Paleo or Zone? Which Diet is Best?

Paleo versus zone dieting, which is best?  Zone dieting really is a method of balancing your eating focusing on quantity of food while paleo focuses on the quality of the food we eat.

Based on weight loss success, nutritional completeness, cost involved and whether the diet is easy to follow and maintain, I’ve come up with some interesting things to consider with these two popular diets.

The basic formula for the Zone diet includes an exact combination of proteins, carbohydrates and fats at every meal in the 40/30/30 proportion. The purpose is to keep blood sugar levels stable at all times and to keep the body functioning at peak performance throughout the day.

When blood sugar levels are consistent there are fewer cravings and you don’t feel that drop in energy that comes after a spike in blood sugar, for this reason both the Zone diet and the Paleo diet are helpful for controlling diabetes. There is little evidence to support that idea that either one helps prevent heart disease.

The Zone diet limits calories and animal fats as well as carbohydrates, as well as dairy products and cheese; however no food group is completely eliminated. Initially you may see significant weight loss, however many people find the program complicated and are not able to follow it all the time.

The Zone program does suggest that you purchase their specially designed foods like bagels, bread, rolls and pasta to control carbohydrates and on the Zone diet, eating every 5 hours is recommended, which can be difficult to maintain.

In comparison the Paleo diet focuses on eating only unprocessed, whole food that was available before the agriculture era, the theory being that humans were never supposed to eat processed foods or dairy products. This means the Paleo diet restricts dairy and grain food categories. This can be difficult for some people to stick to.

For weight loss, the Paleo diet works very well according to the enthusiasts who follow it, and because there are only “good” carbs it can also works well for controlling diabetes although the research is not there yet. The cost of food for this diet is reasonable since there are no expensive specialty foods to buy, however meat is the most expensive of the food groups so choosing inexpensive cuts may be an option.

Overall the comparison between the Paleo diet and the Zone diet indicates that the Paleo diet is better for losing weight and healthy in terms of controlling diabetes. The cost is of food for each of the diets is also in favor of the Paleo diet because you do not have to buy specialty breads, pasta and snacks. However it depends on your personal preference whether you could stick to the Paleo diet without dairy or processed food on the other hand the Zone diet has you eating every 5 hours which can be a challenge too.

This article is taken from paletdietnews.com, visit their sites for more information.