My son and I watched a few minutes of Dr. Oz’s TV show on overcoming obesity last night. The show airs on Discovery Health. For fun, we both decided to watch a few minutes of the show and see how many things Dr. Oz got wrong until the next commercial break.
It didn’t take long, I can assure you!
First of all, Dr. Oz seems obsessed with having overweight people work out every single day.
I realize that physical activity is an important part of losing weight, but unless you are eating the right foods to give you stable blood sugar and lasting energy, the fitness habit will just never happen. The participants just get too worn out and quit their required workout routines very quickly.
The next thing that made my son and I nearly fall off the couch was Dr. Oz teaching some poor gal in his own kitchen how to eat what he thought were “healthy foods”.
First, he gives her a bowl of fat-free plain yogurt mixed with some blackberries and a plate of edamame beans to eat.
This guy can’t be that out of touch with reality, can he? Â Evidently so.
If someone fed me a bowl of fat-free yogurt and a bunch of edamame, I would go and very quickly stick my entire head in a large bag of potato chips and I don’t even have a weight issue.  Can you imagine what feeding this unsatisfying fare to an obese person would do to his/her hunger cravings?
Remove the creamy, luscious fat from the top of a container of yogurt and you have a meal that will leave you scrounging for cookies, donuts, and chips in very short order.
Then, there’s the edamame.  Shame on Dr. Oz for not being up on the dangers of soy to the thyroid gland.  An obese person should be running for the hills away from soy, not eating it as a recommended snack! Soy is a potent goitrogen (thyroid suppressor) and contributes greatly to hypothyroidism which an obese person would almost certainly suffer from.  Any doctor who advises an obese patient to be eating soy should have his head examined.
We turned the TV off at that point.  I couldn’t watch it anymore and it had only been about 10 minutes.   Those poor folks trying to lose weight on that show don’t have a prayer of slimming down and maintaining it for any length of time.
As soon as the cameras stop rolling, they will be diving back into their processed foodways once again, I have no doubt.   Only Real Food that contains lots of natural, unprocessed animal fats like eggs (with the yolks!), whole milk, butter, cheese, cream, coconut oil, grass-fed meats with all the fat will satisfy that hunger and stabilize the blood sugar enough to help them finally let go of the carb and sugar addiction that is the true cause of their obesity and ill health.
Until the truth of the nutritional paradox that whole, unprocessed fats do not make you fat actually goes mainstream, then America’s obesity epidemic will only get worse.
Hi Sarah,
I totally agree when it comes to Dr. Oz. And when it comes to your comments about soy more specifically. Thanks for your thoughts as usual!
Shannon
Headmistress, I had another thought .. Okinawa is probably the most Americanized place in Japan because of the huge US military base there. It would make sense for the modern, unhealthy use of soy to have made its first appearance there as opposed to places less affected by Westernization such as Kyoto, Gifu and Takayama where I primarily spent my time. I know that soy milk is all over the place there now and this is not a traditional food either but it has still been marketed effectively there.
Haha, yeah. I totally realized this VERY quickly after watching Dr. Oz, probably twice. Typical ignorant medical doctor!
Hi Headmistress, not sure what to say to your comment. I stayed in Japanese homes the entire time I traveled there and never frequented places for Westerners but instead totally immersed myself in their culture. I never saw edamame. Perhaps the fact that you were in Okinawa and I was on the big island where Tokyo, Okinawa, Kyoto are located is why our experiences were a bit different?
Sarah, we lived in Okinawa in the late 80s, from 1987 to 1992. I saw edamame eaten regularly. However, it was generally served as an appetizer- people ate it (salted and oiled in the pod, and they'd pop the peas out and discard the pods) while waiting for their meals at restaurants or pubs. I saw it in the grocery stores, too. I saw tofu in the grocery stores and in restaurants, too- and I am talking Japanese stores, not places that catered to Americans.
So I am a little confused.
I lived in China ’99-’02 and it was the first time I’d ever tried edamame. It was served as an appetizer in the larger cities (the smaller cities and villages did not have as much access to varied fresh produce as the larger cities). Rice and wheat were staples, animal protein was used sparingly, and tofu was absolutely everywhere in myriad forms (including fermented, but I’d guess that made up around 15% of tofu sold. “Stinky Tofu” is what it was called).
I personally can’t eat soy nor gluten but I think yogurt, berries, and edamame sounds like the kind of snack I’d want after working out or on a hot day. I see nothing wrong with it if you are not diagnosed with thyroid disease or estrogen-related breast or ovarian cancers.
I used to eat soy and, in my experience, soy did no good at all to my body. I am now soy-free and have not felt better- amazing what years can do, thankfully the body does regenerate & heal when given nutrient dense foods.
I say to my clients, if it is advertised on TV on't buy it, I guess the same could be said for some advice perchance?
I Sharp, those "top scientists" are bought and paid for by the soy industry. did you know that "top scientists" used to tout the benefits of tobacco, back in the day?
Juat because somebody has a science degree does not mean they are honest or ethical. The slimiest company can buy as many "top scientists" as they want to say whatever they want.
Everything you believe about the benefits of soy is wrong – You were lied to.
I am going to give you some of the most important advice you will ever get –
Stop drinking the soy poison that is slowly destroying your body and learn about real food, before it is too late for you. This blog is an excellent place to start./
Hi Jill, unprocessed soy is still extremely bad which is why the Asians always fermented it for months into natto, tempeh, and miso. I traveled extensively in Japan back in the 1980's and never saw endamame anywhere. It is not a traditional food and as such should be avoided. Endamame is still highly goitrogenic too so it is simply insane for an overweight person to even consider eating it.
I HATE Dr. OZ. He's an idiot. I watched one episode where he told women it's ok to shave their faces and the assertion that the hair grows back course is a myth.
However, I don't agree with your comment about edamame being an unhealthy snack. Edamame is the young form of green soy beans. They are not processed and because they are young plants, they have lower amounts of enzyme inhibitors like protease, trypsin as well as lower amounts of phytates.
I have no issue with whole edamame as a snack alternative to other salty, processed, fake foods.
I have been eating this way for about 1 1/2 months now and I do not have hot flashes anymore and no pain in my fingers (joints) and i love cooking now..Yes welcome to the other side –the right side.. the way God intended us to eat..I can not read enough about this subject and thank you Sarah for akk your videos. they have helped me greatly, the kombucha tea is wonderful!!!!Teresa