Busting Myths: Does Dr. Oz Have A Monopoly?

Yesterday, I wrote about Dr. Oz's suggestion to snack with up to 200 calories two hours before eating your dinner in order to lose weight. There seemed to be no good logic to doing so. Imagine my surprise when today I get an email from RealAge.com, which is at least partially owned by Dr. Oz (see http://www.realage.com/press-release-sharecare) with the headline, "3 New Weight Loss Myths Busted."

Here is my favorite myth the article clams to bust.

"Myth 1: Eat five mini meals throughout the day.
The initial idea was to eat small, healthy amounts of food every couple of hours to keep blood sugar levels steady and energy high. The trouble is, many people end up eating what amounts to five full meals. "I find that people do much better when they sit down and have three balanced meals a day with two small snacks in between," says nutrition counselor Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD. "Real meals stave off hunger. If you eat tiny bits throughout the day, you're hungry all the time."

This is diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive to Dr. Oz's concept of eating a small meal, which he calls a 200 calorie snack, two hours before dinner. Which is it? He probably doesn't even know, but busting myths seems to be one of his favorite concepts on his show. It's as if he has a monopoly on doing so. However, I never thought that in the span of one week, I would see him connected to both creating and busting a myth.

Here is another myth supposedly debunked by the article.

Myth 2: Eat less by using small plates. Studies have shown that large plates lead to more eating because they make portions look smaller, but the small-plates idea only works if there's a limited amount of food to put on the plate. In a recent diet study at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, 10 overweight and 10 normal-weight women were randomly assigned a large or small plate for eating lunch on two different days, then allowed to serve themselves. The result? The ladies ate until they were full, regardless of plate size. "Make what you need, or measure the amount before putting it on a plate, then put things away," recommends Tallmadge, who was not involved in the study. "It's having easy access to food that keeps you eating more."

Contrary to what RealAge would have you believe, there is actually science that confirms the small plate approach to weight loss. See http://smallplatemovement.org/doc/big_portions.pdf for a review of the science. Brain Wainsink of Cornell University is one of the leading food investigators in the U.S. After reading his book, Mindless Eating, I am more inclined to trust his studies over the new study. I also know it works because it worked for me. I switched from a larger to a smaller bowl for my breakfast and never missed a beat on my way to a 20+ pound weight loss. Either way, with the conflicting study results, I hope you agree that this does not fall into the myth-busting category; however, it should fall into the sensationalistic headline one.

Here's a quote from Dr. Oz's website under the title "5 Diet Myths Making You Gain Weight" about the small plate issue:

"Dieters have been advised to eat from smaller plates in order to limit the amount they eat. Why? Because smaller plates make regular portions look larger. However, new research published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found that plate size had no impact on the calorie consumption of either normal weight or obese individuals. Despite these findings, Dr. Oz still recommends using small plates to help guide you in terms of how much you eat. But use them the right way – a small plate is not an excuse to pile on food vertically or go back for seconds."

So what are we expected to trust? The Dr. Oz Show or a website Dr. Oz has ownership in?


The third myth the article purports to bust is "it doesn't matter what meal plan you're on because you'll lose weight as long as you stick to it." Really, any food you eat as long as you stick to it will help you lose weight? The study the article referenced used 5 specific plans. There is definitely more than one way to lose weight, but the meal plan (and total number of calories) will always matter.

It is because of articles such as this one and the Dr. Oz Show that there is so much confusion out there that allows anyone to claim he or she is busting a myth. Besides, I caution trusting anyone that constantly claims they are a myth-buster. Wouldn't it be better if shows and websites just presented the science in layperson's terms and let intelligent people make the decision on their own. I think so. Do you agree?

Ignore Dr. Oz on Sage Leaf Tea and Alpha Lipoic Acid

Contrary to what some may think, I don’t enjoy blogging about Dr. Oz.  Why? It requires a lot of effort to identify the facts and if I don’t exert the effort, I am ultimately no better than him with his inaccurate proclamations.  Having written about the good doctor ad nauseum, I had planned to ignore his most recent show called "Snack Attack: Eat More and Weigh Less" this past Friday that originally aired February 17, 2012.   

As fate would have it, one of my guests at Friday night dinner asked me about the show and specifically about the Sage Tea he recommended to lose weight.  My short respite from analyzing the products Dr. Oz recommends was over.

So here we go again. The episode started with Dr. Oz claiming that “recent studies prove that snacking on the right foods at the right time can turn your body into a fat-burning machine.” He then went on to present that eating certain snacks of 200 calories or less two hours before dinner will result in less food consumed at dinner. One of those snacks he presented included prosciutto, a cured ham, which he recommended wrapping around 2% mozzarella cheese, and adding 2 olives, 1 cup zucchini, and 1/4 cup chickpeas.

I’d like to see a study that showed that eating prosciutto and mozzarella cheese two hours before dinner helps you lose weight. I highly doubt it. What do you think? He also states on his website in reference to this episode that “Get your metabolism going with a pre-dinner snack, 1-2 hours before your main meal. Doing so will help you stop eating once you're full, which is sometimes hard to do.” Why would snacking help you stop eating when you are full if eating non-snack food often doesn’t do that?  Enough said.

Of course, he also recommended a product—in this case a cup of Sage Leaf Tea--as a way to lose weight. After a few hours of research, including pubmed.com, Cochrane.org, naturalstandard.com, and infopoems.com, I could only find one reference to the use of Sage Tea for anything whatsoever related to weight.

It was a study titled “Antihyperlipidemic effects of Salvia officinalis L. leaf extract in patients with hyperlipidemia: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.” This single study involving a whole 67 people showed that Sage Leaf may be useful in decreasing lipids. Mind you, that doesn’t mean losing weight. 

By the way, where do you think the study was done. Wait for it, here it comes—Iran.  Yes, that’s right--The People’s Republic of Iran, that bastion of scientific integrity known for its war-mongering, terrorist-supporting, Holocaust-denying oppressive government. Now that’s a source of a study I’m not sure anyone should rely upon.  There was not a single additional scientific reference to the use of Sage Leaf tea for weight loss, metabolism booster, etc. that I could find.

But Dr. Oz wasn’t done for the day pushing pills.  He then recommended 200 mg. Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) as another weight loss aid.  Now here’s where it gets good. 

Like with Sage Leaf, I began an intensive search and here’s what I found--a South Korean study titled, “Effects of Alpha-Lipoic Acid on Body Weight in Obese Subjects” published in early 2011, that stated to the authors’ knowledge, “this is the first study to show that alphalipoic acid treatment led to a significant weight reduction in obese human subjects.” There appears to be no published study since, so this seems to be the first and only study of its kind. 

Second, the study initially involved 360 obese subjects (of which about 1/3 dropped out for different reasons including adverse side effects) consuming 1,800 mg (9 times the dose recommended by Dr. Oz).  

After 20 weeks of treatment with 1800 mg per day of alpha-lipoic acid, the results showed “modest but statistically significant reductions in body weight and BMI.” How much weight did they lose after 20 weeks of 9 times the dose recommended by Dr. Oz? They lost 1.8% of their weight. In a two hundred pound person that would be 3.6 pounds.  At 1,200 mg (or six times the Dr. Oz’s recommended dose) the weight loss was even less at about 2 pounds for a 200 pound person.

For full disclosure, there was another study, published in 2010, for which I could only access the abstract titled, “Alpha-lipoic acid supplementation: a tool for obesity therapy?” The conclusion of this Italian study according to the authors was “Our study indicated that LA is an ideal antioxidant candidate for the therapy of obesity related diseases. Further clinical studies should be considered to highlight the role and efficacy of LA treatment.” However, this was not a double-blind randomized controlled study and no data on caloric intake was given. By the way, they consumed 800 mg, or 4 times the dose recommended by Dr. Oz. Apparently, the South Koreans discounted this study as well based on their statement that they had performed the first study on the effects of ALA on weight loss.

Need I say more? Dr. Oz has little scientific basis (and for that matter, no business) recommending such a product at a dose that has no valid and conclusive scientific evidence to support his recommendations.

Of course, that never seems to stop him and it didn’t here.