There is a lot of talk these days about "Zoning", "The Zone Diet", being "In the zone." Such terms refer to a book by Dr. Barry Sears called, "The Zone Diet". The basic premise of the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet is that many people are "insulin sensitive" and that "carbs" (such as pasta, potatoes, rice, bread, cereals, sweets and pastries) tend to "spike insulin levels", make you hungrier and bloated, and lead to binge-eating and "carb-loading", a term used to refer to eating large quantities of carbohydrates, sweets and other high carb foods.

We have been told for a long time that pasta is good for us so long as we keep the fat content very low, that less meat and animal protein is better for us because most meat is fatty and cholesterol-laden,  that the very best way to lose weight is to cut out the fat, stop eating beef and steaks and eggs and to eat more carbs such as pasta, rice, bread, cereal and so on.

How much of this is really true? Is Dr. Sears on to something? His book is rife with calculations that you, the reader, need to make, plus carefully structured "zones" within which one must stay in order to achieve weight loss success. It is possible he had a good idea and took it a step too far, as is so common with many weight management programs; they have a good idea, but need to build a book or a program around it, so they complicate the process.

Are there that many people who are "insulin sensitive" or is it simply a matter of pasta not being all that great a food to begin with? After all, what is pasta, really? Pasta is made from refined white flour and water; highly refined and nutritionally vacant product - unless it's enriched with vitamins and minerals. But it tastes wonderful and a lot of people really love to eat it. But it does tend to make many people bloated. Plus, a small amount of even sauceless pasta is quite a calorie-load. I was among the avid pasta/carb eaters until about a year ago.

It is quite apparent that there are many people who are quite convincing about their low-carb, high-protein experiences with weight loss. So I decided to do a personal experiment, having discovered in recent years that weight was becoming harder to keep off unless I over-exercised, something I was not about to do.

My experiment lasted one month. Without having to go through any complicated formulae as in the Zone book, I found, much to my surprise, that eliminating all refined foods including white pasta, white rice, white bread, all sweets, all refined cereals and almost all potatoes, did indeed make it quite a bit easier to lose weight and keep it off - and with a good deal less hunger and fatigue than with my previously almost-vegetarian, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, too. I have made permanent adjustments now, with great success and without using complicated formulae.

It is not my purpose to recommend any kind of "diet". Far from it. But I do notice that more and more people are beginning to revisit the "Pasta Issue" and that for many more people than previously thought, a moderate-carb/moderate protein lifestyle can make weight control considerably easier. There is no reason, unless one has an insulin problem, to eliminate all carbohydrates. In fact, unrefined complex carbohydrates are quite healthful foods: beans, lentils, vegetables, whole rices, whole wheat pasta, whole-grain bread and other grains are among such foods.

Perhaps Mama was right when she admonished, "Don't eat starches. They'll make you fat." If your weight loss efforts are stalled or ineffective, perhaps it's time to limit refined "starches" and increase protein a bit. Mother  could have been right all along.