Oh, this is funny …
We doubt that either Dr. Oz or Andrew Wakefield will be proudly displaying these honors on their mantelpieces: Both received “Pigasus Awards” this April 1 from the James Randi Educational Foundation for the dubious honor of being among the “5 worst promoters of nonsense.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz got the “Media” Pigasus. The foundation explains why he won the prize: “Dr. Oz is a Harvard-educated cardiac physician who, through his syndicated TV show, has promoted faith healing, ‘energy medicine,’ and other quack theories that have no scientific basis.”
I’d give him the award for scaring people into thinking saturated fat will kill them and for trying to prove low-carb diets are bad for us by eating cheese and pork rinds for a day and then complaining that he was constipated.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
“I understand doctors aren’t educated (much) about nutrition, but you’d think they’d at least be aware of the side effects of the drugs they prescribe.”
Doctors don’t know jack about drugs, with the exception of what the big pharma sales reps tell them. In fact, those sales reps are the same ones that basically tell them the results of studies, and what drugs they should prescribe to treat various ills. That’s not a conflict of interest at all. {/sarcasm}
If you want to know about what drugs do, talk to a pharmacist.
Good idea.
Dr. Oz’s reputation is not perfect and getting worse. His “Real age” web site is highly controversial (looks too much like a Big Pharma trap). I looked through his typical diet – as opposite to LC on the show with GT- it is almost LC with the exception of brown rice once a day. Definitely no bread of crackers or crappy breakfast cereal. His wife said in the interview http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2009/04/14/a1d_lisa_oz_web_0414.html – “I know when I eat a lot of wheat or dairy I feel sluggish and have less vitality.” It seems to me he and his wife know better then to follow the “a lot of whole grains” advice. The last episode was really the sad one. No attempt was made to offer those poor ladies any other options before going to that surgery! I wish I could ask him – would you recommend it to your wife? She doesn’t look like a person who could stay effortlessly lean, especially on the diet approved promoted by the show. I don’t criticize his wife’s looks – just comment on her body type.
I hope his reputation continues to slide. I know he offers some good advice, but he offers too much bad advice as well.
It was sad to see today’s Dr. Oz show. They are apparently considering lowering the requirements for people to have gastric lap bands inserted. The had 2 female “candidates” on the show who literally were convinced they needed them.
It was nice to see Dr. Oz expose these ladies to two other women who had the surgery already. He showed them how drastically their diets changed after having these bands inserted into their bodies. What was surprising is the before and after diets of these ladies. They went from daily diets “LOADED” with carbohydrates (Fries, Potatoes, Potato Chips, Pasta, Rice, Tortillas, Nachos), to a daily diet consisting of what appeared to be 5 teaspoons of yogurt, a cup of broth and 5 teaspoons of pudding. It is frustrating when you see it right there, plain in sight the reason why they were fat!!!
How in the world anyone could get any pleasure out of living with a diet like that, let alone proper nutrition, baffles me. What is shocking is the fact that Dr. Oz didn’t ask the same question of these guests. It frustrates me to see this nonsense being fed to the public.
It is a sick vicious cycle of money making nonsense for the health industry. They had one of Dr. Oz’s Gastric Surgeon friends as a guest as well. He made it sound like a no big deal scenario to have this surgery done. He actually seemed anxious to put more of these things into people. How can you honestly trust a doctor like that. To me, a real doctor would try his hardest to avoid surgery for his patient. Just plain sick. This show just gives people bad ideas and turns it’s head on actual scientific facts that could be saving peoples lives.
I had a good friend in Los Angeles who had gastric bypass at her doctor’s urging. She really regrets that decision. She’s been plagued by digestive issues ever since.
Just wondering… how can anyone claim humans are vegetarian if the caecum cannot break down the cell wall of cellulose, I wonder why so many paleo people cannot bring this up. Our gut can digest only a few kinds of fibers in limited amounts, and the caecum most apes have in their gut to digest fiber is now the almighty vestigial appendix which is pretty much good for bursting and not much else (To be fair, apperently it may have functions with immunity). Somebody should blog about it, I wonder why almost no one uses the fact that cellulose and most fibers are indigestible as an argument against humans being “natural herbivores” *cough*
When my bio teacher told me we don’t ferment most fibers, it pretty much made sense we had to eat animals. So there, to claim a human is an herbivore is pretty much unscientific in anyway, Including Dr. Oz
Lierre Keith covers that topic quite nicely in The Vegetarian Myth.
“I understand doctors aren’t educated (much) about nutrition, but you’d think they’d at least be aware of the side effects of the drugs they prescribe.”
Doctors don’t know jack about drugs, with the exception of what the big pharma sales reps tell them. In fact, those sales reps are the same ones that basically tell them the results of studies, and what drugs they should prescribe to treat various ills. That’s not a conflict of interest at all. {/sarcasm}
If you want to know about what drugs do, talk to a pharmacist.
Good idea.
Dr. Oz’s reputation is not perfect and getting worse. His “Real age” web site is highly controversial (looks too much like a Big Pharma trap). I looked through his typical diet – as opposite to LC on the show with GT- it is almost LC with the exception of brown rice once a day. Definitely no bread of crackers or crappy breakfast cereal. His wife said in the interview http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2009/04/14/a1d_lisa_oz_web_0414.html – “I know when I eat a lot of wheat or dairy I feel sluggish and have less vitality.” It seems to me he and his wife know better then to follow the “a lot of whole grains” advice. The last episode was really the sad one. No attempt was made to offer those poor ladies any other options before going to that surgery! I wish I could ask him – would you recommend it to your wife? She doesn’t look like a person who could stay effortlessly lean, especially on the diet approved promoted by the show. I don’t criticize his wife’s looks – just comment on her body type.
I hope his reputation continues to slide. I know he offers some good advice, but he offers too much bad advice as well.
Man… I saw the episode of Dr. Oz with Gary Taubes on it and I was stunned. The guy is pretty clearly a nutcase. I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my heart after watching those clips on his website.
Seriously, why should ANYBODY listen to a guy that introduces a SCIENCE JOURNALIST as “the guy that disagrees with EVERYTHING I say”?…
Obviously Oz hasn’t done ANY research on the subject of diet (despite that being exactly what his show is about). It says clearly over and over again in Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution that for the first 2-3 days as your body changes the way it processes energy that you may be tired or exhausted, and even constipated. For the constipation, take psyllium husks. For being tired of exhausted, it usually only lasts 2 days.
The Great Oz wasn’t interested in an objective or scientific look at the benefits of the Atkins diet.
Hahaha “the great oz”. Yeah, he probably thinks all that food he ate was a “Heart attack in a bun”.
Bleh, the bun is the real heart attack.
Man… I saw the episode of Dr. Oz with Gary Taubes on it and I was stunned. The guy is pretty clearly a nutcase. I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my heart after watching those clips on his website.
Seriously, why should ANYBODY listen to a guy that introduces a SCIENCE JOURNALIST as “the guy that disagrees with EVERYTHING I say”?…
Obviously Oz hasn’t done ANY research on the subject of diet (despite that being exactly what his show is about). It says clearly over and over again in Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution that for the first 2-3 days as your body changes the way it processes energy that you may be tired or exhausted, and even constipated. For the constipation, take psyllium husks. For being tired of exhausted, it usually only lasts 2 days.
The Great Oz wasn’t interested in an objective or scientific look at the benefits of the Atkins diet.
Hahaha “the great oz”. Yeah, he probably thinks all that food he ate was a “Heart attack in a bun”.
Bleh, the bun is the real heart attack.
Hi Tom,
Loved your dcumentary FatHead i must say though it didnt teach me anything new because i already knew about the high fat high protein diet.
I have been on a high fat diet since i was 19 yrs old im now 36.
Im glad you have the balls to point out the discrepancies that the scientific community leaves out.
Just an fyi im in perfect health my chloesterol is 140, my triglycerides are 40 and bp is perfect.
Thanks for enlightening everyone else.
Ivan,
Thank you, Ivan.
Just wanted you to know your movie changed my life! I stumbled across a discussion of it on another website and promptly watched it on Netflix with my teen daughter. Love you for taking on Supersize Me and all of its nonsense but love you even more for enlightening my daughter at a pivotal time in her development. If only those in my generation would have known this sooner!!
I’m glad your daughter watched it too. I wish I’d known what I know now when I was 13.
Hi Tom,
Loved your dcumentary FatHead i must say though it didnt teach me anything new because i already knew about the high fat high protein diet.
I have been on a high fat diet since i was 19 yrs old im now 36.
Im glad you have the balls to point out the discrepancies that the scientific community leaves out.
Just an fyi im in perfect health my chloesterol is 140, my triglycerides are 40 and bp is perfect.
Thanks for enlightening everyone else.
Ivan,
Thank you, Ivan.
Just wanted you to know your movie changed my life! I stumbled across a discussion of it on another website and promptly watched it on Netflix with my teen daughter. Love you for taking on Supersize Me and all of its nonsense but love you even more for enlightening my daughter at a pivotal time in her development. If only those in my generation would have known this sooner!!
I’m glad your daughter watched it too. I wish I’d known what I know now when I was 13.
He definitely deserves it lol! I wish Oprah would stop endorsing him & others like him where clearly their expertise in nutrition is inaccurate. She recently went vegan for a week! It’s their influence on people that is so disturbing. My mother is an avid Oprah fan & even after I have told her that by going on a low carb diet I have lost over 14 lbs in a little over a month she will not try it because Dr. Oz says we need carbs! She can’t figure out why she can’t lose weight even tho she exercises & eats “healthy”. It’s extremely frustrating! I’m purchasing the.Fathead DVD and am making her watch it lol!
Oprah means well, but I agree … she’s led a lot of people down the wrong path.
Parents are so frustrating. No matter how old you are, and how much time you’ve spent studying something, you’ll always be their little kid. I’ll be visiting my parents this weekend, and taking another shot at convincing them to try low carb for just a month, see what it does for my father’s weight and type 2 diabetes.
Good luck. If your mom is like mine, she’ll remind you to put on a jacket when it’s cold outside.
He definitely deserves it lol! I wish Oprah would stop endorsing him & others like him where clearly their expertise in nutrition is inaccurate. She recently went vegan for a week! It’s their influence on people that is so disturbing. My mother is an avid Oprah fan & even after I have told her that by going on a low carb diet I have lost over 14 lbs in a little over a month she will not try it because Dr. Oz says we need carbs! She can’t figure out why she can’t lose weight even tho she exercises & eats “healthy”. It’s extremely frustrating! I’m purchasing the.Fathead DVD and am making her watch it lol!
Oprah means well, but I agree … she’s led a lot of people down the wrong path.
Parents are so frustrating. No matter how old you are, and how much time you’ve spent studying something, you’ll always be their little kid. I’ll be visiting my parents this weekend, and taking another shot at convincing them to try low carb for just a month, see what it does for my father’s weight and type 2 diabetes.
Good luck. If your mom is like mine, she’ll remind you to put on a jacket when it’s cold outside.
Re: Dr. Oz being against medical marijuana for anxiety because there are meds for anxiety, I’d smoke a doob before I even touched a Xanax pill. If I knew where to find a doob, which I don’t–good thing I don’t usually suffer from anxiety anymore. “There are meds” is not a good enough reason to dismiss an effective and relatively safe natural treatment, especially with the unsafe track records of so many of these meds.
As for Randi, I take skeptics with a grain of salt. I’ve had some weird stuff happen in my life. Two examples:
1. Co-worker of mine back in the 90s got to work at the same time I did one morning. Gave me a strange look and said, “I had a dream about you last night. Something about your car, and the right rear tire, and I wanted to say to you, ‘Dana, don’t go driving around town with that baby in your car!'” I looked at the tire, and to my untrained eyes it seemed fine. She was not the type to be into woo-woo. I figured it was just random dream weirdness and dismissed it. Until about a week later when my then-husband and I were on our way to the DMV… and the right rear tire blew. Mike said later that that’s usually the first tire to go because of the way Americans drive on the right side of the street and stuff, but my co-worker was not exactly an automotive expert either.
Months later I was in a discussion on a message board with some atheists, who were going on about what a scam psychics are. I told them my tire story. One of them said, “What are the chances she would have dreamed about the correct tire? One in four?” I said, “What are the chances she would have dreamed about my car at all? One in a million?”
2. The energy thing–I’ve actually felt it. I’ve picked up on someone’s mood to the point that it made me physically ill, but given the circumstances (looking back now), I think I know why he was feeling that way. (Not illness, but emotional distress.) Another time it was an actual *transfer* between another person and me. No reason it should have happened, it didn’t even occur to me to want such a thing… it just did. Ever been shocked by an electrical outlet? It felt kind of like that. But neither of us was touching a live wire.
As far as I know it’s scientific fact that living things put off an electrical field. It’s very weak compared to electronic devices, but it’s definitely there. It’d be *odd* if we never picked up on it from one another. Do I think most people are capable of focusing it and doing things with it? Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few oddballs out there. I just don’t think any of them are doing it for money or for a TV show (same thing, in the end).
It is amusing that Randi has called Oz a quack, no question. I just wish he had done it for the right reasons. And sorry, but “there is no scientific evidence” is not really a valid argument. “We have not found adequate scientific evidence” would be a more honest assessment. Once upon a time we didn’t have adequate scientific evidence for the existence of bacteria. Then someone invented a powerful enough microscope. I think that with this psychic stuff, we just haven’t invented the right ‘scope yet, that’s all. But a good scientist adopts an agnostic attitude about the unknown, rather than stating that the unknown does not exist.
Oh and I am *so* over all the nutritional quacks out there stating that they have all the answers about diet because THEY ARE CARDIOLOGISTS BY GUM. So what’s their excuse for dismissing everything Dr. Atkins ever had to say? Anybody remember what *his* specialty was? Thank you. 😛
Re: Dr. Oz being against medical marijuana for anxiety because there are meds for anxiety, I’d smoke a doob before I even touched a Xanax pill. If I knew where to find a doob, which I don’t–good thing I don’t usually suffer from anxiety anymore. “There are meds” is not a good enough reason to dismiss an effective and relatively safe natural treatment, especially with the unsafe track records of so many of these meds.
As for Randi, I take skeptics with a grain of salt. I’ve had some weird stuff happen in my life. Two examples:
1. Co-worker of mine back in the 90s got to work at the same time I did one morning. Gave me a strange look and said, “I had a dream about you last night. Something about your car, and the right rear tire, and I wanted to say to you, ‘Dana, don’t go driving around town with that baby in your car!'” I looked at the tire, and to my untrained eyes it seemed fine. She was not the type to be into woo-woo. I figured it was just random dream weirdness and dismissed it. Until about a week later when my then-husband and I were on our way to the DMV… and the right rear tire blew. Mike said later that that’s usually the first tire to go because of the way Americans drive on the right side of the street and stuff, but my co-worker was not exactly an automotive expert either.
Months later I was in a discussion on a message board with some atheists, who were going on about what a scam psychics are. I told them my tire story. One of them said, “What are the chances she would have dreamed about the correct tire? One in four?” I said, “What are the chances she would have dreamed about my car at all? One in a million?”
2. The energy thing–I’ve actually felt it. I’ve picked up on someone’s mood to the point that it made me physically ill, but given the circumstances (looking back now), I think I know why he was feeling that way. (Not illness, but emotional distress.) Another time it was an actual *transfer* between another person and me. No reason it should have happened, it didn’t even occur to me to want such a thing… it just did. Ever been shocked by an electrical outlet? It felt kind of like that. But neither of us was touching a live wire.
As far as I know it’s scientific fact that living things put off an electrical field. It’s very weak compared to electronic devices, but it’s definitely there. It’d be *odd* if we never picked up on it from one another. Do I think most people are capable of focusing it and doing things with it? Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few oddballs out there. I just don’t think any of them are doing it for money or for a TV show (same thing, in the end).
It is amusing that Randi has called Oz a quack, no question. I just wish he had done it for the right reasons. And sorry, but “there is no scientific evidence” is not really a valid argument. “We have not found adequate scientific evidence” would be a more honest assessment. Once upon a time we didn’t have adequate scientific evidence for the existence of bacteria. Then someone invented a powerful enough microscope. I think that with this psychic stuff, we just haven’t invented the right ‘scope yet, that’s all. But a good scientist adopts an agnostic attitude about the unknown, rather than stating that the unknown does not exist.
Oh and I am *so* over all the nutritional quacks out there stating that they have all the answers about diet because THEY ARE CARDIOLOGISTS BY GUM. So what’s their excuse for dismissing everything Dr. Atkins ever had to say? Anybody remember what *his* specialty was? Thank you. 😛
I recently went to see Gary Taubes speak. It was hosted by The Skeptic Society! 🙂
I recently went to see Gary Taubes speak. It was hosted by The Skeptic Society! 🙂