Ever wonder how many people Dr. Oz has made rich? Think about it, all the health food store owners, the vitamin shop owners and the fitness gurus, not to mention all the books and the articles sold to "Woman's Day" and "Redbook" by authors quoting him. He doesn't market his own line of supplements (not yet anyway) but he is single-handedly responsible for the sale of millions of dollars worth each year.
I haven't watched his show regularly in over a year but each time I do catch an episode the titles are usually something like this, "Dr. Oz's 3 Key Supplements", "The 5 Supplements You Need" or "4 Supplements for a Longer Life". Now I know that as a whole our country needs to eat less. This does not however mean we should do it by being so full of supplements we don't have the room or appetite for an actual meal!
There are hormones to melt your fat that this vitamin will increase, hormones that cause us to gain which another mineral will control. The lists go on and on: fish oil, krill oil, omega-3s, chromium, probiotics, iodine, grape seed extract, forskolin, apple pectin, ground konjac root, astaxanthin, co-enzyme Q10. All of these were from just 3 episodes! Who even knows what most of these things are?
Many of the recommended supplements actually duplicate each other's functions, like lowering cholesterol for instance, but work in slightly different ways so a person wouldn't have to take them all. But a walk around the local health food store makes me think some are trying. I've even been in one store which had the show on so they could create a new display based on that episode for the customers who would be coming in after it aired to try what he was talking about that day.
Now all of these capsules and powders may be beneficial to your health but wouldn't it be better if we talked about the food sources for these nutrients. Wouldn't practical yet tasty recipes be better than a list of pills? To his credit he does, to an extent, cover this as well but it gets much less attention it seems. I know fresh and sometimes exotic produce can be costly but I'd love to see a cost comparison for the foods vs. the supplements.
Another thing I would like to see covered more in depth is any possible side-effects or possible interactions with other medications people may be taking. Some serious problems can arise from taking nutritional supplements with other medications. Chromium picolinate for instance interacts with over 50 other meds, St. John's Wort with over 600 meds; 89 of the interactions are listed as "major". One example of a major interaction with St. John's Wort would be the potential to negate birth control pills. It may help with your day to day mood, not sure I'd want to try it for postpartum depression.
http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html is a pretty comprehensive database for checking your medications (of any kind) for interactions. It is pretty jargon heavy but it is a good place to start. If you find anything that concerns you, ask your doctor. Better yet, before taking anything new, even over the counter stuff, ask your doctor or pharmacist about it. Just make sure you tell them everything you are taking.
Simply put, we don't need a medicine cabinet that looks like a GNC outlet to be healthy. Stock the fridge instead.
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