Omega Rx Zone: The Miracle of the New High-Dose Fish Oil
by: Barry Sears
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Reviews:
A year ago tomorrow, I walked into a bookstore in desperation and bought all the books on nutrition I could find that made sense to me. Within days, I exchanged most of them for the Zone books. Within 2 weeks of practicising the Zone haphazardly, I got spectacular results on my blood cholesterol test, the first encouraging results in five years. I have continued in the "Zone lifestyle" faithfully while reading perhaps 70 nutrition and exercise books in the meantime.
The OmegaRxZone represents the most recent in the series of Zone books, containing the most up-to-date information on Dr. Sears' dietary technology. It might be called, the "Zone with emphasis on pharmaceutical grade fish oil and recovery from illness."
Pharmaceutical grade fish oil can be taken in bigger quantities than health store grade fish oil. There is now an EPA/AA test (see yourfuturehealth.com) for $260 that can show whether bigger quantities of fish oil can help your health condition.
Dr. Sears has taken criticism from those who say they are completely healthy already. They argue that his assertions about the role of EPA and DHA in preserving health are unproven. Meanwhile, many desperately sick people have regained their health and think otherwise. The August 2003 newsletter on drsears.com contains one such testimonial from a fitness instructor.
Dr. Sears apparently sees his role as a standard setter. In the year since the publication of the OmegaRxZone, other pharmaceutical grade fish oils besides his own have come out at lower prices. If he were truly mercenary, he would have maintained his affiliation with the ZonePerfect company. He parted ways with them several years ago because he wanted to upgrade the quality of Zone bars. The ZonePerfect company has recently been bought out by a sports bar company (read candy bar) for huge dollars. That would have been the way for him to cash in if he really were in it for the bucks. His long-range view, gathered from the Q&A archives on his website, is that acceptance of his dietary technology will take 25 years.
Do you need this book versus any of the others? That's difficult to answer, because Dr. Sears seems to take a slightly different tack to explaining his system. If you are a convalescing heart attack victim, you might want to approach cooking with laboratory precision, but if you have immortal youth, you might be satisfied with more improvisation.
The short answer. For the quickest summary of the benefits of the Zone and various methods of putting it into practice, A Week in the Zone may be the best single book to start with (paperback, has some typos). If you collect all the Zone books, you will want this one, too.
The long answer:
Enter the Zone - the classic, also the best written
Mastering the Zone - learn to read Nutrition Facts labels - good for athletes
Age-Free (originally Anti-Aging) Zone - very detailed on life extension
Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes - cookbook w summaries of Zone used in
workshops for diabetics.
Zone Food Blocks - dietician/cooking reference
The Top 100 Zone Foods - favorite of some
The Soy Zone - for vegetarians and vegans
A Week In The Zone - reader's digest summaries
OmegaRxZone - medical & health benefits of pharmaceutical fish oil
The 28-day Makeover - (due at year's end) - sounds commercial
The Zone has often been misrepresented in the press. The "experts" who pick at the Zone admit that it's probably good for you. Have you noticed how many books now copy Barry Sears' format of presenting macronutrient ratios?
Nobody can disprove this statement: The Zone is the most moderate and balanced way of eating out there - it is a lifetime eating plan, not a remedial diet. It can adapt to all kinds of requirements; it does not completely forbid any food.
Is the Zone difficult to put into practice? Yes, it can be exasperating, since much of the food supply contains hi-glycemic carbs and harmful fats. Just how much of those "difficult" foods do you want to consume? If the Zone does nothing more than get you to understand the "Nutrition Facts" labels on food containers, Barry Sears has done you a great service.
My family has a history of diabetes, heart disease, and astronomically high triglycerides. I used "A Week in the Zone" and "The Zone" to get my diet headed toward the right track. After losing some weight without such a plan, and putting some of it back on, my blood lipid profile was still a train wreck. Triglycerides two times normal. High LDL. Low HDL. I told my doctor about The Zone and she told me that the insulin-management component of this balanced approach to carbohydrate-restriction was probably spot-on for my situation. She also told me that fish oil was a good idea. We agreed that if I couldn't get my bloodwork improved within a year, I'd need medication. That was last August. I bought the Omega Rx Zone book and I began adhering much more closely to the dietary principals (just by eyeing portions) and began supplementing with the refined fish oil and exercising mildly 5 days a week. Seven months later, I'm in my target weight range, I feel great, my triglycerides dropped 60% to return to normal, my LDL dropped, and my HDL has crept up. IT'S ALL GOOD. According to the wellness chapter on "Your Blood Will Tell Your Future", I've gone from "chronic (diseased)" to "good (path to wellness)". My doctor says I'm on the right path and no medication necessary. Total turnaround. To me, this is the ultimate "balanced diet guide". 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. Good food. Oats and fruit and omlettes for breakfast. Lean meats and fish, salads, veggies and fruits for lunch and dinner. Wine, cheese, nuts, olive oil, etc. Even occaisional starch or sugar as a "condiment" to use sparingly. And, if you actually dig into the omega-3 research on the more refined fish oil, you'll probably end up taking it too. The over-the-counter fish or flax oil aren't even in the same league healthwise.
This book gives a complete and easy to understand of the complex way in which the EPA&DHA long-chain fatty acids influence the hormonal system, and how their lack in the diet affects the body. The author explains why eating fish is not the best way to get omega-3's, mainly because of the heavy chemicals that fish accumulate in their tissues. He describes the differences between different types of fish oil and why (in his opinion) pharmaceutical-grade fish oil is the best way to supplement omega-3. He explains which blood test will tell you how healthy you are. There is also a very interesting hypothesis on how a diet rich in omega-3 helped the development of the human brain in its early stages of evolution. There are detalied explanations of how diseases such as cancer and auto-immune illnesses are related to long-chain omega-3's. The author explains how "silent" (cell) inflammation is the cause of many (if not most) major diseases today, especially chronic conditions. There are explanations of the relationship between omega-3's and emotional well-being, as well as how they improve mental abilities. As a sidenote, apparently there is currently only one brand on the market (his own) that satisfies the author's standards. They have a comparison table on their website showing how their brand offers the most omega-3 per dollar (to convince that it is worth the high price)--but they only compare with certain brands--and I know of at least another highly respected fish oil brand that offers even more omega-3's for half the price. So the only argument left is that pharmaceutical-grade fish oil is completely free of contaminants, whereas other types of oil are not. This argument is in my opinion not very strong, because there are enough brands (such as the one I was talking about before) that have levels of contaminants so small that they are not detectable in a lab--therefore which are really of negligible risk (compared for instance with the toxic substances found in our tap water.) Nevertheless, the in-depth analysis on the remarkably positive effects of EPA&DHA's on health is excellent, and I highly recommend this book.