First I just want to say I love Dr Oz. He rocks! However, I just heard Dr Oz, a frequent contributor on Oprah, give some pretty dubious advice on weight loss. He’s a cardiovascular surgeon which explains why he always seems to have that “I just walked out of the operating room look.” He has also authored a book with Dr Roizen, the “You on a Diet” which I have reviewed previously.
There is an incredible amount of misinformation about diet and weight loss so when I see some bad advice given by someone so influential as Dr Oz… well it’s time for the Celebrity Diet Doctor to speak up:) So what’s his weight loss advice that will get you fat?
On yesterday’s Oprah show, Dr Oz recommended that you should eat whole grain bread soaked in olive oil before your meals….. whoaaaaa (%%^#(@^%!!!!!.
Dr Oz’s theory is that the olive oil with bread slows food passage. This helps fill you up so you eat less during your meal, saving calories and resulting in weight loss. Interesting theory, but this strategy is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Think about it. What you’re doing here is filling up on highly calorie dense foods first. So yes you’ll eat less of your meal, but you’ve just taken in at least a 200 calorie food bolus that will result in more overall calories consumed. This is what makes Italian restaurants a minefield. Many people fill up on bread soaked in olive oil, before their meals, which is a surefire recipe for a bulging waistline. The bottom line is bread plus olive oil before your meals equals weight gain. So what’s the answer?
Of course, do the exact opposite of what Dr Oz recommends. Start your meal with a low calorie food first, such as an apple. In fact people who consumed an apple 15 minutes before a meal consumed 190 less calories overall. The moral of this story. Consume low calorie foods such as fruit, veggies, salads and soups first. This is the key to weight loss. My advice is to eat an apple and call me in the morning…
Tags: Diet-Tips, Dr Oz, Oprah WinfreyRelated posts
Free Diet Profile and OMG Fat Loss Report
Enter the type of foods you eat in my Free Diet Profile and you'll get:- 10 personal recommendations to help you lose body fat right now.
- You'll also get my special Fat Loss report and discover this "1 trick to losing body fat."
Just enter your first name and email below and your diet profile and free bonuses will be emailed to you.
Your email will NEVER be sold or rented. We guarantee your confidentiality. Be sure to check your "bulk","spam" or "junk" folders in your email as sometimes they get mistakenly filtered.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I don't follow his diet plan, but his exercise does wonders for my abs.
healthnut.buddyslim.com
Actually, I know many healthy Italians who follow this eating routine and are not overweight.
What you need to consider is how we've come to think all bread and all fats are bad when actually, whole grain breads and olive oil are both VERY HEALTHY and necessary in our diets. The whole grain is a necessary complex carbohydrate that stabilizes blood sugar levels due to it's slower digestion process. Olive oil is a healthy fat and healthy fats are necessary to burn fat. It was when all fats became evil during susan Powter's (sp?) rise to fame in the late 80s and early 90s that everything fat free came out. Only they replaced the fat with sugars (especially high fructose, which is really unhealthy, and flours and starch additives, which are also unhealthy) that obesity began to rise and is now at an all time high.
There is nothing unhealthy about his recommendation unless you are having a meal high in fat (particularly saturated fat or some processed, packaged item) and other starchy items like potatoes or beans or more bread with the main meal. You just have to remember that you don't want to make this meal massive with this as an appetizer. Ideally, your meal should be smaller because of it and probably consist of fresh veggies and lean protein.
Perhaps this could work for some people. I think too many of us want someone to tell us what will work when it's clear from research that fat loss is not a one size fits all equation. You have to look at the advice and figure out what will work for you. Also, you say the bread would be "soaked" in olive oil. That is not what he recommended (just enough to drizzle is what the piece said), but some may use this as an excuse to do it.
and I am sure that was what Dr Oz was thinking when he made his recommendation. wheat bread has less of a blood sugar impact than white bread and olive oil would lower the blood sugar response further. If weight gain was only about blood sugar response his idea would work.
unfortunately the glycemic index is causing so much confusion even with many nutritionists and dietitians (and Dr Oz included) that people do not realize it is is not a reliable or accurate way to guide food decisions. The biggest pitfall is that the glycemic index does not measure calories. So at the end of the day, yes some olive oil with your bread will lower blood sugar response, but it adds a lot of calories! that is why starting off your meal with bread dipped in olive oil will result in weight gain, not weight loss. it's bad advice for someone looking to lose weight. hope this makes sense…
[quote comment="2590"]Actually, I know many healthy Italians who follow this eating routine and are not overweight.
What you need to consider is how we've come to think all bread and all fats are bad when actually, whole grain breads and olive oil are both VERY HEALTHY and necessary in our diets. The whole grain is a necessary complex carbohydrate that stabilizes blood sugar levels due to it's slower digestion process. Olive oil is a healthy fat and healthy fats are necessary to burn fat. It was when all fats became evil during susan Powter's (sp?) rise to fame in the late 80s and early 90s that everything fat free came out. Only they replaced the fat with sugars (especially high fructose, which is really unhealthy, and flours and starch additives, which are also unhealthy) that obesity began to rise and is now at an all time high.
There is nothing unhealthy about his recommendation unless you are having a meal high in fat (particularly saturated fat or some processed, packaged item) and other starchy items like potatoes or beans or more bread with the main meal. You just have to remember that you don't want to make this meal massive with this as an appetizer. Ideally, your meal should be smaller because of it and probably consist of fresh veggies and lean protein.<div class="comment-remix-meta">Reply – Quote</div>[/quote]
Olive oil is actually debatable. It's an epidemiology study and what works in the Mediterranean may not work in the US. People in Europe walk more, so they have a slightly differently lifestyle. You are going to find some doctors who think olive oil is good and others who think it's bad. Dr. Joel Fuhrman is one doctor who pointed out that each tbsp. of olive oil consumed does add an inch to the waistline. Until a similar study is done in the US, your guess is as good as mine.
Also I think if they do an olive oil study is done in the US, the results will come out different. There are facts in the Mediterranean study that I do believe are left out. People in Tuscany, for instance, do not use salt. Refrigerator sizes are so much smaller in Europe because Europeans don’t like left overs. They tend to eat more fresh food and less processed. Those variables are completely different than what Americans are accustomed to.
Anyone who recommends high-starch foods to an overweight population is committing malpractice. It's important to know how much starch is in the foods you eat, because starch simply chains of glucose, which begin to "dissolve" into single glucose's in the mouth, via amylase in the saliva, which travel down the esophagus every time you eat and between meals. This is why the grain industry doesn't list STARCH on the nutritional facts label. Yes, they're breaking a federal law (Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, 1965) by not listing it, but with $20 Billion Welfare going to the grain industry each year, and the gargantuan multi-billion dollar profits reaped by the pharmaceutical/medical cartel as a result of a world population being fed loads of hidden glucose, STARCH is OMITTED. It's not even approved by the FDA acceptable to LIST…in other words…it's against FDA rules to list STARCH. Go ahead. Go pick up your favorite whole-grain product, see that the starch is not listed. That's glucose they're not listing there.
And they tell you to watch your sugar intake….
LOL
I'm curious what you think about the acai craze that's been going around the country. Doctor Oz seems to have mentioned that a few times and marketers took off with it and turned celebrities on to it too. Oprah sure has a lot of marketing power and throwing a doctor into the mix increases the chance that the public will twist it around to make it something it's not.
What do you think?
{ 3 trackbacks }