A move toward 'peace in our time'

Last Updated Oct 2007

On a recent trip to Italy, I had the opportunity to personally speak with one of the strongest critics of the Zone Diet in that country. His primary complaint about the Zone was that he believes that one diet can't be good for everyone. Much to his surprise, I agreed with him because I said everyone is genetically different. I told him you have to go to the published evidence as to what the best diet for each particular group of subjects is. As a professor of nutrition he readily agreed. So I said, "Let"s look at the data together and see for what types of individuals the Zone Diet might be recommended."

I started out with type 2 diabetics. We both agreed that the data are overwhelming that the Zone Diet is the superior diet for type 2 diabetic patients, since the newest dietary recommendation from the Joslin Diabetes Research Center at Harvard Medical School is basically the Zone Diet. Already I could feel that international relations were improving.

Next I went to other extreme quoting from Italian studies (always good when debating someone of that nationality) that the Zone Diet is superior for active athletes. Again he agreed (probably because these were Italian studies). Then we talked of the people who were between those extremes (the majority of Americans and Italians). I told of the recent data from Harvard Medical School indicating that overweight individuals with a high initial insulin response to carbohydrates did much better on the Zone Diet. Since the data were from Harvard Medical School, he again agreed.

So I said that for anyone who is (1) not a type 2 diabetic, or (2) an active athlete, or (3) an overweight person who has a high initial insulin response, then any diet that has restricted calories will probably be just as good as the Zone Diet.

He was ecstatic because I was admitting that the Zone Diet wasn't the best diet for everyone. I felt like the Neville Chamberlain of nutrition having brokered an agreement that gives "peace in our time."

Of course, I didn't want to break the moment of celebration by mentioning that the Zone Diet is a calorie-restricted diet, which ultimately makes it good for everyone.