Dining In The Zone:
An Interview with
Dr. Barry Sears

By David Jay Brown

Barry Sears, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading medical researchers on the hormonal effects of food. He is best known as the author of the number one New York Times bestseller The Zone, which outlines his strategy for controlling insulin levels in the body through diet.

Dr. Sears developed the Zone diet as a way to keep the body from producing excess insulin. The Zone diet does this by providing a proper balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats at each meal, and also with supplements of high-dose pharmaceutical grade fish oil. The consumption of carbohydrates such as pasta and bread can cause a sharp spike in insulin production, and if this happens chronically we start to gain weight. This leads to insulin resistance and eventually results in a dangerous condition known as “silent inflammation.” Researchers are discovering that silent inflammation is at the root of many major illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. This is why Dr. Sears believes that we should treat our food like drugs.

Dr. Barry Sears

In addition to The Zone, Dr. Sears has written nine other books on the Zone diet, including Mastering the Zone, The Age-Free Zone, The Soy Zone, The Omega Rx Zone, Zone Meals in Seconds, and What to Eat in the Zone. His books have sold more than five million copies and have been translated into twenty-two languages in 40 countries. He continues his research on the inflammatory process as the president of the nonprofit Inflammation Research Foundation in Marblehead, Mass.

Dr. Sears has a talent for making complex explanations seem simple, and he speaks with great clarity and precision. We spoke about the dangers of silent inflammation, the role that eicosanoids play in our body, the benefits of high-dose pharmaceutical grade fish oil, and how the Zone diet can lower insulin levels and dramatically improve one’s health.

Q: What originally inspired your interest in diet and nutrition?

Dr. Sears: My interest stems from wanting to avoid an early cardiovascular death, because everyone on the male side of my family—starting with my grandfather, my father and his brothers—all died in their early 50’s of heart disease. So I realized about 30 years ago that I had the same genes, but I had the opportunity to change the expression of those genes. So this started me on a search to answer the question: What would be the most appropriate format for reducing the likelihood of premature heart disease? My background at the time was in drug delivery systems. I was doing work on intravenous drug delivery systems for cancer drugs, and then I realized that one could apply the same principals of drug delivery to food, in order to keep the hormones generated by food within therapeutic zones—not too high and not too low. So I really shifted my interest from looking at drug delivery systems to looking at food as a drug and as a modulator of hormones.

Q: What are some of the dangers of silent inflammation, and how can people tell if they have a problem with silent inflammation?

Dr. Sears: One of the problems with silent inflammation is that it’s silent. That’s why no one knew much about it for so long. People can’t feel it, and we had no clinical test for detecting it. Now that we can look for silent inflammation in the blood, we find it’s everywhere, and it seems to be the underlying cause of a great number of chronic disease states—whether it be heart disease, cancer, or Alzheimer’s disease. So, until we had a way of testing it, we had no way of looking at how to combat it. Now that we can test it, we find the most effective way of reducing silent inflammation—and this has all been clinically demonstrated—is by paying attention to the food that you eat. With the right diet—which is really an anti-inflammatory diet—you could reduce silent inflammation in your body within thirty days.

Q: Why is reducing insulin levels so important for reversing silent inflammation, and why do you think that we should think of the food we eat as powerful drugs?

Dr. Sears: Insulin effects a great number of things in the body. Obviously it compounds the storage of sugar, but also the storage of fat. That’s why it’s excess insulin that makes you fat and keeps you fat. But what people don’t realize is insulin can also stimulate the enzymes that make the building blocks of inflammatory eicosanoids. That really became the smoking gun that links obesity to so many chronic disease states—because the more obese you are, the more insulin you’re making. And the more insulin you’re making, the more inflammation you’re generating. So with that linkage we can now say, okay, let’s find a way to reduce the levels of insulin, and reduce the levels of the inflammatory eicosanoids that insulin can help generate, to keep one managed in a therapeutic zone. That’s why food becomes so powerful, because food effects hormones, and hormones are hundreds of times more powerful than any drug. This means that food is probably the most powerful drug you’ll ever encounter, but the door could swing both ways. Food can be your greatest ally, or your worst hormonal enemy.

Q: Can you talk a little about how the Zone diet can help people reduce insulin levels and control inflammation?

Dr. Sears: The Zone diet is really composed of two parts. One part is for controlling insulin, simply by getting a better balance of protein to carbohydrate on one’s plate. And actually this is quite simple—because all you need is one hand and one eye. Here’s all the rules you need to know in order to control insulin on a lifetime basis.

At each meal divide your plate into three equal sections. On one third of the plate you put some low-fat protein that is no bigger nor thicker than the palm of your hand. The other two thirds of the plate you fill until it’s overflowing with fruits and vegetables. Then you add a dash of monounsaturated fat, which could be olive oil, sliver almonds, or guacamole. Now you’ve constructed a very tasty drug that will control insulin for the next four to six hours. The other part of the Zone diet is taking adequate levels of ultra-refined EPA/DHA concentrates (pharmaceutical grade fish oil), because it’s fish oil that contains the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which at high enough levels have profound anti-inflammatory effects. Combine the two, and you have a powerful one-two punch to control silent inflammation on a lifetime basis.

Q: How is the Zone diet similar to a Paleolithic diet?

Dr. Sears: It’s similar in that 10,000 years ago there were no grains on the face of the Earth. So let’s go back to our example plate. There’s plenty of low-fat protein, therefore you’d never use excessive amounts, and the only carbohydrates man was exposed to (and that we are genetically designed to eat) were really fruits and non-starchy vegetables, because they have a low glycemic load. So in many ways the Zone diet is basically going back and making a diet for the twenty-first century that is compatible with our genes that still live in the Stone Age.

Q: Could you clarify what you mean when you say that “10,000 years ago there were no grains on the face of the Earth.”?

Dr. Sears: There was no agricultural development 10,000 years ago, so there was no easy access to grains as a major dietary component.

Q: You say that the Zone diet is similar to the Paleolithic diet, and that “our genes still live in the Stone Age.” Does that mean that our ancestors always ate meals that had the precise portions of protein, carbohydrates, and fats that you recommend for each meal?

Dr. Sears: The genetic propensity that we have for fat storage was a valuable survival mechanism in the past. Now it has become a genetic liability. To overcome the genetic component we have to control the balance of protein, carbohydrate, and fat the best we can at every meal.

Q: How have the studies done on caloric restriction influenced your development of the Zone Diet?

Dr. Sears: The only proven technology “to slow down the aging process” has been reducing calories. So people say, well yeah, but who wants to be hungry and deprived the rest of their life? I know I don’t. So what you’re looking at in terms of the Zone diet is a calorie restricted diet—but yet one without hunger, and one without deprivation. One of the little known, or little appreciated facts of the Zone diet is that it’s not about how many calories you eat, it’s how much energy you produce, that is ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the body’s primary energy molecule). So this is why you can basically reduce the number of calories in the Zone diet and still have high levels of physical and mental energy, because you’re now making larger amounts of ATP with a lesser number of calories. So now you have anti-aging the easy way—basically eating great meals, but you’re restricting calories without hunger and without deprivation.

Q: You mentioned eicosanoids earlier. Can you talk a little about the role that eicosanoids play in our body and how our diet and insulin levels effect them?

Dr. Sears: Eicosanoids are really your master hormones. They control inflammation, but they also control so much more. They virtually control the release and synthesis of all other hormones. So, in many ways, they're kind of the "Intel® computer chip" running both our bodies and every aspect of our physiology because of that very profound dietary control. With our diet, we control the balance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory eicosanoids, and the better we maintain that balance the more well we become. Conversely, the more we let that balance get out of whack, making more pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, the more rapidly we move toward chronic disease.

Q: You say that “Eicosanoids are really your master hormones.” While it’s clear that eicosanoids are very important, it’s not clear why they are “your master hormones.” What makes them more important than, say, pregnenolone or DHEA?

Dr. Sears: Eicosanoids were the first hormones developed by living organisms. They control all other hormones because of their impact on cyclic AMP levels in individual cells that ultimately control the release or synthesis of other hormones.

Q: I have a master’s degree in psychobiology. Why did I never learn anything about eicosanoids in my endocrinology classes?

Dr. Sears: When I first wrote the book there were probably five people in the country who could pronounce the word (laughter). There are many more now, but still it’s a very arcane part of endocrinology.

Q: You mentioned earlier that taking high-dose, ultra-refined EPA/DHA concentrates (pharmaceutical grade fish oil) is part of the Zone diet. Can you talk a little about the specific benefits of taking fish oil?

Dr. Sears: The primary benefits are the long-chain fatty acids—such as EPA and DHA—which, at high enough levels, have profound anti-inflammatory effects. By taking these fatty acids we can attack the problem by doing what’s referred to in pharmacology as “going upstream.”

See, most drug companies develop drugs that go “downstream.” That is, they try to inhibit the enzymes that make the pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, yet all those pro-inflammatory eicosanoids are derived from arachidonic acid. So the opposite way is to go “upstream,” and simply decrease the production of arachidonic acid. It’s a much more elegant, much more sophisticated approach, and that’s what the Zone diet does. It uses diet and the fish oil to reduce the levels of arachidonic acid, and by doing so you choke off the substrates to making excessive amounts of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids.

Q: How does one know if the fish oil that they are taking is pharmaceutical grade or not?

Dr. Sears: It’s hard unless you have a half million dollars of instrumentation in your kitchen, which most people don’t. But here’s an easy first test. Take your fish oil home, and if it’s in gel caps, break open the gel caps and pour the contents into a small shot glass. Now put that in the freezer and come back five hours later with a toothpick. If the fish oil is rock solid, you can probably believe that the fish oil is the sewer of the sea. On the other hand, if you can put the toothpick through it, and it’s either mushy or liquid, then it’s probably the good stuff.

Q: Why do you recommend that people take fish oil and not hemp seed oil—which contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in a 4:1 ratio?

Dr. Sears: Hemp seed oil contains short-chain omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid. Alpha-linolenic acid is very inefficiently converted to the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that do all the work in controlling inflammation. So if you’re willing to basically take 50 to 100 times the volume of hemp seed oil, you might get the same effect of a much smaller volume of fish oil.

Q: Why is it dangerous to have chronically elevated cortisol levels and what can people do to prevent their bodies from producing too much cortisol?

Dr. Sears: The trouble with excess cortisol is that three things can happen. It makes you fatter because it increases insulin resistance. It makes you dumber because it destroys the nerve cells in the hippocampus, where all your memories are stored. And three, it makes you sicker because it turns off the immune system. So these are three pretty good reasons why you want to control excess levels of cortisol.

Now, how to go about doing that. The easiest way is take adequate levels of fish oil, because by reducing inflammation in the body you’re reducing the need for the body to secrete more cortisol to keep it under control. The second way to keep cortisol under control is to control blood-sugar levels. If blood-sugar levels drop too low the brain will send out signals to make more cortisol to break down muscle mass and convert it into glucose. And the third way is an old time-tested way.

It’s called meditation. You take some time to stop and smell the roses.
So, again, like with insulin and the pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, it’s better if you’re not increasing those hormones. It’s better to actually be decreasing those hormones, and bringing them back into an appropriate zone that’s consistent with long-term wellness.

Q: You say that one can reduce cortisol levels with fish oil. Are there any studies which demonstrate this?

Dr. Sears: In patients with cachexia it is known that fish oil reduces cortisol levels (Nutrition and Cancer 40: 118 (2001) and in normal subjects undergoing mental stress (Diabetes Metabolism 29: 289 (2003).

Q: How does exercise help to lower inflammation in the body?

Dr. Sears: Exercise helps lower inflammation by actually lowering insulin. As I said earlier, it’s excess insulin that stimulates that enzyme to make arachidonic acid, the building block of these inflammatory eicosanoids. So by lowering insulin through exercise you’re taking another step toward reducing the overall inflammatory load on the body.

Q: Why do you think that taking mega-doses of antioxidants may suppress the immune system?

Dr Sears: Because we have to have some bad eicosanoids, otherwise we’d die, and to make eicosanoids—both good and bad—you need a certain amount of free radicals. When you take very high levels of antioxidants the free radicals necessary to form eicosanoids get inhibited, and this puts the body at great risk in terms of its ability to fight off bacterial infections, or to inhibit the process needed to repair injuries.

Q: What do you think are the primary causes of aging?

Dr. Sears: I think the primary cause of aging is basically the increased inflammatory burden, and therefore if we really want to talk about anti-aging medicine, we should talk about anti-inflammatory medicine.
But if I use the word “anti-aging medicine” I’d be laughed at if I went to Harvard Medical School. However, if I use the term “anti-inflammatory medicine” they’d welcome me with open arms. I’m talking about exactly the same thing, but again, this demonstrates the power of words to convey certain messages.

Q: So do you think that the Zone diet actually reverses or slows down the aging process?

Dr. Sears: Definitely, because we know the Zone diet is a calorie-restricted diet, which we know does slow down the aging process.

Q: You say that aging is caused by an “increased inflammatory burden,” that can be alleviated by the Zone diet. Does this mean that our Paleolithic ancestors, who ate the type of diet that you recommend, didn’t age?

Dr. Sears: Aging can be defined as the cause of mortality. Today, the cause of mortality is primary chronic disease conditions accelerated by inflammation (i.e. CHD), whereas 10,000 years ago the primary cause of mortality was famine or injury.

Q: How long do you think it’s possible for human life span to be extended?

Dr. Sears: I think realistically, probably to age 90. For right now, we’re at about age 78. But it’s not the length of life span that’s important, it’s really our health-span; that is, longevity minus years of disability. And here our track record is not quite as good. So I think that when we ask what we really want, the answer is basically to live a full life—a life with as little pain as possible, with maximum wellness, and to die when our time comes. The fact is we’re all going to die. I’m just saying that we want to die on our terms, and basically in a state of relative wellness. So I think that the great goal is to have the population live a life that is full of vitality and follows what is called a rectangular curve—great vitality and then you die the next day. That’s really what we’re looking for. To extend life span to over a hundred may not be what we want. If you’ve ever been to a nursing home, you say, yeah they’re living to 100 and 102, but that’s not the quality of life I want to go out with.

Q: What are some of the new anti-aging treatments that you foresee coming along in the near future?

Dr. Sears: I only really see one: diet. But actually there are three things: diet, exercise, and stress reduction. None of those can be put into a capsule or pill. Those three things are the verities of human wisdom, and they have to be done on a consistent daily basis to keep your hormones in the zone. That is the key to aging well.

Q: A lab in Spain recently found that cannabinoids can help prevent Alzheimer's disease in mice due to their anti-inflammatory properties. What role do you think our body’s own endocannabinoid system plays in maintaining health?

Dr. Sears: The endocannabinoid system is interesting because right now the hottest ticket in terms of obesity research is anti-cannabinoids—agents that block the cannabinoid receptor. The cannabinoids tend to give people the munchies. So researchers found out that if you block that receptor you simply don’t get hungry. So I think that a lot of the data about what’s going into the brain is very interesting. That’s why if you see anti-aging reports talking about the cannabinoids being useful, remember that there’s corresponding data that says anti-cannabinoids are also useful because they help basically reduce the hunger, and therefore reduce the amount of calories you consume.

Q: What are you currently working on?

Dr. Sears: My focus is primarily on inflammation. Right now I’m looking into doing the clinical studies which will demonstrate that you can intervene with diet in a wide number of different disease states, and show statistically significant changes and reversals in a number of them. I’ve done most of the work to lay the foundation for that. Now it’s time to put the money on the table and learn conclusively to what extent we can use food as a drug. This isn’t to say that food will replace drugs, but rather that it can help make drugs work better—that is, at lower concentrations, and with less side effects.

Q: Is there anything that we haven’t spoken about that you would like to add?

Dr Sears: One last thing is that in America we face a great day of reckoning, which is coming very quickly. That year of reckoning will be the year 2011. That is the year that the first of the Baby Boomers will be able to access Medicare, which is virtually unlimited health care.

And as rich as our country is, we do not have the money to pay for the medical liabilities facing us. So we have to either hide our head in the sand like an ostrich, or face the fact that we’re going to have significant restrictions and a rationing of healthcare.

But we have a way to circumvent that by treating our food like a drug.
By doing this we relieve the great coming burden on our healthcare system, because now people can take responsibility for their future.

Rather than waiting for some scientist in the basement of Merck, Sharp, and Dohme to make some pill to save them from themselves, the answer lies in their kitchen. So the question is: As a country, do we have the will to use the kitchen as a food pharmacy, an anti-inflammatory pharmacy, or do we want to sit back and wait for the inevitable, which is basically a complete collapse of our healthcare system? I really hope it’s the former and not the later.

David Jay Brown is the author of four volumes of interviews with leading-edge thinkers, Mavericks of the Mind, Voices from the Edge, Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse, and Mavericks of Medicine. (Mavericks of Medicine will be published by Smart Publications as a book in late 2006.) He is also the author of two science fiction novels, Brainchild and Virus. David holds a master’s degree in psychobiology from New York University, and was responsible for the California-based research in two of British biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s bestselling books on unexplained phenomena in science: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and The Sense of Being Stared At. To find out more about David’s work visit his award-winning web site: www.mavericksofthemind.com.

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Dining In The Zone: An Interview with Dr. Barry Sears