Editorial Review :

The Next Generation of the Zone!

Dr. Barry Sears is one of the world's most trusted voices on health, diet, and nutrition. Over the past decade, millions of people worldwide have followed his prescriptions for healthy living through his bestselling books. He introduced the world to the Zone, a state of improved hormonal control that has helped a generation of people lose excess body fat, reverse the aging process, and fight heart disease and diabetes.

In The Omega Rx Zone, Dr. Sears reveals a revolutionary new technological advance that helps treat chronic disease, improves athletic performance, and more. Never before available to the public, pharmaceutical-grade fish oil has the potential to make you a more emotionally stable, healthier person by allowing your brain to work at peak efficiency and controlling the hormonal responses that ultimately govern your body and mind. Drawing upon his own research as well as recently published studies, Dr. Sears shares new understanding of heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer's, attention deficit disorder, chronic pain, Type 2 diabetes, infertility, and multiple sclerosis. Used in conjunction with the Zone program, these findings can help you to:

• Increase brain vitality and longevity
• Maximize physical performance
• Lose weight—and keep it off
• Reverse chronic disease

Customer Review :

One of the most important Medical finds in Nutrition!

I have survived a most certain terminal cancer. In fact the MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston Texas, says that I'm the only one to have survived in the whole world.

But, as an aftermath, I have severe chronic pain because my brain has rewired itself due to the horrible pain I went through fighting the cancer. The condition is referred to as the Gate Theory. It now can be seen on MRI's. It took me 6-months to find the right doctor to treat it. He's been a pain specialist for 17 years and belongs to a group of doctors who rely on "MD Evidenced Nutrition" to understand what "natural" things work.

He put me on a heavy dose of Morphine to counter the pain, but he also put me on Fish Oil, not just any fish oil, but the oil referred to in this book, and I started thinking better and have taken on some minor work as a result. It's almost been a miracle.

Long_chain-fatty-acid-3, pharmaceutical grade, has done wonders. Because of this book I now understand why.

Many doctors assisted Dr. Sears in the writing of this book so that civilians, like me, can understand it. It's not a "fad" book at all. Just look in the back and you will see over 100 pages of clinical references backing up what Dr. Sears states in the book.

It's a must have to stay well and a must have to survive a serious illness.


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Research on DHA alone makes this a valuable book!

I went on the zone diet for years before going raw....I read this while researching a weight loss book I am writing. I wish I had read it years ago! The valuable insights about how vegans and mothers and AMERICANS in GENERAL are deficient in DHA, a critical fat for memory and eyesight, is astounding! The most fascinating part of the book is how Sears gives credit to fish oil for the evolution of man to Cro-Magnon 40,000 years ago. But now we are DEvolving as we have less DHA than ever in our diet. I am now on a mission to make people aware of this nutrient.
I wish that Barry would give vegan or at least vegetarian options for his meal plans, as eating meat is simply not sustainable for the masses, nor is it necessary. At least he does mention algae as an alternate source for DHA.
As usual, the book is filled with scientific nuggets to educate the reader. I love how he details the importance of getting pharmaceutical grade fish oil as opposed to the kind you might find at a health store or Costco's.

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Excellent omega-3 research

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 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.

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excellent explanation of essential fatty acid nutrition and decreasing inflammatory prostaglandin production

The Omega Rx Zone, by Barry Sears is an excellent explanation of essential fatty acid nutrition and decreasing inflammatory prostaglandin production. Dr. Sears successfully translated volumes of leading edge biochemical research into an explanation non-researchers can comprehend, with some sustained effort.

Other books explain the fundamental Omega 6/Omega 3 essential fatty imbalance, but most fail to explain how increased Eicosapentanoic Acid (EPA) can inhibit excess inflammatory prostaglandin production, by down regulation of the 5 delta desaturase enzyme. In addition Dr. Sears explains how decreasing Arachidonic Acid levels reduces production of numerous inflammatory leukotrienes, produced by LOX 5 and LOX 15.

More importantly, Sears explains how increasing EPA and Decosahexanoic Acid (DHA) can dramatically reduce symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder, Depression, Osteoarthritis, Emphysema, Alzheimers Disease, High Blood Pressure, Atherosclerosis and other disorders. Sears provides many anonymous case histories illustrating patient improvements with high dose, pharmaceutically distilled fish oil.

Sears also explains cultural variations in essential fatty acid intake which correlate with depression and suicide rates. The Omega Rx Zone is a surprisingly readable explanation of some complex biochemistry and immunology.

Steven Sponaugle
Research Director, Florida Detox


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Mood Improvment- Very Easy to Follow

Omega Rx Zone: The Miracle of the New High-Dose Fish Oil by Barry Sears- A somewhat difficult read (too many medical terms) but there are also visual aids that simplify the message and get right to the point. There are obviously many benefits to Fish Oil- I ordered Dr. Sear's recommended oils in both liquid and gel form and after only 3 weeks have noticed a huge improvement in mood. Am hoping to realize weight loss and other health benefits for my family with continued use. Recommend this book, which was recommended to me by a trusted psychiastrist friend.

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Customer Review :

Needs An Update and More Evidence Based Research

This book is not very different than the first edition. It's good for helping you identify potential links between food and mood. HOWEVER, it's not based in the most sound research. I'd love to see an update.

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Great book

This is a fantastic book and highly recommended. Somer does an excellent job in breaking down the science on eating and succintly conveys these points to the reader. Not only will your body feel the benefits of Somer's advice, but you will also learn a lot about how the scientific relationship between food and mood.

I felt that the best thing about this book is that Somer does not say that you must eat any specific diet. Rather than advocating for a strict and boring diet, the author recommends eating habits that mean that eating can still be a great experience.

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BUY THIS BOOK if you never buy anything else...

It's so refreshing to read a book that doesn't preach "diet". It's a vicious cycle. What we eat affects our mood and our mood affects what we want to eat!!

The book (at the beginning) goes into some detail about the chemistry of the body and brain and the purpose is to show you HOW your body uses the fuel it gets. It is an easy read and very easy to incorporate the changes into your life.

The book has really been my "Bible" and I have told hundreds of people about it. It's about eating the right foods for your body and your mind, it's NOT a diet, it's a lifestyle change. The reason so many women can't lose weight and keep it off is that they are focused so much on "diet" and losing weight. It's really about being healthy overall. And what we eat directly affects our moods and THAT is a mental thing, which eventually turns physical if our moods are depressed and we continue to eat things that hurt us.

Another great thing about it is that it covers all the different types of moods and changes women go through and how what they eat either makes the mood better or worse. It also has lists of foods in the back that are good for your lifestyle. I never realized there were SO MANY fruits and veggies and other foods out there that are good for you, that I could eat. And knowing which foods to stay away from or eat during certain moods is so helpful.

For instance, late in the day when you are at work and feeling tired, eat a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread. It does NOT put you to sleep, it's in small amounts, it actually does the reverse and perks you up. Try it!!

At least go to the library and check the book out first, I guarantee you will love it and want to buy it so you can use it for reference. I am so glad I found it, this book has changed my life!!!

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Food and Mood

This is a very easy to read book. I was happy to see menu plans and receipes included.

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Decent Nutrition Overview

This book is an overview of nutritional and dietary practices, and how they can affect your health, particularly your mental well-being. It is organized into two main sections: The Food-Mood Link, and Nutrition Know-How. In the first section, there are separate chapters about such topics as blood chemistry, carbohydrates, fats and chocolate, and dietary affects on energy levels, PMS and SAD, depression, stress, thinking and memory, as well as chapters on food allergies and intolerances, and eating disorders. The second section presents advice on healthy eating habits for positive mental well-being, with chapters on shopping and supplements. At the end of the book are a glossary, a short section of recipes, a list of organizations devoted to specific diet and health concerns, references organized by chapter, and an index.

Reading this book is a bit like consulting with a nutritionist. Near the beginning of most chapters is a short self-scoring quiz about your current dietary habits or mental condition. After taking the quiz, you add up the points to see if you are eating well in this particular area, or should consider adjusting your habits. The remaining text in the chapter explains some of the problems or symptoms of the topic under discussion and various dietary factors that may play a role, or how dietary changes can help ameliorate symptoms. The suggestions Somer makes are all grounded on published scientific research, as cited in the references found at the back of the book.

While I found the nutritional information worthwhile, I found the quizzes a bit simplistic at times. Quiz 1.1 "What do you eat and how do you feel?" was particularly questionable in format. It asks you to rate your mood on a scale of 0-5 for about 25 characteristics such as "calm" or "lethargic" before lunch and then again after lunch. If any of these values change during this time, you are presumably to blame it on what you had for lunch. Such a format constitutes a classic example of how to create unfounded cause-effect relationships. Mood changes could just as easily come from hormone cycling, food you ate at an earlier meal, or something you heard on the news during lunch. On the other hand, the quizzes provide a limited means of interactivity, to make up for Somer not being able to conduct a personal interview about specific needs before giving dietary advice. Overall, I found the book informative and interesting, though the quizzes need some more polish.


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Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Great ideas

This cookbook has some really great ideas, and I think I will use it more when my son is eating a more varied & textured diet (7 months now), there aren't a ton of recipes that can be adapted for a baby mainly eating purees. Most of the recipes use basic ingredients, but there are several with ingredients that are harder to find.

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one of my top 3 cookbooks

Though I have other nutrition-focused cookbooks, this is the one I use most. The nutritional information is concise and sufficient for a person of average needs. Many of its recipes are incredibly delicious and they utilize a good variety of foods. Also, I love how it incorporates adjustments to include feeding young children.
I live in a small town which has a grocery store with a moderate selection of 'health food' items and I haven't yet had difficulty finding ingredients, with the exception of the sea vegetables. The book's recipes tend to be simple and easy to make. I found it very useful to have a spice grinder for grinding grains and a blender will come in handy as well, especially if you are interested in providing food for a child starting solids.

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Not what I was looking for

I returned this cook book. It had recipes that were difficult and hard to find ingredients. I live in medium sized town in the midwest and it suggested buying ingredients at an Asian specialty market. Just not practical for me or my family.

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still loving it

I bought this book (with the old purple cover -- Feeding the Whole Family: Whole Foods Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents) when my girls were babies. They're now 11 and 9, and we still go back to it for certain beloved recipes, especially the beet salad, the one with the greens -- the only way my family can really enjoy beets, and we really enjoy this salad. It is one of the few family cookbooks that has healthy recipes my children actually liked (they like a lot of healthy food, but many family cookbooks have a lot of fat, meat, white flour, and sweets, and feel the need to disguise vegetables). I took the ideas on breaking down a meal to feed parents, toddlers, and infants, and applied them to other foods. I highly recommend this book -- I'm back here because I'm considering getting some copies for family members with young children.


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Pretty good

I wanted to like this book. I don't like the idea of making a bunch of baby food purees and I'd rather just feed the baby what I'm eating. But... when I got the book, I read that the author is vegetarian and most of the recipes were veggie with all of that weird stuff that entails. Like eating a bunch of dried seaweed to get the vitamins and minerals us meat-eaters get by eating meat. There were a few meat recipes, but it's sort of too crunchy (a la Laurel's Kitchen) for me. I think I'll be using this more when my kid is older.

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Editorial Review :

One out of every 133 people in the United States has celiac disease. And countless others are giving up wheat for general health concerns. These books provide taste-tested recipes for delicious meals and desserts that are all wheat-and gluten-free.

Customer Review :

Great Starter Cookbook for Celiacs

If you're looking for a be-all, end-all cookbook for celiac/wheat free cooking, keep looking. If, however, you are looking for a great starter cookbook that has a great number of quick easy recipes that taste good, then don't hesitate to buy this book. Everything is written for kids, so it's easy to follow and the recipes are super easy and quick. It covers everything from drinks, desserts, to all the staples like dinner, appetizers, and such.


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Disappointed

I was a little disappointed with this cookbook. I think most of the recipes are pretty generic as they call for all of the 'normal' ingredients of the recipes, but just add "gluten-free" to the title of the ingredient. It wouldn't take a genius to take already used recipes and convert them to GF just by substituting the ing. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but this wasn't it....

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Not Too Hot

I thought this book would give quick easy Gluten free meals....I gave me quick meals that were typical junk foods (Kids foods) that were Gluten free versions....thats not what I cook for my children. More pictures would have been nice too....Gluten free foods often look different than regluar foods....I guess thats why pictures were excluded!!!!!!!!!

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Editorial Review :

The groundbreaking cholesterol-lowering program . . . now even more effective!

Robert Kowalski's personal story is legendary. By the age of forty-one, he had suffered a heart attack and had undergone two coronary bypass surgeries. A traditional dietary approach to lowering his cholesterol failed dismally, and faced with the unpleasant alternative of a lifetime on medication, he created a program that proved astonishingly effective for him -- and legions of others worldwide who used it.

Today Kowalski has beaten heart disease, lives an unlimited and vigorous lifestyle, and uses no prescription drugs. Now, with new information about risk factors, exercise, and supplements, The New 8-Week Cholesterol Cure is even more powerful in fighting heart disease. It includes:

• The facts about homocysteine and the deadly cholesterol Lp(a)
• A diet that jump-starts cholesterol reduction
• The heart-healthy secrets of niacin, other B vitamins, and safe supplements
• The latest findings on exercise
• New cholesterol-testing methods
• New heart-healthy products ... and more!

Arm yourself against heart disease-America's number-one killer-and increase your chances for a long, healthy life with The New 8-Week Cholesterol Cure.

Customer Review :

About cholesterol

The name of the book is the new 8 week cholesterol cure and it is a fabulous book with plenty of informaion and tips on lower choleterol. I would recommend this book to anyone with heart problems as it gives great advice on all things to do with heart disease and how to keep choleterol down.

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Cholestrol drop of 70 pts!

This book is an excellent read with practical, easy to follow diet changes. My cholesterol went from 257 to 187 in 3 months time. In addition to reading this book, I used recipes from the American Heart Assoc. cookbook, excersized almost every day, and read the "Cholesterol Down" book. This book has helped me understand how to change my life for the better, giving me the information to understand why I needed various diet adjustments.
In particular, I really enjoy the muffin recipes in the back of the book. And typically eat 2-3/day! Benecol also now makes a chewy caramel that I used to help get my intake of plant stanols/sterols as per the recommendations.

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It really, really works!

Amazing results and pretty easy! Believe me, you can lower that colesterol and still eat well! Following a few suggestions in this book--I wasn't even that strict---oat bran, niacin, more vegatables, avoiding transfats ect, my total colesterol dropped 116 points in SIX WEEKS! My "bad" colesterol went from 177 to 80. The book is easy to read and you will learn tons about how your body works.

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New 8 Week Cholesterol Cure

I bought this book to help reduce my recently diagnosed high cholesterol problem. I'm an RN and found this book very inspiring and informative. I highly recommend it and am using most of his suggestions. The best book I have found on the subject & I have lowered my LDL and raised my HDL. Now I am trying his weight loss ideas that cover one chapter and suggest restricting carbs. I started that today. This book is worth the money and the author also writes a newsletter that you can subscribe to.

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Good advice

I got my total cholesterol down from 275 to 191, Triglycerides down from 221 to 96. LDL down from, 182 to 118 and HDL up from 49 to 54.
This was accomplished in 10 weeks by rigidly sticking to the zero saturated fat recommendation and half heartedly trying the Niacin regimen.
I cut out cheese, milk, whole eggs, etc. and substituted with olive and canola oils.
I have since ramped up the niacin regimen to the complete doses recommended by the book and will see if I can improve on these already impressive numbers.
Try it, it works.
UPDATE - 10 weeks after the review above I had my lipids checked again and my total cholesterol is now 133; that's pretty amazing considering my
total was 275 just five months ago and I have not taken any prescription medications. My LDL is now 75 (down from 182) and my triglyserides are now 71 (down from 221). I am actually concerned my cholesterol may now be too low. Great advice!

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