Why Eat a Certain Ratio?

I've talked before about you should eat enough dense proteins at your meals and every recipe labeled balanced recipe has a certain ratio of protein to carbohydrates. The above diagram is straight from Dr. Barry Sears book "A Week in the Zone" (I'm not paid to endorse this book) and I wanted to explain to you why it's important as vegetarians to get the right blend of dense protein and carbs.

The chart shows how your body reacts depending on the ratio of protein-to-carbs that you eat (remember carbs = insulin, protein = glucagon). For example if you eat 2x (or more) as many grams of carbs as you eat grams of protein you would be in the "High Carbohydrate Diet" section. If you eat just as many grams of protein (or more) than grams of carbs then you would be in the "High Protein Diet" section of the chart. Anything in between puts you in "The Zone."

Long story short, keeping your insulin under control by eating the right portion of DENSE PROTEINS to carbohydrates will keep your body burning fat instead of storing it and avoid you from going into ketosis. As vegetarians we usually have the problem of having too many carbs so just include some dense proteins like tofu, or soy into every meal and snack you eat.

Message

-Eating the right ratio of protein to carbs puts your body in the correct hormonal state

-As vegetarians we have to be careful not to eat too many carbs or else our body will store fat.