a survival guide for modern times. It's the healthiest, most adaptable and most sustainable nutrition plan out there.

This is a horrible book; the other Zone books are much more useful. The recipes are best avoided; the "Did you know?" section about each food is irritatingly trite; the information content of the book is low. The only interesting thing to mention is that the quantities of various foods required to make up a "Zone block" have altered considerably since Sears published "Enter the Zone" in 1995. The pattern seems to be that (1) the recommendations for fat are doubled to 3 grams (but the number of peanuts that is said to fulfill that recommendation remains at 6), and (2) the amounts of high-fiber vegetables have increased enormously, for example "artichoke, 1 medium" becomes "artichoke, 4 large", "broccoli, 1 cup" becomes "broccoli, 3 cups", "spinach, 4 cups" becomes "spinach, 20 cups". The curious statement that 1/2 nectarine is equivalent to 1 peach remains, however (a puzzle to botanists everywhere).

After studying most of the Zone books, the original Entering the Zone, Mastering the Zone, the Anti-Aging Zone, A Week in the Zone, and pretty much all the others, I recommend The Top 100 Zone Foods to beginners, because the earlier books, especially --while essential to understanding the science-- are the worst written and worst organized. Having adopted the Zone diet permanently, I refer to this Zone book more than any other. None of the Zone books are well written. But the diet is so excellent, we must read them. At least this one has a decent primer on pages 8-18, which I refer to for reminders on basic questions --like how many grams of fat are there in a "block"? Plus, the organization here --listing the best Zone foods --in order-- and providing a one, two, or three smiley face ranking system-- greatly increases the book's usefulness. Finally, while this is a paperback, it's a big, sturdy paperback.

This book is half the price of Barnes Noble....here on Amazon Online....so if you buy it here it's 8.00 verses 16.00 at B&N.

I'm new to the Zone concept. Being in Menopause I need this book more than any other age group in my opinion! Trying to lose weight with crazy hormones is next to impossible. Now that I understand the Top 100 foods it's going to be so much easier. I Love many of the Top 100 foods BUT...I wasn't putting them together in the right groups together.

Sure we all have heard of Glycemic index but not the whole Load meaning! Food is our fuel but even if you eat healthy food you need to eat the right amount of each and group them together. Hormones and blood sugars being out of whack are a sure way to gain weight and Never lose weight with out this knowledge!

***When you eat this way you will never miss junk food which is what you crave when your hormones are out of whack...aka emotional eating!

A great book to sort out your diet and eat more healthily. Get your health back on track and follow the easy plan of the zone diet.