Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that I am no fan of Dr. Oz. I even wrote a blog post on his ridiculous show on overcoming obesity a few months back. Can you imagine recommending to an obese woman to eat lowfat yogurt and edamame as a snack?
Talk about priming the pump for a serious eating binge! Kind of like his misinformed show promoting the benefits of pumpkin seed oil.
Another show that was incredibly frustrating and shortsighted to me was his “interview” (if you could call it that) of Dr. Kaayla Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story, and Dr. Mark Hyman (plant based diet proponent).
The topic covered the pros and cons of soy this past October. The interview was a huge letdown to me in every way.
Did Dr. Oz dig into the intricacies and the fallacies of this very complicated subject?  No. The discussion was so incredibly broad brush that no one could have gleaned anything of real value if confronted with the topic for the very first time. It was a classic example of TV marketing – building up anticipation and viewership for an episode which promised an in depth, quality debate between Dr. Daniel and Dr. Hyman only to be given a few choice soundbites. Poorly planned and poorly executed all around.
It isn’t a good idea to be critical all the time, though, and when something is done well, the effort should be applauded. Such was my reaction to the recent episode of the Dr. Oz Show that featured Dr. Mercola, creator and author of one of the top 5 health websites in the world.
I have to admit that I was very skeptical before watching this segment as I was anticipating another letdown similar to what transpired with Dr. Kaayla Daniel’s interview. I was pleasantly surprised, however, as Dr. Oz permitted Dr. Mercola an extended amount of time to verbalize his views and answer the critical questions put before him. I thought Dr. Mercola came across as clear thinking and eloquent. Dr. Oz came across as an open minded interviewer. Bravo!
I was especially delighted when Dr. Mercola’s plug for grassfed raw milk was not edited out or immediately shot down by Dr. Oz!  Pinch me, am I dreaming?
Could it be that Dr. Oz is coming around or is he just trying to gain viewers from our neck of the woods? My guess is that it’s all in the name of marketing, but only time will tell for sure.
Have a look for yourself.  What did you think?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I thought it was a well-done interview also and hopefully with all the “controversial” issues Dr. Mercola mentioned, Dr. Oz will have him back to “clarify.” One can only hope. 🙂
I agree that it was a good segment. I was glad the raw milk plug got to stay, but felt that Dr Oz let it go because he knew it could be a long argument and they didn’t have the time to get into it then. So maybe it was just really smart on Mercola’s part that he slid it in at the very end of the segment.
I was very happy that Dr. Mercola’s interview was so long. I thought his explanation for why he decided to sell supplements (instead of advertisements for other products) to support his website was very straightforward. I’m also glad he was able to include the Schopenhauer quote about the 3 stages of truth.
I am skeptical about Dr. Oz’s motives. He spent too much time making sure the viewers knew that Dr. Mercola is a controversial figure in alternative health. Also, he kept throwing out disclaimers that he didn’t necessarily agree with many of Dr. Mercola’s beliefs. It was like he was afraid to get in trouble for having Dr. Mercola on in the first place.
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the segments online. Honestly, as long as my access to real food and real health information is open I don’t care if the rest of the world eats garbage. We should all have access to information and choice. It was nice to see Dr. Oz be open to information. If that were to happen in media and medicine more often people could truly make informed choices, whatever those choices may be.
3 segments is all I found also, Sally. It seems maybe the show went onto a different interview after that.
The third video segment contains Dr. Mercola’s plug for grassfed raw milk, by the way. I’ve updated the post to contain all three video parts now.
The video on Dr Oz’s site seems to cut off right in the middle of the interview. Is the rest somewhere else on the site? Or is there another place I can watch the whole thing?
There are three parts to the interview. You have to wait at the end of the first video segment and the second will start up in a few seconds.
I enjoy watching Dr. Oz. As a whole-foods-traditional-diet-eater, do I agree with everything he says? No way, but I absolutely appreciate his willingness to explore alternative therapies even as he admits to being denigrated by his peers. I see his show as an open door which will hopefully get people to start thinking “other-mindedly.” He was the first doctor I’ve heard on national television admit that “overall cholesterol numbers mean nothing.” This is a promising start! And I , too, am thrilled that Dr. Mercola’s comments about raw milk were not censored…hooray!
Before I was on my whole food journey I thought Dr. Oz was all -wise! I thought his low-fat, high soy push was healthy! Now that my eyes are opened, whenever I catch the show I am appauled at how he is misleading people. The other day I saw a segment that surprised me! He was showing how FATS can help heal! And lo and behold he actually showed COCONUT OIL as beneficial! Of course then his next step was how canola was also beneficial. Oh well. At least he mentioned coconut oil and overall the reality that fats can be good for us seemed a HUGE step!
Isn’t it a pity that your doctor doesn’t want you to listen to such advance and life-saving medical advice?
I’m glad that Mercola wasn’t censored on the Dr. Oz show. People need to hear him.