Last night, Dr. Sears and the Zone Labs hosted a live video chat, giving participants the opportunity to ask the creator of The Zone Diet questions. In addition to being an authority on the way food affects hormones, he is a two-time New York Times bestseller. His first book, The Zone, has sold more than 2 million hard-cover copies world-wide.
Dr. Sears started the video session by talking about how we can trigger our genes with our diet. You can’t change your genes, but you can change their expression through diet and lifestyle. He argues that many health problems, both for overweight people and those who are considered to be at a normal weight, leads back to cellular inflammation. He says that once you eat a diet that reduces cellular inflammation, you will not only lose weight but also improve your heart health. Dr. Sears insists that being overweight is not because some moral failure, but simply a genetic predisposition.
If talking about cellular inflammation sounds like way more detail then you can handle, it’s OK. Dr. Sears explained some simple ways to reduce inflammation through diet. First, increase your omega-3 fatty acids by taking fish oil supplements. Then adjust your diet. That diet should consist of about one third lean protein (about the size of the palm of your hand) and two-thirds “colorful carbohydrates” also known as fruits and vegetables.
A number of other topics were discussed during the session, such as the zone delivery options, the annual zone diet cruse, and The Soy Zone, a book about how vegetarians can reduce inflammation without eating animal protein.
“If you’re willing to treat food like a drug, the results can be dramatic,” said Dr. Sears. “We think of food today as something that’s pleasurable to eat, and by and large it is, but the more we understand the power of food to change our hormones, to change the expression of our genes, it elevates food to really a new level.”
There will be more live video chats with Dr. Sears soon, so we’ll be sure to keep you posted if you want to join next time.
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Zone Diet’s Dr. Barry Sears on Reducing Inflammation for Healthier Hearts