A national bestseller for more than three years in hardcover, The Zone has introduced millions of people worldwide to a breakthrough approach to dieting based on Novel Prize-winning scientific research. Treating food as the most powerful drug available, The Zone plan shows how food, when used unwisely, can be toxic. Used wisely however, it will take anyone into the Zone, a state of exceptional health familiar to champion athletes. Now the benefits of Barry Sears' revolutionary program can be experienced in just one week! With A Week in the Zone, everyone can start on the path to permanent weight loss and learn how to burn body fat - and keep it off - without deprivation or hunger. They'll also discover how the Zone helps to both increase energy and fight heart disease, diabetes, PMS, chronic fatigue, depression, and cancer.

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A Week in the Zone

Chapter One

What Is the Zone?

For generations, every male on my father's side of my family sufferedfrom a similar fate: a premature heart attack that cut theirlife short decades too early. After my father died in 1972 at the ageof 54, I realized that I had a genetic time bomb ticking away insideme. I knew I couldn't change my genes, but I was determined tofind a way to lead a normal, healthy life span.

My quest to save myself has led me to a surprisingly simple conclusion.As it turns out, the key to a longer, better life is not somemagic pill or potion. It is a powerful hormone produced by yourdiet called insulin. My research showed that if you were able tokeep insulin levels within a certain zone -- not too high and not toolow -- you could dramatically improve your health and prevent awide range of diseases. What's more, you could also make yourbody start using fat for energy, thus allowing you to lose excessbody fat without feeling hungry!

So how do you begin to regulate your insulin levels and beginthe journey to better health? Again, I found that the answer was simple:by eating the right combination of foods at every meal.Essentially, you need to start treating the Zone diet as a drug. Onceyou start taking this drug, you will automatically achieve:

Permanent loss of excess body fat
Dramatic reduction in the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease,diabetes, and cancer
Improved mental and physical performance
A longer life

The first person to recognize food as a wonder drug wasHippocrates, the father of medicine, who instructed us to "let foodbe your medicine, and let medicine be your food." Now sometwenty-five hundred years later, we are just beginning to understandthe importance of his words.

Make no mistake about it; food is a powerful drug. In fact, itmay be the most powerful drug you will ever take. However, likeany drug, food can help you or harm you depending on how youuse it. Used correctly, food can make you more energized andhealthier with the guarantee of a longer and more active life. Usedincorrectly, food can become your worst enemy -- robbing you of ahealthy body, healthy weight, and a healthy mind, as millions ofAmericans are quickly finding out for themselves. Most important, iffood is used improperly, it can also shorten your life.

You may think you already know how to properly use food byavoiding fat, and eating plenty of carbohydrates like pasta, bagels,bread, and rice. If you've been following these dietary guidelines,however, you may be puzzled as to why you're gaining rather thanlosing weight. Truth is, you have it backward. If you're like mostAmericans, you're probably eating far too many carbohydrates. Thisis why more than 50 percent of Americans are overweight todaycompared to 33 percent twenty years ago -- even though we're noweating less fat than ever before. This is called the American paradox.If fat were the enemy, then we should have declared victory overobesity many years ago. The fact is that dietary fat was never thereal enemy. The real cause of our growing epidemic of obesityis excess production of the hormone insulin. It is excessinsulin that makes you fat and keeps you fat.

You are constantly reminded that a calorie is a calorie, and thatweight gain is simply more calories coming in than calories goingout. Since fat contains more calories per gram than does protein orcarbohydrate, simple logic would dictate that removing fat from thediet should make us thinner. Such caloric thinking can be summarizedas follows "if no fat touches my lips, then no fat reaches myhips." Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to walk on the streetsof America and realize that statement simply isn't true. On the hormonallevel, all calories are not created equal. The hormonal effectof a calorie of carbohydrate is different than the hormonal effect of a calorie of protein, and is still different from the hormonal effect ofa calorie of fat. Each of these three nutrients has its own uniqueeffects on your body's hormones. In the proper balance, these threenutrients are exactly what your body needs to remain healthy bykeeping insulin within the Zone. When these nutrients are out ofbalance and insulin levels surge too high, they can wreak havoc onyour body's hormonal equilibrium, resulting in weight gain, anincreased likelihood of chronic disease, and acceleration of theaging process. On the other hand, if insulin levels are too low, yourcells begin to starve because a certain amount of insulin is requiredto drive life-sustaining nutrients into your cells.

The Zone is like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.One bowl of porridge was too hot (too much insulin), one bowlwas too cold (too little insulin), and one was just right (the Zone).

Zone Benefits

In the Zone, almost magical metabolic changes occur. Only in theZone can you release excess fat from your fat cells to be used asfuel by your body twenty-four hours a day, allowing you to loseweight and enjoy more energy simultaneously. Only in the Zonecan you reduce the likelihood of chronic disease. Only in the Zonecan you live a longer life. It's as easy as eating the right combinationof protein, carbohydrates, and fat at every meal and snack.

The benefits of maintaining insulin in the Zone are almostimmediate, because your blood sugar is also automatically stabilized.As a result, you feel less hungry, you are more mentally alertand more energized throughout the day. Carbohydrate cravingsbecome a thing of the past so that you can free your body from itsslavery to food ...

Excerpted from A Week in the Zone by Barry Sears
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