Dr. Sears wrapped up his European trip this week. Before coming back to the United States, he reflected on his experiences speaking about anti-inflammatory nutrition in cities including Monaco, Milan, Turin, and Madrid. He found that the people and physicians who attended his seminars were more interested in the science behind Zone nutrition rather than the hype that often surrounds a new diet fad.
While traveling, he sought out food options that match up with the Zone’s food pyramid. “After all, I have to walk the walk if I am to talk the talk,” he says. Dr. Sears is able to keep his energy up for his busy travel schedule by always following The Zone (and enjoying a cappuccino now and then).
Dr. Sears found it most interesting that when comparing nutrition in Europe to nutrition in America, that the health concerns, such as obesity, that he saw rising in America 15 years ago are reaching Europe at alarming rates. Italian and Spanish children are among the most obese in Europe, but it only took one generation for that to happen. He says the good news is that because healthy eating is only removed by one generation in the Mediterranean, that the people there are receptive to The Zone because eating fruits and vegetables is still familiar in the Mediterranean. Here are Dr. Sears’ impressions of his trip abroad:
Traveling in Monaco, and Dessert in Milan ̶ This is Work?
Whenever I go to Europe, I usually work like a dog. OK, it’s fun work, but by no means easy. It’s fun because I do nothing except talk about the Zone and educate people on the benefits of anti-inflammatory nutrition. It’s not easy because I spend my days traveling from one city to the next like a touring rock star.
This most recent trip was no exception. Starting out in Monaco and spending a few days with beautiful people in a beautiful environment was a good warm-up for the real action to come. While I was there, I spoke to aesthetics professionals about the benefits of anti-inflammatory nutrition and how it can help their clients heal from surgery.
Upon leaving Monaco, I traveled five hours by car to Milano. I was happy that the Italian highway system is populated with Auto Grille rest stops where I was able to get great cappuccinos. Now that I think about it, this part of the trip wasn’t very hard because once I arrived in Milano I got to check-in into a five-star hotel and then go to dinner with one of my friends in his Italian restaurant where they are experimenting with the next generation of Zone croissants and chocolate desserts.
The next morning, we took a two-hour trip to the factory of my Italian partners in the Swiss Alps followed by another four-hour trip to a small Italian town in in the French Alps to give a talk. About 10% of the town’s population including the mayor and chief of police were there wanting me to sign their Zone books and listened at 8:30 pm for a 3-hour talk on the Zone Diet.
Jet-Setting ̶ (and Educating) Seven cities; Six Days
I got to bed that morning at 2am after making phone calls to the home office. After that we were on the road again to the Turin airport to fly to Rome for a medical meeting where I discussed using the Zone Diet to treat gestational diabetes. Some TV and newspaper interviews filled out the rest of the day before getting back to my hotel room around 10pm for another two hours of phone calls to Boston to check on things at the office.
When I woke up the next morning, I took the train to Bologna and traveled by car to the ancient city of Ferrara for another 8:30pm talk to some 200 people in a 15th century armory converted into a jazz club. After that, I went back to a hotel to make more phone calls to Boston and then travel to Venice by car for another evening talk to some 300 people.
The next day I had a train ride back to Milano to give a talk at the medical school on anti-inflammatory nutrition in the afternoon and then drove to Turin to stay at a converted Fiat plant that was made into another five-star hotel.
The next morning, I gave a speech at a medical education meeting in Turin to 140 physicians. The next day, I gave a full day of scientific seminars to another 200 physicians in Milano. After that, I traveled to Spain for more seminars.
My trip to Spain consisted of shooting videos on the Zone Diet in a 15th century restaurant in the hometown of Cervantes, lectures to Spanish physicians in Bilbao, and a daylong seminar with physicians in Madrid.
Home Bound ̶ Curling Up in my JAMAs
Finally, I flew back to the U.S. tired as a dog but ready to catch up on the two weeks-worth of science news I couldn’t touch during my trip.
There’s nothing like curling up with 20 scientific journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) after a long trip to Europe to really relax. I am coming up with many more scientific ideas to write about in the future.
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