It’s been 30 years since The Zone changed the way we think about food, health, and inflammation!
In this special Wellness Zone podcast, Dr. Barry Sears looks back on the origins of The Zone—from its unlikely start inspired by the 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine to its rise as one of the first diet books to bring hard science into the mainstream.
Hear how Dr. Sears tested his ideas on elite athletes like the Stanford swim team, how a pivotal radio interview helped The Zone find its audience, and why critics who once called it “too complicated” completely missed the point.
He also shares how The Zone has evolved over three decades of research and how it laid the foundation for Metabolic Engineering®—a dietary system that combines the Zone Diet, purified omega-3s, and polyphenols to help reprogram your genes and control inflammation at the cellular level.
Finally, Dr. Sears explains why The Zone is more relevant today than ever before, as chronic disease, metabolic disorders, and inflammation continue to rise.
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:44 the Zone becoming mainstream in pop culture
- 01:29 First diet book that talked in scientific terms
- 02:08 Finding inspirations in the 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine
- 03:02 Studying inflammation and asking “Why do we get sick?”
- 03:35 Testing the Zone diet on elite athletes, Stanford Swim Team
- 05:25 Writing The Zone and trying to find an audience
- 07:43 Dennis Prager radio show appearance
- 07:52 Why The Zone book was different
- 08:42 How the Zone has evolved with science over the past 30 years
- 09:36 Metabolic Engineering—a dietary system consisting of the Zone, omega-3 fatty acids and polyphenols, working as a team to change the expression of your genes.
- 10:48 Critics of the Zone who say its too difficult to follow
- 12:26 The future of health and wellness and why the Zone is more relevant now than ever
- 15:10 ZoneLiving.com for products to help get you into the Zone.
