It is proven fact that the less calories you consume, the less your body will work and so be able to work more efficiently and longer. There are many more truths in Barry Sears’ newest book, The Soy Zone, which expands on his #1 bestseller The Zone, but that is the basis for the book. Don’t think this means deprivation, though. More than a fad diet that you can only tolerate for a week or two, the soy zone helps you to balance your intake of low and high-density carbohydrates, protein and monounsaturated fat. This satisfies your hunger much longer with less calories because you are consuming more nutrient-rich, less starchy foods.

It can be difficult for some people to understand how to restructure the way they eat and Sears helpfully includes 101 recipes that gives the amount of carbohydrate and protein in each entrée or dessert, for men need more than women, but the directions for determining the exact amount are included, too. I looked through the recipes, which gave me some ideas to experiment with because that’s how I cook. I rarely follow a recipe. Sears encouraged me to try soy burger crumbles and silken tofu as a yogurt substitute, which I’ve enjoyed, but he never uses honey, dark molasses, brown rice or avocado and instead uses a mint called stevia extract mostly.

Suffice it to say, the recipes were not what interested me about this 323-page book, including the very informative appendixes of about seventy pages. What interested me was why he felt this way of eating was best for our long-term health. It boils down to the fact that the food we eat (and how much water we drink, I'll add) changes the way our body chemistry works. If we eat too much food that encourages the release of insulin, a hormone that stores extra calories as fat, then obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other degenerative and aging problems will occur.

Not only must we control our insulin levels, but also something called glucagon, which holds onto the fat that is stored in our muscles. This is the “anti-insulin” hormone, which is released when too much protein is eaten. So a balance of low-density carbohydrates (most veggies and fruit), protein (soy regulates glucagon/insulin balance better than animal) and grains as a condiment is his advice.

Sears explains and answers questions pertaining to every aspect of the Soy Zone and why it’s helped millions of people as well as pass clinical inspection. Grains are not really even necessary for our health, he notes, and 40 percent low-density carbohydrate, 30 percent protein and 30 percent (monounsaturated) fat should be our daily diet goal.

My Comments

This makes a lot of sense to me. The USDA’s food pyramid of eleven servings every day of grains and half that of vegetables and fruit needs to be updated. It hasn’t worked for the past fifty plus years and only leads to greater health problems.

I’ve never been fat or worried about my health, but I don’t think you need to be in order to gain benefits from eating less starch. Now when I eat too much pasta at dinner or Grape Nuts for breakfast without enough soy nuts and soy milk for protein, I realize that I’m sleepy afterwards because my insulin soared and stored the energy as fat where my body can’t get at it.

I hope I’ve covered enough of the essentials of this book to interest you in checking it out. Sears considers 1200 calories a day for women and 1500 a day for men just dandy, but I don’t count my calories and am only using his advice as a stepping stone to my own meal-planning. Maybe you will appreciate the recipes more than I did for they are for vegetarians (who eat fish, dairy and eggs) mainly, but I’m vegan and did not notice many if any recipes for me. Sears strongly recommends fish for our Omega 3 fatty acid need, but I get mine from flaxseed oil and spirulina, a blue-green algae. If you supplement with only one of them, use spirulina.

He also recommends a Vitamin E supplement, but eat your avocados, olives, walnuts, peanut butter and use olive oil and that shouldn't be necessary.

Finally, to give you a better idea of how I’m trying to eat The Soy Zone way, I will end with the ingredients of my Crockpot meal tonight. Hopefully you can see that it’s not so hard to do and can be very tasty and fun. By the way, it smells delectable!

Jan’s Chili

Two large cans of tomatoes in juice
A can each of kidney and black beans
Chopped brocolli, red onion and mushrooms
Soy burger crumble
Small amount of flavored pasta (chopped sweet potato was my preference, not Tim’s)
Chopped avocado (for your monounsaturated fat)
Some lemon juice, honey and dark molasses
A quarter teaspoon of cilantro leaves

Cook on low for six or seven hours. If you don’t like avocado, add some olive oil and fry or bake with it from now on.

About the author: Sears has a Ph.D and is well-known as a scientist and researcher "with twelve patents in drug delivery and hormonal control technology." He's the author of six Zone books now and doesn't understand why some consider him controversial. Now I don't, either!

Recommended: Yes