Now first and foremost in the entertainment business

On 4-29-2011, I excitedly reported on a Dr. Oz Show segment that featured the new movie Forks Over Knives along with the movie’s primary stars — Dr. Campbell, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Barnard, Dr. Popper and Rip Esselstyn, author of the Engine 2 Diet. In that show, Dr. Oz told his viewers how to take charge of their health and lose weight effortlessly as a convenient by-product.

Five days later on 5-2-11, his show was the polar opposite in terms of providing value for his audience — this week, he featured the Dukan Diet (another dangerous “Atkins” copy-cat) that encourages people to eat a lot of animal protein. Very disappointing, indeed — but not that surprising. In fact, after writing a highly complimentary post on last week’s show, I included this word of caution at the end:

My question is this: Where does the Dr. Oz Show go from here? He featured a diet-style on Wednesday’s show that has the power to end most disease in this country. So what does he do on Thursday – or next week – as a follow-up? Does he just go back to the endless discussions of a zillion medical problems? Or does he get real serious about the “big picture” root cause of 80% of our medical problems?

The May 2 show provided me with the answer to that question. Sadly, it was almost like the powerful, life-saving message from last week’s show was completely forgotten. There was only one reminder of the wisdom that was shared with his audience last week — and that wisdom was delivered by my friend Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live and a recent endorser of my book. The show featured an “expert weight-loss” panel of three that included two MD’s and one nutritionist. All were dressed in identical white “doctor” jackets.

My friend, Dr. Joel Fuhrman spoke on the Dr. Oz Show about promoting health with a whole foods, plant-based diet rich in complex carbohydrates. With a goal of vibrant health, weight-loss is just a convenient, effortless, and permanent by-product.

Of the three experts, Dr. Furhman was the only one who even mentioned health. As an enlightened physician who has enjoyed better than a 90% success rate in reversing type 2 diabetes and heart disease with a whole foods, plant-based diet, it almost lacked dignity for him to be sitting on such a silly panel.

Forced to limit most of his air time to direct responses to questions from Dr. Oz, Joel only got one chance to say how he really felt about the Dukan Diet. That chance came toward the end of the segment when the experts were asked to score the diet on a scale of one to ten.

After the first MD gave the diet an “8” after explaining that she almost gave it a “10,” Joel put a big smile on my face when he scored the diet at a “1,” saying that he would’ve scored it lower but the “1” was the lowest possible score according to the instructions from Dr. Oz. Then Joel talked briefly about his reasons — with his primary emphasis being on the health of the person considering the diet.

Upon seeing him turn that card around with the “1” on it, I actually cheered out loud. And I felt proud of him for telling the crowd the cold hard facts about dangerous, unsustainable fad diets such as the Dukan. I also felt even more proud to have his written endorsement on my book:

The same standard diet-style, rich in processed foods and animal products, and low in produce, that places people at high risk of heart attacks and cancers, is also rapidly destroying our environment.  “Healthy Eating — Healthy World” reports on critical information you must learn to help ourselves and our planet.

— Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

After the lead segment on the Dukan Diet, the show moved on to an almost “carnival like” examination of constipation. Ironically, after spending twenty minutes on a diet-style that is almost guaranteed to promote constipation, the show follows that up with a segment on what to do about it. More confusion.

J. Morris Hicks -- The "big picture guy" striving to eliminate confusion by promoting simplicity, integrity, consistency, sustainability and clarity.

Bottom Line.  These kinds of mixed signals are exactly what is wrong with our out-of-control cost of health care in the western world. Confusion rules the day. One day, a highly popular medical doctor like Dr. Oz features a powerful health-promoting diet-style and the next week he’s spreading the word about a fad diet that will continue to confuse his audience. What exactly does he stand for?

Let’s face it, Dr. Oz is in the entertainment business. While he may actually mean well, his show is just part of our huge “system” that ensures that confusion will continue to prevail. When people are confused, they will simply conclude that they will just eat what they want — and our cost of health care will continue to rise while an ever growing slice of the population will succumb to the “food driven” chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

Until enough leaders understand the “big picture” regarding the staggering global impact of our toxic western diet and begin to promote the remarkable simplicity of the natural diet for our species — confusion will continue to prevail. The good news is that the truth is beginning to spread as it gains traction with the likes of Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey and is featured in powerful movies like Forks Over Knives.

Just yesterday, a former Fortune 100 CEO agreed to write an endorsement for my book. He and his wife have been reading about the subject for a few years and are now following my daily blog. Another recent endorsement has come from best-selling lifestyle author, Alexandra Stoddard, who has sold millions of books. With this kind of access to the mainstream, I am confident that our grassroots movement will continue to gather momentum.

A link to my review of last week’s Dr. Oz show. Dr. Oz Show — focusing on plant-based, whole foods

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.