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Delivery service
brings Zone meals to dieters' doorsteps
By Providence Cicero Special to The Seattle
Times
Would you sign up for a diet program run
by a woman who admits she's been a size 8 all of
her adult life?
As president of Zone Los Angeles, Arlene
Sherman dispatches her "food fairies" daily
to roughly 150 clients of Zone Los Angeles, the home
meal-delivery program she founded 19 months ago
with her son, Jeff, based on the principles of
the Zone diet developed by Dr. Barry Sears and
first introduced in his 1995 book "The Zone."
A
fast-talking, Brooklyn-accented food fairy godmother,
Sherman set her sights on health-conscious Los Angeles
after working for a similar company in the New
York metropolitan area.
Few among us could resist
a sales pitch that promises you'll lose between
1 and 3 pounds a week eating three meals a day
plus two snacks, prepared by professional chefs
and delivered to your door fresh daily. But many
might balk at the cost: $39.99 per person per day.
"Forty
dollars a day may seem expensive; certainly it
is for me as a retired person," says Jo Ann
Bourque, a former secretary who lives in West Los Angeles.
But when she calculated what she was spending on
food before she joined Zone Los Angeles, she was shocked
to realize that it was close to $40 a day. Because
she doesn't really like to cook or shop, she would
rely on pricier prepared food, or junk food. She
was, she admits, eating more than she should have
been. "People pay for housecleaning, they
pay for gardening, so why not pay for something
that's good for you?" she asks.
Zone Los Angeles
has been very good for Bourque. A diabetic, she
was able to curtail her use of insulin within weeks
of starting the program. After nine months on the
diet, she has lost 57 pounds and reduced her use
of prescription drugs for chronic ailments.
Getting
in the Zone
The Zone diet posits that too much
refined sugar and high-density carbohydrates like
pasta, bread, rice and potatoes pump up insulin
levels, making people fat. Eating the right mix
of protein, fat and carbohydrates balances the
body's hormones, particularly insulin, allowing
it to operate more efficiently.
The recommended
ratio for each Zone meal or snack is 40 percent
carbohydrates, 30 percent lean protein, 30 percent
mono-saturated fats. Eating often — three
meals, plus two snacks a day — keeps blood
sugar levels steady, and portion control keeps
calories low.
According to Sherman, Zone Los Angeles's
meals provide a total daily intake of about 1,200
calories for women and 1,500 calories for men,
the low end of the range recommended by nutritionists
for weight loss.
Though experts disagree on whether
high insulin levels and weight gain are connected,
nutritionists tend to approve of the Zone plan.
NutritionWorks' Kathleen Putnam, a registered dietician,
likes that the Zone diet promotes eating proteins
like lean meat and fish and more healthful carbohydrates
like vegetables and fruits. Plus, she says, "it's
good at reminding people to include protein regularly
throughout the day."
Kathleen Mahan, co-author
of a widely used college nutrition textbook, says
she recommends a similar balance of protein and
carbohydrates to clients of her company, Nutrition
by Design. "Overall, I like the Zone. It helps
people cut calories and keeps them satisfied. Avoiding
refined carbohydrates keeps insulin from spiking
and keeping insulin levels even helps prevent inflammation,
which is a culprit in many chronic diseases."
Success
stories
Peggy White started having meals delivered
daily 10 months ago, tapered off to five days a
week, then dropped to two days a week. By last
month, when she discontinued the service, she had
lost a total of 95 pounds.
"Getting the meals
made me realize we had been eating way too much," says
White, who also swims and walks a treadmill three
times a week. "It also helped not having to
make choices. The food was tasty and a great convenience."
Tony
Fuentes, who shed 80 pounds on the program, says
Zone Los Angeles's portions are ample enough that he
sometimes can't eat all the food in one day. He
gets the service four days a week to keep the cost
down, but he follows the Zone rules the other days — except
for Saturdays, when he allows himself a little
splurge.
NutritionWorks' Putnam suggests it may
not necessarily be the magic of the diet that's
been so effective for people like White and Fuentes. "By
getting the service, food choices and portions
are being controlled by someone else. Taking that
choice away is helpful, as is portion control,
which is difficult at home and even more so at
a restaurant. Also, people lack the time, resources
and energy to shop and prepare food they like.
It's the biggest barrier to healthy eating."
Keeping
costs down
To launch Zone Los Angeles (and now Zone
Portland, which started service in January), the
Shermans contracted with caterers, which saves
the expense of building and operating a commercial
kitchen. They won't publicize the names of the
caterers, but they are well-established chefs who
have cooked for celebrities and heads of state,
and regularly feed executives of Microsoft and
Nordstrom.
A messenger service delivers the meals.
Delivery is available in all of King County and
parts of Pierce and Snohomish counties. If you
live outside the delivery area, but work within
those boundaries, they can deliver to your workplace.
If clients travel, they can postpone and resume
deliveries. If they live with someone, they can
order an extra dinner for an $8 surcharge.
The
food arrives at about 6 a.m., packed in reusable,
insulated, tamper-proof bags. A Zone Los Angeles staffer
oversees the packing and checks that all special
requests or allergy restrictions have been honored.
Arlene Sherman, of course, doesn't need to diet,
but the "food fairies" deliver to her
anyway. "It's how I maintain quality control," she
says. Not to mention that size 8 figure.
Copyright © 2004
The Seattle Times Company
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