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March 24, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
37:31
The Man Who Ate 40 Teaspoons of "Healthy" Sugar a Day | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 2 | Full Episode
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Time Text
From fit to fat.
After 60 days, this is what it looked like.
From eating supposedly healthy foods.
I was pre-type 2 diabetic and I put on 19 pounds.
How to spot sneaky sugar bombs before they blow up your healthy lifestyle.
Let's walk you through this.
Plus, big changes are coming to your favorite foods.
All because you all demanded it.
See the new and improved healthier versions.
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today.
day We are great to get healthy curiosity Curiosity!
It is so good for you, and if you're curious about health, well, it's doubly good for you.
In fact, we are hardwired to be curious.
You heard the word homo sapien?
Yes.
Actually, what it really means is wise men.
That's in Latin what it means, and you got that way by being curious.
It inspires passion and desire to pass on what you have learned, and that's what happened to Damon Gamo.
Damon was curious about the amount of sugar he was eating, so he turned himself into a human guinea pig.
He ate the equivalent of this much sugar.
40 teaspoons a day for 60 days.
That's roughly 5,000 sugar cubes.
And he did it.
Here's the important part.
He did it eating supposedly healthy foods.
I asked this of you because you guys are pretty healthy.
That's why you're here.
So, how many teaspoonfuls of sugar do you guys think you have in a normal day when you're eating well?
What are you thinking?
Hands up.
Thoughts.
Yell them out.
Go on.
Ten.
Ten.
Twenty.
Twenty.
It's like bidding.
Five.
Six hundred?
Six hundred?
600?
You just check your arms.
That's a lot of sugar.
I don't even know why I do it.
All right, so we all actually have different amounts of sugar we think we eat, but what Damon's experiment is trying to prove to us is even doing the right things, you make mistakes.
So this is a big eye-opener today.
Wait until you see what all that sugar did to his body and to his moods.
His super bomb experiment leads off today's show, and then we're going to tell you some good news.
There are healthy changes being made to some of your other favorite foods, all because you all demanded it.
We asked for this to happen, and folks are making changes for us.
I'll fill you in.
And later in the show, we're turning the corner to get to the root of an illness that many of us suffer from in silence, feeling insecure.
Ask yourself, is that what's holding you back from a happy, healthy life?
But first, that sugar film.
It was, for me and for many others, the must-see movie of the summer.
I want you to meet Damon Gamow.
Damon Gamow was curious about the effects that sugar had on his body, so he allowed sugar to overtake his life, literally.
Sugar is now found in 80% of the foods we eat.
But with the constant confusion over its effects on our health, and with this little person on the way, I feel like I need some definitive answers.
So here are the rules for my next teaspoons of sugar a day.
But they must be hidden sugars, found in commonly perceived healthy foods and drinks.
People on this planet are growing sicker every day.
And many scientists now believe that fructose has a role to play.
You've got the signs of a fatty liver.
This is the first time I've seen that it can be developed in two or three weeks.
My fuse is a lot shorter.
I'm not feeling very well at all today.
Please welcome filmmaker, Damien Damo.
40 teaspoons.
It comes up a lot.
Yeah.
Why that amount of sugar every day?
That amount?
Because, sadly, that's what most Australians are eating every day.
And, in fact, other countries and people in other parts of the world are also having similar amounts.
All right, so just to be clear, when I was asking you earlier how much you guys actually think you take in, the FDA recommends that added sugar not exceed 10% of your daily calories.
That, for most people, is about 12 teaspoons a day.
Absolutely.
And in fact, the World Health Organization have even gone one step further now, recommended that it should be 5%, which for someone on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet is 6 teaspoons a day.
So given we're having somewhere near 40 teaspoons a day, you can see why it's causing all these problems.
Seven times more than we're supposed to have in theory, according to some experts.
Here's the part that I alluded to that makes this experiment so interesting.
You avoid it.
I'm going to cut this off.
Soda, ice cream, candy, all the other sources of sugar that are obvious to us, you weren't allowed to take.
That's right.
I think we all inherently understand that if we had too many donuts and chocolates and sodas, we're going to get sick.
But I was walking down a supermarket aisle and I picked up a can of tomato soup and I saw that it had eight teaspoons of sugar in it.
And I thought, I wonder if people are actually aware that there's that much sugar in this perceived kind of savoury dinner.
And then so the experiment was I had to eat things like low-fat yogurts, muesli, granola bars, sports drinks, vitamin waters, iced teas, condiments like pasta sauces.
All of these things are full of sugar.
They often have a picture of a bee or a flower on the front cover and they use slogans like packed with energy and essential vitamin D but they have as much if not more sugar than some of these other junk foods.
You know, I travel a lot to some of the shows in many other countries, and so I was struck by how difficult it was to get even seemingly healthy foods.
You actually found those seemingly healthy foods, and you still couldn't find them without sugar.
And the part about this experiment that's a little bit concerning to me as a physician is that there are some potential dangers.
So when you spoke to your doctors in Australia about doing this crazy deal, what did they tell you?
Well, look, the ones that kind of were in the know were like, you're an absolute idiot, what are you doing?
You should stop doing this.
Especially because I had a baby on the way too.
But I think, for me, I was so naive to it that I said, look, because I was eating these perceived healthy foods, I mean, these are often foods that parents give their kids thinking they're doing the right thing.
I really didn't think we'd get any results.
And that's why I made the experiment 60 days instead of 30 days, because I honestly didn't think we'd see much.
So it was a bit of a shock to see the results we did get so quickly.
Let's do that.
Let's show everyone the results.
So, I'm going to show you a picture of Damien with his stud-like body, right?
This is him before the experiment started.
I apologize to the yellow undies too.
That's right.
I was going to comment on them, but I'll actually comment on this.
You'll notice his waistline.
Notice the bit of protrusion in his belly.
Okay, so after 60 days, this is what he looked like.
Now, you know, we talk about the smiley face here.
There's your nose.
Some eyes there.
But, you know, for a lot of us, this belly is sort of a subtle little problem.
When you look on the side, you see how big you've become, and only in 60 days.
So what happened on the inside to your health?
Well, the conjecture around sugar is that it does its damage on the inside.
There's actually a term now called toffee, which is thin on the outside and fat on the inside.
So after the 60 days, I was on the verge of cirrhosis when the liver hardens and it's hard to come back from.
I was pre-type 2 diabetic.
I had heart disease risks.
I had four inches of visceral fat around my belly and I put on 19 pounds.
Just a cautionary thought, you know, we start to identify challenges that the liver has.
We don't actually know if it's going towards cirrhosis or not half the time, but we start to see changes in the enzyme, the chemical levels in the blood.
And that's an early tip-off, that we're doing things that are not good for us.
And again, I'm going to highlight this.
You did this eating food you thought was good for you.
That's right.
What about your mood?
Well, that was probably one of the biggest surprises, was the effect on my mental health.
Obviously, I'm quite sensitive to sugar.
I hadn't had some for a while, and I really noticed that I was fine once I had the sugar.
But then about 45 minutes afterwards, I'd start to taper off a bit.
I'd lose focus and concentration.
I was a bit sort of aloof until I had more sugar, and then I'd be okay again.
And I guess I just spent the whole day going up and down.
So I think there's something in that.
I mean, I don't think everyone's as sensitive as other people.
We're all different.
But I think lots of people are very sensitive to sugar, and they don't realise it.
Well, you mentioned the brain.
Come over here.
I've got some cool brain scans here.
These, I think, are going to put a lot of credibility behind what you're saying with regard to addiction and craving alike.
So this is the brain of someone who's a cocaine addict.
I'm just going to orient you here.
All you've got to focus on is that red area there.
That red area is the habit-forming part of the brain.
So when the addict, this is them who just mind their own business, is shown pictures, just pictures, of someone snorting cocaine, look what happens to the red.
It disappears because there's dopamine being released.
It's being blown out, so to speak.
Being hit really hard the way you'd feel if you're an addict, maybe doing it yourself.
Now let me change this.
Forget about cocaine addict.
Let's talk about a regular person.
Someone like you and me.
But someone maybe who is sensitive to these junk foods.
If that's the case, now look what happens.
You still have that red area, that place that exhibits the tendency to have an addiction.
But watch what happens when this person is shown junk food.
What happens?
Same thing.
The red blows out.
It's telling me that this brain is very similar to this brain.
The cocaine addict's brain and the junk food brain are actually similar because they're both being affected the same way when we take in, in particular, sugar.
So this is a real phenomenon being looked at by scientists for many reasons.
You did this experiment for two months.
So when you actually decide your 60 days was over, you want to turn back to normal, how long did that take?
About six days.
For me, the first week was a bit tricky.
I had a few headaches.
I didn't sleep very well.
But six days is very doable when you think about the rest of your life.
Yeah, I think six days is a pretty good bargain.
Here's the deal when we come back.
The one food, Damon says, has the most sugar, and it's going to surprise you.
It's something we think is healthy for us.
That's next.
This week on Dr. Oz.
Tuesday, the photo that sparked a huge debate.
The cold heart truth is that heroin kills.
Wednesday, the fat-shaming controversy hits a new low.
Folks will say that you're having so much fun being overweight, you're actually promoting obesity.
Thursday, our hidden camera experiment puts your morals to the test.
Friday, the blueprint for balance plan.
It's a year-long project that will get your life from burnout to back on track.
This week on Dr. Oz.
So in David Amo's new documentary, That's Sugar Film, and Juicy is a big part of his sugar bomb study, and we're going to show you the results of his juicing experiment in just a minute.
But first off, how surprised were you by the load of sugar in some of these foods?
Yeah, I mean, I was pretty shocked.
I don't think most people understand.
I mean, we all know that we have a treat at the end of the day, like some ice cream or chocolate.
We know that's where the sugar is.
But I think most people are shocked to realize they're probably having 30 other teaspoons throughout the day before they even get to that treat.
So we're going to explain this experiment to do that.
We're going to walk you through the exact specifics that he did in this social sugar experiment.
First, I've got some questions for you all.
How many of you, please be honest here, although it's public, give your kids or yourselves imbibe in regular old soda, let's say, once a day?
Good.
Thank you very much.
A lot of folks once a day will do it.
How many of you will buy your kids or yourselves drink store-bought juice?
Just a regular juice to drink.
It's pretty good for you, right?
Most of the hands are going up now.
Does anyone juice their own stuff here?
I do.
We have one person.
A couple of brave folks.
Not too many, because it's sort of a hassle, right?
Alright, let's walk you through this.
So, fruit juice.
We think it's pretty healthy for us.
But you're arguing that it actually has a ton of sugar.
You want to walk me through this?
Yeah, I think most of the store-bought juices were mine.
People need to understand they are a fruit juice concentrate with water added.
So they're pretty much just sugar and water.
You know, they're not that much different from a soda.
So start off with the sodas, where a lot of the audience very honorably said they will have a soda a day.
How much sugar would you have in a can of soda, a typical can?
Okay, so a standard can, there's going to be eight teaspoons of sugar.
So again, if the World Health Organization is saying six teaspoons a day for optimal health, already you're over with one can of soda.
So what about, again, a beverage we most of us consider healthy, which is a fruit juice?
How much sugar is in that?
Something like this, this pomegranate juice, there is 9 teaspoons.
In 12 ounces?
In the same glass.
So there's actually more sugar in the fruit juice than there is in the soda pop?
Quite often.
Juices like apple and mango or pomegranate juice have more sugar in them than a soda.
Now, we turn to the area that I have a lot of interest, because this is what I do, if you're a juicer.
So, we have three apples here, because they happen to be big apples, right?
So, I'm going to juice three apples, which is the amount that we'd have to juice in order to make the same amount of, you know, 12 ounces of fluid.
So, here we go.
Who wants to help me?
Get up there.
Get to work.
Let's throw it in there.
Get up there.
Let's go.
Chip in there.
Come on.
Move along.
Oh!
I don't want to get dirty.
Toss them all in there.
Come on now.
Be brave.
One more.
Here, push that down.
I'm getting out of the way.
I don't want to get dirty.
Oh, you're broken.
All right, all right.
That apple juice can stain, you know.
It can't.
No.
Thank you very much.
So we have the same amount of juice that we're talking about having normally, and the sugar content is?
So in that, in one apple, there's about four teaspoons of sugar.
So if you're having three, there's about 12 teaspoons in that.
So it's important to know that fruit in its natural package is perfect.
It's a great combination of fiber and the right amount of sugar.
Our body can metabolize it in the right way.
It's fantastic for us.
But once we change the structure of that, you can suddenly have...
I could never get through these three apples eating them because the fiber would tell me I'm full.
But I can get predominantly the sugar from those apples, put it in a glass, and bang, there's 12 teaspoons straight down.
You just made me a sugar drink.
But you were trying to do me a favor.
Right.
Does that surprise you, what we're hearing?
No.
You knew it had a lot of sugar?
Oh, yeah.
I don't, I rarely eat sugar.
I raised her.
No sugar, but all the fruit.
Scary.
Yeah.
I do have a little bit of...
We never had juice in our house growing up.
You didn't?
Never.
They were way ahead of you.
Why are you wasting your time making this movie?
Why did you make a movie about it?
60 days of your life wasted.
These women could have told you that answer.
Oh my goodness.
All right, so I think we got pretty good advice about why you should be careful about juice.
Here's a question.
Juice is not an unhealthy thing.
In its essence, it's good.
And I use it in my green drink.
Me too.
Tell us what you would do at home.
Now, you did this show in part because you're having a baby.
That's right.
Was she born yet?
She's born.
Yeah, she's nearly two now.
What's her name?
Her name is Velvet.
Velvet.
Yeah, yeah.
Alright, so does Velvet get to drink sutures?
Yeah, so we predominantly drink water in our house, but we'll often add, maybe we'll freeze some blueberries or add a splash of juice in it just to help with the sweetness.
But most people find that once they step away from things being sweet and they lower their sugar intake, your palate does adjust.
So you actually won't want as much fruit in there anymore because you actually want less sweetness.
So in my green drink, I actually put half an apple in there.
For that reason, I just want to touch the sweetness.
But the bigger thing that I'm doing these days is I actually like fruit juice, but I'm sensitive to the sugar.
So I'll cut it 50-50 with seltzer water.
Perfect.
It was just a thought for you all.
You'll actually like the taste.
If you had a little vodka, it's even better.
All right.
Thank you very much.
This film is called The Sugar Film.
That's Sugar Film, rather.
And the companion book, That's Sugar Book.
Now check them out.
We'll be right back.
Later.
Conversation.
There's an emotional component to these foods.
I mentioned the glow in the yellow, color of the craft, mac and cheese.
But all these foods have these kinds of elements to them.
How difficult will it be for you to be able to shift to the healthier versions if they don't look exactly the same as the ones you grew up with?
Who's got the mic?
You want to go first?
Go ahead.
Stand up if you don't mind.
I would be very happy to make a changeover.
To healthier foods, I'm always looking for other options, so for me it would be easy.
So you wouldn't mind if there's subtle changes in color, texture a little bit?
No, if it was better for my health, I wouldn't mind.
Who else?
Go ahead, man.
Yes, I wouldn't mind the change in color, but the process of, say, the mac and cheese, it's so quick and easy.
Even, say, you have a young teen child, they can make themselves the mac and cheese.
So I think it's more than just the color.
It's the cell of the ease and the time.
Well, I'm being told that it's equally easy.
But let me share a little story for you.
This is a true story.
Something I experienced a few years ago.
I was on a plane with a guy who worked for a large company.
You've all heard of the company and you know the product that he makes.
And I was giving this guy a hard time.
He was probably regretting he was on the plane with me.
So he said, I'm going after him over and over again about why there was so much salt in the food that he was selling.
And after about a half an hour of me haranguing him, he finally turned to me, probably to make me be quiet.
And he said, you know what?
We took out half the salt.
And I said, you did?
He said, we absolutely took out half the salt.
And I said, well, why didn't you tell anybody?
He said, because if we told people that half the salt was out, they wouldn't buy it anymore.
They would think it was a health food.
So this is a two-way street.
I want us to be honest about this as well.
It's going to make a change in our lives for the better with regard to our health, but we have to be willing to step forward and say, we're going to tolerate a little difference than what we grew up with because we know this is so much better for us.
So at least it doesn't have the risk of having problems.
Because in fairness, some of these changes, we don't know if they'll make you healthier.
But we do know that we make the food system a little easier to understand for a lot of consumers.
Are you happy with the step these guys are taking?
Yes.
Let me go back to Michael.
Are we going to see more changes like this from the big food manufacturers?
Oh, I think they have to go further.
I think they're going to go further.
This is a huge moment we're in with people caring about what they put in their bodies, and the companies are responding.
There are startup ventures out there who are reinventing processed food to make it affordable, convenient, tasty.
And here's the thing, good for you.
And these companies have to respond.
The door's cracked open.
All that's needed is to bust that thing wide open.
All right, we're in that direction.
We're going to keep telling you about these changes all year long.
We'll be right back.
Later, feeling insecure about your life?
I feel like my 22-year-old self would probably be really angry at my 44-year-old self.
Find out what's holding you back from reaching your full potential.
The plan to help you live a happier life.
Coming up.
It's the photo that sparked a huge debate.
The cold heart truth is that heroin kills.
The question is, how do we stop it?
You feel so alone when you go through it.
The nation's drug czar weighs in on the crisis.
And the device that may save a life.
Plus, smart drugs.
They promise to make you smarter, more motivated, and less forgetful.
Do they work?
We test them out.
All new odds.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Today's conversation, how sugar has been sold down through the ages.
I was curious about this, because believe it or not, sugar was advertised for its health benefits.
Or was it?
There's the question of how well you remember these ads.
Who wants to play with me?
Y'all in this?
Okay, folks my generation might remember some of these ads.
Younger folks won't, but I'm going to see how good you are at it.
Okay, here you are.
I'm going to read an advertisement.
I want you to guess if it's real or if it's fake.
Very easy.
Should be straightforward, right?
You can tell fake from real.
All right, here goes.
First one, play about this.
Well, you got to guess.
I'm not going to tell you the answer.
What do you think?
I think it's fake.
Why do you think it's fake?
Because I would not have an appetite when it comes to sugar.
It must be fake, right?
So, the fine print of the ad says that actually only 18 calories per teaspoon and it's all energy.
It is true.
Teaspoon of sugar is only 18 calories.
It's better than some other stuff.
And it is all energy, so it's a truthful statement.
But it doesn't do all the things that maybe we thought it might do that are good for us.
Who wants to play next?
I'm not going to give you the ad first.
Who's brave?
You're brave back there.
Look at this ad carefully.
Why would they put that ad there?
To try to make people lose weight.
Does it work eating sugar to lose weight?
No.
No.
No, not at all.
But you're absolutely right.
Spoil your appetite with sugar and you can come up with the willpower.
The willpower you need to eat less and maybe even weigh less.
That's pretty cool, I think.
And they used to run those ads.
Okay, you ready for one more?
Who wants to help with the last one?
I want someone really, really in with this.
You got it?
Okay, here he goes.
Look carefully now.
Drink more things made of sugar.
That's true.
But guess what?
Although they do that, you don't see many fat kids, do you?
I think it might be true though.
You think it's a true ad anyway?
Yeah, because it's possible.
It's kind of selling to the kids to eat more sugar and it won't affect them because kids are more active and stuff like that.
Who's horrified by the idea this might be a real ad?
Isn't that crazy?
It's true.
Crazy.
So, the next time you look at these kinds of ads, you've got to be thoughtful about them.
We've changed a lot of what we think about the food supply in America, and sometimes these kinds of ads play with us.
Because you know what?
You do walk by kids.
They generally are thinner than adults.
That's not because they're eating sugar, though.
Thank you for playing with me.
All right, up next, for anyone out there who's ever felt insecure before, you have to meet our next guest.
Her name is Jill, and she'll be here when we come back.
Coming up next.
Do you lack confidence?
Never feel like you're good enough?
I have a lot of fear.
I do a lot of comparing with other people.
The plan to conquer your insecurities.
And later, the surprising poem that will make you think twice.
Literally.
Coming up.
We are bringing a healthy back this season and want you to bring it too.
Grab your prescription pad for fun and sign up for free tickets today.
You can go to dros.com slash tickets and sign up.
Have you felt insecure your entire life?
Insecure about your weight or your appearance, your role in your marriage, parental skills, or even your career?
Insecurity and not feeling good enough can be the root cause of stress in your life and it's holding you back from being happy.
My next guest struggles with her insecurities every day.
Ask yourself, does Jill sound like you?
I see these women who are so put together and they look so secure and confident in their flawless makeup and their skinny jeans and their wedge heels and I think, how do they have time to do that and why can't I pull that off?
I've always felt insecure but it's funny because on the inside I feel like I'm pretty rad.
I'm a blast to hang out with but then I look in the mirror and I see the truth.
I'm a frumpy mom.
I question my career.
I question my fashion choices.
I question my weight.
I've put on 60 pounds in the last 18 years.
If I felt more confident, I might be able to lose them.
Sometimes when I'm at the grocery store, I'll throw a couple packages of cookies in there, and I feel like I need to have a sign around my neck that says, these are not for me.
Don't judge me.
These are for my husband.
It starts in the morning when I wake up and I spend about 10 minutes arguing with myself whether or not I'm going to get on the treadmill.
I usually don't get on the treadmill.
Then I go and get on the scale and what I see, I don't like so much.
Then I go to my job as an administrative assistant.
I actually have a college degree in French, and I always had visions of myself being a college professor, but that didn't work out, and I sometimes wonder if my kids look at me and think, you know, she could have chosen a better career, and I just wonder if I disappoint them.
I do go on Facebook quite a bit and what I see just makes me feel kind of ugh.
Here's a friend who is living her dream in LA. Here's a friend who just lost a bunch of weight.
Here's another friend who is so confident that she belly dances.
But when you're not on it, you wonder, I wonder what's going on.
I wonder what everybody else is doing.
If I felt more confident, I think I would pursue more friendships.
I would feel more confident expressing myself.
And I wouldn't be afraid to let people know that I am pretty rad to hang out with.
Adul isn't alone.
She's not the only one who feels this way, and that's why I felt passionate about telling her story, because our own insecurities are often kept hidden and keeping us from living to our fullest potential.
So thank you for being here.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
So explain a little bit.
Why don't you feel good enough?
You've got it all, it seems.
Well, I feel like I question everything.
I feel like my 22 year old self would probably be really angry at my 44 year old self.
There's just a lot of things that I feel not confident about.
Are you happy with the way you look?
No, not at all.
You know, appearance is a good place to start because most women, in fact, if you measure it, 60% of women have real issues with their appearance.
At least once a week, they're really frustrated by it.
But I want to go deeper than that.
And I think you want to go there as well.
Because when you get beyond that level of insecurity, there's some deeper issues.
So help everyone understand how you feel when you're going to one of those insecure moments.
I feel really sad and disappointed and frustrated with myself.
I just, you know, I have a lot of fear.
I have a lot of, I do a lot of comparing with other people.
So what are you good at?
What are you confident about?
I am confident that I am a reasonably intelligent person.
I have a great sense of humor.
My friends love me.
Other than that, I feel really insecure about pretty much everything else.
I wonder if you agree, because I think a lot of folks probably would if they think about it, that a lot of your insecurities are self-inflicted.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I think I'm very hard on myself.
And other people can't even see you're going through it.
How do you think these insecurities have affected your family, for example?
I try to shield my family from my insecurities.
I put everything inward.
I shut down.
I withdraw.
I try very hard to shield my kids from my insecurities because I don't want them to have the same insecurities that I do.
Do you think it's worked?
I hope so.
I'm not confident that it has.
I don't know.
You want to find out?
Sure.
So I asked them, I'm going to put it in the truth tube because that's where it belongs.
Okay.
To allow us to see how they see you through their eyes.
Okay.
Is that fair enough?
Sure.
I'll hold your hand.
Thank you.
We'll both do this together.
Take a look, everybody.
Okay.
Hey, honey.
I just want to let you know how proud I am of you.
My mom gives the best hug.
She has a great smile, and she's the best mom in the world.
My mom is beautiful, kind, caring.
She knows how to comfort us when we need it, and she makes us feel really loved.
She knows how to stay calm when things get bad or when we are knowing her and she loves to spend time with us.
I just appreciate all your hard work.
I love you and I'll always be there to help support you.
We love you mom How does it make you feel to hear your family talk about you that way?
That was awesome.
That was so great.
That was great.
That makes me just feel ten times taller.
That's amazing.
You know, I was thinking how to describe insecurity, and you can't help but think about it in the context of a mom and a woman.
Because, you know, a lot of the insecurity that we sense is fear that we're not living up to our fullest potential, and it's fear of failure.
And you think, if I fail, well, geez, people aren't going to love me.
And that's spiritual death.
And we want to get past that today.
We want to get you comfortable, because those little protecting walls you're putting up around you, they're actually called a cage, and they're locking you in, you can't get past that.
Right.
So what's holding you back from being rad, as you said?
I just, I think if I felt more confident, I think I would be able to express myself and I wouldn't hold those feelings in and eat them.
I think being more confident would open up a lot of areas for me.
Every single person in this audience, the millions of folks watching you on television right now, your host, I've got insecurities like everybody else.
And we find ways around them.
But I want you to embrace that fear.
So here's the deal.
When we come back, I've got a plan for you and for everybody else.
A plan to overcome insecurities so you have the confidence to live up to your fullest potential.
Stay here.
Later, a deceptively simple poem that went viral and the world took notice.
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Today's show is important to me because many of us suffer from insecurity, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, all that stuff we talk about, but suffer from the height at the same time.
Well, that's going to end today.
Emily Roberts is joining us.
She's a practicing psychotherapist who specializes in self-esteem.
To start us off, Emily, who are the people most likely to have this problem, to be insecure?
Who isn't?
I mean, I'm insecure about some things.
I'm sure you're insecure about a few things.
Jill so bravely is telling us she's insecure about things.
Everybody's insecure, and it's so important that we're talking about this because there's a mind-body connection here that we can't ignore, right?
If you're insecure about something, it really takes over your life, and it's insidious.
It's this cyclical thinking of, I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough.
And that affects your mind, it affects your body, it affects your spirit.
So this feeling of not feeling good enough that you mentioned earlier, specifically, how does it block you from getting to your potential?
Why can't you just push through it?
It keeps you in a box, really.
I mean, it keeps you from doing the things that you know you can do at some level.
But let's be honest.
The first part of this that we're kind of ignoring is it's not your fault if you're insecure.
It's not because of something that you've done.
It's experiences that perhaps you've had, but it's not your fault.
So give us some habits that you think classically break down our self-esteem, things that actually build up our insecurities.
Okay, well I love that you said, Jill, I love that you said the Facebook stuff.
When you notice that you're doing something that's triggering an insecure thought, when you can avoid those triggers temporarily, what winds up happening is you can really start to rewire your brain.
Your brain does change when you're able to see more positives versus negatives.
And what about women who, and I say this all the time, who say everything's fine.
We're doing okay.
This is the one word that I don't allow in my office.
You can say any other F word but that one.
Because it's so unhealthy, right?
I'm telling people that I'm fine, don't worry about me.
I'm minimizing myself.
I'm not respecting myself either if I'm saying that, right?
And so when I say everything is fine, I'm also suffocating.
My emotions.
And when I do that, that's a really bad habit.
Because what winds up happening is no one can help me.
And then, you know what?
You put them all down there somewhere.
It's going to come up eventually.
And it comes out in disease.
It comes out in illness.
And it comes out in mental health issues.
And let's deal with the last issue mothers often have to cope with, which is trying to please others.
Who doesn't?
You're no good to anyone else unless you're taking time to do self-care, taking time to do things for yourself and that builds you up.
Jill, I want you, and we're going to talk about this after the show, we're going to work on getting more self-care for her in her life, doing the things that make her feel good, because when you're pleasing others, and for a lot of moms out there and dads, you're showing your kids that they should be that way too, unconsciously.
What role model are you becoming for that child?
I'll please everyone else before myself.
What are they going to do in 20 years?
Copy you.
Exactly.
And we don't want those beautiful children doing the same thing.
So let's go through these steps that everyone can take advantage of.
So first off, we become aware of our triggers, learn to avoid them.
You explained on Facebook.
From now on, we're all going to do that.
Social media is a particularly nefarious place to be for that reason.
Second is turn down this divine of the self-talk that's so loudly shouting to us.
Right.
So become aware of your triggers, right?
But become aware of your negative self-talk.
When you do that, it's actually empowering, right?
If you notice when you're going to the mirror, like Jill said, I go to the mirror and I look at myself and I'm not happy.
Well, let's find something you are happy about in that picture.
Counteract each negative with a positive because what I said before, it rewires your brain a bit.
You start to see things in a more positive light.
You challenged us with saying that it wasn't our fault.
Yes.
How do we find out why we're insecure?
Well, that's a big issue for a lot of people.
We want to find the reason.
That girl that bullied me in seventh grade, I still remember your name, but those are the things that maybe triggered it.
But they're not the cause of it now.
What's happened is we've taken that and it's manifested into other areas of our lives.
And it's not helpful or healthy.
But the causes could be being bullied even though maybe they didn't know you were bullying you.
Something your mom said.
You can always blame mom.
Right, but it can also be something that you interpreted.
So you said maybe you were the last person to get picked for a team.
Or maybe you saw other people and you compared yourself to them because they were better, fitter, whatever.
Those are...
These beliefs, these thoughts that you've taken from childhood to now, but they're no longer serving you.
Talk back to the thoughts.
It's the most powerful thing you can do.
Thank you very much for taking Jill under your wings.
Absolutely.
Making sure she learns to talk back.
I look forward to big things from her.
I do too.
Find information from all of our TruthTube experts and guests of the Dr. Oz show at Dr. Oz.com.
TruthTube Hub.
We'll be right back.
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Insecurities and perception, they go hand in hand.
The way you see something may be different from the way the person sitting right next to you sees them.
That's never been more true than with this poem written by Chaney Gorkin, a teenager from Brooklyn.
Now, whatever you're doing, I want you to stop for a second because this is a big, big exercise and you will all remember this for the rest of your lives, I think.
A friend of mine sent it to me and asked that I read this poem to my staff.
Now, take a look as they read it.
Today was the absolute worst day ever.
And don't try to convince me that there's something good in every day, because when you take a closer look, this world is a pretty evil place.
Even if some goodness does shine through once in a while, satisfaction and happiness don't last.
And it's not true that it's all in the mind and heart, because true happiness can be obtained only if one's surroundings are good.
It's not true that good exists.
I'm sure you can agree that the reality creates my attitude.
It's all beyond my control.
And you'll never in a million years hear me say that today was a good day.
So, who wants to comment on that?
How did that make you feel?
I believe it somewhat, but at the same time, I think it's very negative to look in that light because there is good in everything.
It's just a matter of your mind and how you perceive everything.
But it was sort of sad to hear them say that.
It was.
It's sad.
And what did you think about it?
Life is what you make of it, and every day is a new start, and you find the good in things to make yourself smile.
So you didn't agree with it, but obviously it makes you emotional even to think about it.
Will you do me a favor?
This is the poem.
This is the actual poem I got.
Read the very bottom line.
What does the bottom line say?
Today was a good day.
No, no.
The very bottom line.
The real bottom line.
Now read from the top.
Oh.
Now read from bottom to top.
Right.
Now I'm going to read that exact same poem from the bottom up.
Take a look.
Today was a good day and you'll never in a million years hear me say it's all beyond my control.
My attitude creates the reality.
I'm sure you could agree that it's not true that good exists only if one's surroundings are good.
True happiness can be obtained because it's all in the mind and heart.
And it's not true satisfaction and happiness don't last.
Some goodness does shine through once in a while, even if the world is a pretty evil place.
Because when you take a closer look, there's something good in every day.
And don't try to convince me that today was the absolute worst day ever.
Now how did that make you feel this time?
Warm and fuzzy.
Warm and fuzzy.
That's the right way to describe it.
Everything in life is about perception.
You guys said it on your own.
But even the way we read, the order we read these lines makes a difference.
It's true in all things we do.
So I want you to go through life thinking that the glass is half full.
Read the poem from the bottom up and it changes everything, including your mood.
Take this poem.
You can print it out.
You can send it to folks.
I'm going to post it on Facebook.
Share the positive vibes it gives you for the people around you.
Print it.
Share it.
Do what you need to do with it.
Make sure everyone realizes that we control our health and happiness because it starts at home.
I'll see you next time.
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