Barry Sears (born June 6, 1947) is an American biochemist and author best known for creating and promoting the

Zone diet The Zone diet is a fad diet emphasizing low-carbohydrate consumption. It was created by Barry Sears, an American biochemist.Baron M. Fighting obesity Part 1: Review of popular low-carb diets. Health Care Food Nutr Focus. 2004 Oct;21(10):1, 3-6, 1 ...

, a low-carbohydrate

fad diet A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defini ...

that is not supported by good medical evidence.Cataldo, Corrine Balog; DeBruyne, Linda Kelly; Whitney, Eleanor Noss. (1999). ''Nutrition and Diet Therapy: Principles and Practice''. West/Wadsworth. p. 214. "Most fad diets, including the currently popular Zone Diet, advocate essentially the same high-protein, low- carbohydrate diet... Long-term use of such diets may produce adverse side effects such as nausea, fatigue, constipation, and low blood pressure."

Biography

As stated in several of his books, the

was born of his desire to avoid an early death from a premature

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

, a fate of which all other men in his family had been early victims. In more recent years, Sears has popularized the use of high-dose

Omega-3 fatty acids Omega−3 fatty acids, also called Omega-3 oils, ω−3 fatty acids or ''n''−3 fatty acids, are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) characterized by the presence of a double bond, three atoms away from the terminal methyl group in their chem ...

and

polyphenols Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of ...

to further reduce inflammation. He began studying

lipids Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...

primarily because their difficulty to study made them an under-examined field of research. He released his first book in 1995, ''The Zone: A Dietary Road Map.'' It went on to sell over 2 million hardback copies and was a No. 1 ''New York Times'' best-seller. Since then he has frequently appeared in the US media, including

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

and ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

''.

Career and Zone diet

Sears began his business career in 1976, as the founder and president of one of the first biotechnology startup companies in Massachusetts developing lipid-based delivery systems for cancer drugs. Sears believed that the drug delivery principles could be applied to diet, in order to control the levels of eicosanoids to ultimately control inflammation. In 1995, Sears released his first book, ''The Zone: A Dietary Road Map''. ''The Zone,'' went on to become a No. 1 ''New York Times'' best-seller and sold over two million copies in the United States. In 1997, Sears released his second book, ''Mastering the Zone''. The book again went on to become another ''New York Times'' best-seller and sold over 1 million copies in the United States. He has also authored a low-carbohydrate cookbook. Sears continued to apply his dietary approach to other areas of health influenced by inflammation, and published his first book on

anti-aging The anti-aging movement is a social movement devoted to eliminating or reversing aging, or reducing the effects of it. A substantial portion of the attention of the movement is on the possibilities for life extension, but there is also interest in ...

, ''The Anti-Aging Zone,'' in 1999. Over the next decade, Sears studied and released a number of books based on what he said was the linkage between diet and

inflammation Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...

. In 2008, he released the book ''Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad'' that described obesity as a form of cancer. Sears released his most recent book, ''The Mediterranean Zone'', in 2014, focusing on the role of

in the inflammatory response. Currently, Sears has published 15 books that have sold more than 6 million copies in the United States. Sears continues his research as the president of the non-profit Inflammation Research Foundation in

Peabody, Massachusetts Peabody () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 54,481 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. Peabody is located in the North Shore region of Massachusetts, and is known for its rich industrial histo ...

References

External links

DrSears.com
Sears' homepage {{DEFAULTSORT:Sears, Barry 1947 births Living people American biochemists American health and wellness writers American nutritionists Low-carbohydrate cookbook writers Low-carbohydrate diet advocates People from Long Beach, California