Fruits are low in calories and contain a host of essential nutrients that help protect your body against chronic disease. Some diets, such as the one popularized by Dr. Atkins, recommend you severely limit your intake of fruits because of their carbohydrate and sugar content. Although the Zone Diet is a moderately low-carbohydrate diet, its plan encourages fruit intake.
The Zone Diet
The Zone Diet is a moderately low-carbohydrate diet created by Dr. Barry Sears. When following the diet, you need to make sure that all of your meals maintain a specific nutrient balance. Maintaining such a balance helps to control blood sugar and hormone levels. On the diet each meal must contain 40 percent of its calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent of its calories from protein and 30 percent of its calories from fat. In addition to balancing your nutrient intake, you are also encouraged to include mostly low-glycemic carbohydrates, which digest slowly and cause only a slight rise in blood sugar. Most of the carbohydrates on the Zone Diet come from vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
Fruit on the Zone Diet
Fruits are primarily made up of carbohydrates. While you need to control your intake of carbohydrates on the Zone Diet, a large majority of your carb choices should come from fruits. Most fruits are low in calories and high in essential nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, folate and fiber. In addition, most fruits have a low-glycemic index score. The Zone Diet recommends that you include 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day on the diet.
Fruit Choices and Portions
While you can eat fruit on the Zone Diet, fruit portion sizes differ when compared to the amount of fruit in one serving recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fruit choices and serving sizes comprise, for instance, half an apple, orange or nectarine; 1/3 cup of unsweetened canned fruit; 1/2 cup of grapes; eight cherries; one peach; and 1 cup of strawberries. In addition, certain fruits are considered high-density carbohydrates, and it is recommended you eat them in moderation. High-density fruit and serving sizes include one-third of a banana, 1/3 cup of sliced mango, 3/4 cup of fresh cantaloupe and 1/2 cup of pineapple.
Zone vs. USDA
While the Zone Diet does not significantly restrict your intake of fruit, as a lower-carbohydrate diet you may eat less fruit following this regimen than adhering to the diet recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA's new MyPlate plan recommends you eat a serving of fruit at each meal, just like the Zone. However, serving sizes of fruit on the USDA diet plan are larger. For example, 1 cup of cantaloupe, one large orange, 1 cup of diced melon or 1 cup of fresh grapes all equal one serving of fruit.
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