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Nov. 11, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:48
Top Food Questions Answered: Food Coloring, Safety & More! | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 110 | Full Episode
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We answer 99 of your biggest food questions, starting with artificial food coloring.
Why are so many dyes banned outside the U.S.? Should you be worried?
There are about half a million that we estimate are probably affected by food dyes.
Wait till you see what else we uncovered.
Plus, should you put ketchup in the fridge?
What's really in fat-free half and half?
Does bacteria grow in your slow cooker?
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today.
We'll save lives today.
We are greater than healthy food!
I hope you are hungry for answers, that is, because today we are hitting 99 of your biggest burning food questions.
From the tough ones that affect your whole family, like, are artificial food coloring something to worry about?
To the questions you've always been curious about, like, do I have to refrigerate my ketchup?
And how about the food safety questions you all want to know?
Like, can bacteria grow in your slow cooker?
And finally, we have the latest information from experts on the food front lines to bring you all the answers.
And we're gonna start with the latest battle in the war against artificial food dyes.
Artificial food coloring.
It makes our food bright, colorful, and appealing.
It's probably a big part of your diet.
But are food dyes safe?
And why are so many dyes banned outside the U.S.? In 2013, we told you about the concerns with yellow dye number 5 and 6. At the time, two of the ingredients in Kraft mac and cheese.
Last year, Kraft promised to remove them, stating, We've met with families.
They told us they want to feel good about the foods they eat and serve.
Kraft's move may have been a tipping point.
General Mills and Mars both recently announced that they plan on phasing out all artificial colors from their products.
Soon, perhaps the most famous brightly colored candy of all, M&Ms, will be free of artificial food dyes.
And at least nine more companies are making similar changes.
But approximately 40% of cereal, drink mixes and candy in this country still contain food dyes despite health concerns.
And food dyes have been banned in our country before, when evidence showed they could cause cancer in animals.
But seven still remain and have both parents and doctors concerned.
Back in 2011, the FDA voted against the food coloring ban.
And now, a recent report and a letter signed by 15 scientists that was delivered to the FDA points to a growing body of evidence.
Connecting food dyes and behavioral issues, hyperactivity, and even ADHD in kids.
Now is the time to re-examine this issue.
Do you really want artificial coloring in your food?
Seven dyes remain on the FDA's approved list for use of foods in the U.S. There's the reds.
You see them all over the place.
There are the yellows.
A couple of those.
Of course, there are the greens.
Sometimes green has to be artificially placed.
And then there are the blue colorings, right?
Now, these are virtually nonexistent in Europe.
But in America, if a processed food has a bright color, there's a pretty good chance it has one of these dyes.
I'll give you an example.
Look at these candies in front of me.
Gummies and tart, round candies.
You all recognize these.
At least you recognize these.
Because notice how these are very bright, vibrant, almost fluorescent.
A little different from the darker, less vibrant, more real looking candies here.
What's the difference between these?
These ones are from America.
The colorful ones.
Now how do they get there?
How do these become so bright?
They jump out at you.
It's because they've got coloring in them, right?
And there's lots of different colorings.
In the US, we usually use yellows and reds and blues to make these candies jump at us.
But in the UK, they don't use artificial coloring like that.
They use paprika extract.
They use vegetable extracts, like spinach and nettles and turmeric.
Who would think that's how the yellow got yellow from turmeric?
They even use chlorophyll.
It's a pigment from algae.
I mean, does that sound better to you?
The real stuff put into your foods, especially for your kids.
Now, many American food companies argue that these dyes are just fine.
They're safe.
And they're a reasonable way to enhance the visual appearance of your food.
And that's what got a group of scientists and doctors to reevaluate Whether it was right or not.
And one of those doctors who's joining us is pediatrician Dr. Alan Green.
He signed a recent letter to the FDA urging for a ban.
We're also joined by Dr. Michael Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Science and Public Interest, who just released a report on the dangers of food dyes.
So, Dr. Green, the FDA does look at this periodically.
Lots of people are always, you know, going to them with issues, especially around food dyes.
Five years ago, they said they were okay.
Has there been more evidence that's changed your mind and should change theirs over the last five years?
So, since 2011, there have been eight new published studies showing a strong correlation between these chemical dyes and hyperactivity, behavior problems, and ADHD in some kids.
Now, the original work that grabbed my attention, they were carefully controlled studies.
They took all the food diets out of kids' diets and then gave them either the chemical dyes or natural ones that were prepared to look and taste just the same.
The kids didn't know what they were getting, the teachers didn't, their parents didn't.
And they found when the chemical dyes were removed, their behavior significantly improved, and hyperactivity decreased.
And in some kids, it was the equivalent, the same order of magnitude effect, as prescription ADHD meds just removing the dyes.
Are you guys hearing this?
That's remarkable.
You know, there was a poll down last year that looked at what Americans are feeling about these food diets.
Sixty percent of you say you'd rather avoid a food diet, and that's an important decision when you buy your food.
So this stuff is on our radar screen.
I'm now beginning to more and more see reports like the ones that you're sharing, but be anecdotal if you don't, because you're a pediatrician.
When a mother brings you a child, and that child is restless or not behaving ideally, As kids are prone to do at times, how long after taking out the artificial diet do you see behavior changes?
So I have seen kids' behavior improved when I see them back the next week.
And this is a big deal.
ADHD is one of the most rapidly increasing diagnoses in kids in the U.S. The CDC estimates that we spend $36 billion a year managing ADHD. And parents would rather do it without drugs if they could.
Jason, let me turn to you.
You've had a large organization.
Many would argue you have an agenda to get these dyes banned.
How much of the data that your group's reporting is independent from you, not traded by you?
It's all independent.
You know, we look at studies, and there have been at least two dozen studies where kids are given food dyes or a placebo, and many of the kids react to the food dyes.
Now, if food dyes didn't cause a problem, we would just forget about it.
We wouldn't care.
But the evidence is so strong that we've petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to get rid of the dyes.
The FDA is sitting on its hands.
Fortunately, some of the big companies now are reacting to consumer concerns, beginning to take the dyes out of the foods, and that's a good step forward.
Dr. Jacobson, walk me through some of your findings.
We put them up on visual so people can understand what we're really talking about, because this affects your family, like literally today.
So, let's talk a little bit about the early stuff that you found.
Take it away.
Well, one of the key things to note is the dye exposure in kids, or the general population, has quadrupled in the last 50 years or so.
And that's the period in which a lot of these studies were done.
So per capita consumption has increased fourfold.
That's because you're eating more candy or there's more dyes in the candy.
In fact, look at this, 90% of the fruit flavored kids foods out there, just about everything you buy has food dyes in it.
That's why it's so alluring, so fluorescent jumping out at you.
And when you look at sensitivity issues, just one cupcake, just one of these fruit juices with added food dyes enough in a child that's vulnerable to create some of these behavioral changes that we're all concerned about.
That's right.
And not only do you find them, but the amounts of dye that's in a cupcake or a serving of a fruit drink, there's enough in one serving to trigger hyperactivity or irritability in some segment of kids.
You know, obviously not all kids.
But there's a lot of kids out there.
Just one serving?
Just one serving.
You know, this stuff is everywhere.
It's very challenging for parents to protect their kids from food dyes.
So how many kids are affected by this?
Well, there are about half a million kids that we estimate are probably affected by food dyes.
So it's not every child, but I think every one of these is a real tragedy because these symptoms are just terrible for the child, terrible for the family.
And when you see, as Dr. Green mentioned, Remove dyes from these kids' diets and their behavior improves.
Within a week, I heard.
Within a week.
So all this information went into a recent report to the FDA. And so we reached out to the FDA for a statement.
And here's what they said in part.
The FDA has reviewed and will continue to examine the effects of food dyes on children's behavior.
The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects.
They went on to say that if parents are concerned, they can talk to their doctors and read the labels.
I was sort of caught up by that.
In most kids, is this an acknowledgement from the government that there's a problem here?
It's a backhanded acknowledgement.
You know, five years ago the FDA said, yes, sensitive kids may well be sensitive to food dyes and some other substances, but the FDA is really hiding this from the public.
It's unfortunate, and it's really because of food industry pressure that's keeping the FDA from doing what its responsibility is.
Get these, what are really toxic chemicals, out of the American food supply.
Hallelujah for that.
You don't have to wait for a government to act.
Companies, as you pointed out, are already doing this, but you can even push it further.
These food dyes are going to affect you in ways you can't predict.
So why not just reward the companies that are very wisely taking this stuff out of the food supply, reward them by buying their products.
And there are some surprising places that dyes were found that you won't believe, and they're hiding in there.
We're going to tell you how to avoid them when we come back.
Next, they can cause allergies and some could even be carcinogenic.
So how do you spot hidden artificial coloring in your foods?
From salad dressings to pickles to even Florida oranges.
We'll show you what to look for and how to avoid it next.
Flatter by Friday.
The plan to shrink your stomach in just one week.
Slim down without sacrifice.
Let's talk about exactly what you're going to eat to get flack by next Friday.
Plus, fast fixes to get your health back on track.
All new odds.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back talking about the health impact of artificial food coloring.
It's virtually nonexistent in Europe, but it remains in a great deal of foods on the American supermarket shelves.
Joined by Dr. Alan Green, who has been a part of the movement to ban artificial dyes since 2011. You actually argue that this is a problem that's much more rampant than just kids' candies and stuff.
Yeah, absolutely.
These chemical dyes are an issue for adults as well.
Some adults are sensitive, can have allergic reactions to them.
Some of the chemical diets have already been banned because they're carcinogenic, and there's question marks about others.
And they're not just in DayGlo kids' foods.
You'll find them in salad dressings and pickles and healthy cereals adults eat, veggie wraps.
And here's one that's very surprising.
Even in the produce aisle.
In the produce aisle?
In the produce aisle.
Oranges are sometimes dipped in chemical dye so they have a uniform pleasing color.
Let me show you.
Actually, I just heard about this.
This is fascinating that we'd actually think about changing oranges.
And again, you might not think much about this, but next time you go to the supermarket, you'll remember this.
When you see a normal orange, It doesn't have that bright color that's orange that you might expect.
Climate conditions can sometimes leave oranges looking a little pale with their yellow or maybe even a little greenish, right?
That happens.
But it's still ripe, it's still ready to eat.
In 1980, the FDA passed a policy allowing oranges to be dyed with citrus red number two, right?
And that's why this dye is permitted just for this purpose, only for this purpose.
Now, admittedly, you don't eat the peel, right?
So what's the big deal?
But how many parents have seen kids put a peel in their mouth like this?
Mine do this routinely.
I even eat my oranges.
I cut them in slivers and eat them like this.
Or if you're cooking stuff with an orange zest, you're taking a little bit of that rind and putting it in your food to make the recipe taste better.
And these are the kinds of subtle ways that food dyes are slipping their way into our intestines and into our food supply.
So let me turn to Bobbi.
She's joining us.
She says her daughter's behavior Significantly changed after eliminating food dyes from her diet.
And, Bobbi, there's so many different factors that influence whether our kids are acting out or not.
Why'd you suspect food dyes?
Well, I'm a mom of two.
I'm also a therapist for children and adolescents.
You're a therapist?
Yes.
How perfect.
At the moment, it wasn't perfect because it freaked me out completely because my three-year-old was having tantrums that I couldn't explain.
As a mom or as a therapist.
And it wasn't until we went on a camping trip and we were, she was tantruming from the night before when our niece came over.
All through the night.
She couldn't sleep well.
She tantrumed in the morning.
She tantrumed the entire ride up to the Adirondacks.
It was intense.
It, like, blew all our minds.
So I said, finally, I said, what, is someone feeding, like, is she eating something?
Is she, you know, what's going on back there in the truck?
And finally, our niece said, I've been giving her gum since last night when I came over, stick after stick as a treat.
And I didn't notice because she had been swallowing it.
All that died without you realizing it.
And so I read the package.
The rest of the week on vacation, I said, whatever is in that, we're not going to give her.
It was yellow five, yellow six in that particular gum.
I came home, I did research, called the pediatrician, made an appointment, discussed it with him, and we removed dyes from her diet, and she never had a completely out-of-control tantrum like those again.
It's a remarkable story.
So what's your advice, obviously as a mom but also as an expert, to all the moms out there and grandmoms watching, what should they do about this problem?
How do they figure out which dyes might be an issue?
I would say that anyone who works with children and has children that they feel their behavior is either out of their control or out of the child's control to, number one, call your pediatrician, make an appointment, speak to them about it, do research, educate yourself, know that when the FDA says it's safe to eat these dyes, it's technically safe for the FDA to say it's safe.
It's not.
It's not safe for my child, so I don't know how it's safe for everyone's child.
I just don't know that.
Why do you say technically it's safe for them to say that, but it's not safe for you?
Because the studies they're using to say it's safe are, if you read the report by CSPI, it does highlight in the letter to the FDA, it highlights that the studies they used were very low doses, not really what a child would eat at a birthday party or at the holiday party at school.
Dr. Green, we're trying to answer a question posed today for all of our viewers.
Do people need to worry about artificial food dyes?
Would I worry about artificial food dyes?
No.
But I would take action.
These are petroleum-based chemicals that don't do anything to enhance food except increase sales.
They fool us.
They trick us into buying things.
So I would suggest vote with your dollars.
Choose the products that are made, the produce that's not with chemical dyes.
Again, this is the highlight of so much of what we talk about today in America.
You guys have power.
I want to applaud the companies who have voluntarily removed artificial dyes.
They are hearing us reward them by using their products.
And listen, if Europe has a product with a food dye, it comes with a warning label.
It says sort of that, you know, adverse effects on activity and attention in children might happen.
At least let's keep that in mind.
Since we don't have those labels here, tell your friends all about it.
Let them realize it's out there, how important this is, and vote with your dollars.
Up next, we're going to continue answering your burning food questions.
Coming up next, home cooks everywhere are wondering the same thing.
Do we need to refrigerate ketchup?
Just a little scientific experiment.
You up for this, everybody?
He sets the record straight once and for all.
Because you don't want to throw your ketchup away every month.
That's coming up next.
Today, it's 99 of your biggest burning food questions answered from Facebook, Twitter, and all over the country.
And the first question comes from Gail in California.
Have you ever noticed in the diner the ketchup is left out on a table?
But at home everyone refrigerates it.
Dr. Oz, does ketchup need to be refrigerated?
So home cooks everywhere are wondering the exact same thing.
So I put a poll up on DrOz.com about your ketchup.
60% of you say you refrigerate your ketchup.
13% of you don't.
And 27% of you don't know which way is right.
You are torn.
So here to set the record straight is Julia Collin-Davison from America's Test Kitchen.
Knows everything about this.
Once and for all, give us a definitive answer.
Be the judge here.
Can we refrigerate ketchup or not?
Technically, no.
You do not need to refrigerate ketchup.
After you open the bottle, you can store it in your pantry for at least a month.
So why if it's stable for a month?
Only a month?
That's right.
Only a month in the pantry.
Longer if you refrigerate it.
So why is that?
Should we show us?
Yeah.
So let's take a look at what's in a bottle of ketchup.
So here are all the ingredients in ketchup.
And three of these ingredients are helping ketchup be shelf stable.
The first two are salt and sugar.
Now these are natural preservatives used for hundreds of years to preserve food.
Think of dry cured meat.
Same thing's happening here.
The third ingredient is vinegar.
Now vinegar is very acidic, and bacteria does not like to grow in acidic environments.
Now you measure acidity in terms of pH, and in particular, foods with a pH of 4.6 or lower are not easily spoiled by bacteria.
But luckily, this doesn't taste too acidic because you have the flavor of the sugar to balance it out.
All right, so the spices aren't helpful, but they just make it taste better.
They just make it taste good.
The tomatoes would go bad by themselves, so now I'm getting this.
That's right.
So let's do a little scientific experiment.
You up for this, everybody?
We're gonna actually take some ketchup.
Got a lot of students today.
They all love experiments.
And we put a little pH point.
Walk us through how you set this up.
Yeah, so this is our pH monitor from the test kitchen.
It's about $1,000, and it helps monitor the pH of food.
You actually use that at the test kitchen?
All the time.
All the time.
You really are a scientist.
Yeah, it's fun.
But this, if you look at the pH, you can see it's hovering around 3.5.
Again, that's well below that benchmark of 4.6, which is what shelf-stable food is.
Now, if you open a jar of ketchup and you keep it in your pantry, as soon as you open that jar, things in the jar begin to change.
The sugars break down, the pH will begin to vary, and every time you open it, you're introducing fresh bacteria to the ketchup.
So after a month, you might start to notice mold.
But that process is slowed down significantly when you put it in the refrigerator.
So whereas you can get a month in the pantry, you can store it in the refrigerator for at least six months.
So I trust you, you know that, but I wanted to just verify.
So I called two of the biggest ketchup companies out there to figure out what their answers would be.
One said, and they just completely confirmed what you said, by the way, that you don't have to refrigerate the ketchup, but they recommend it for best flavors, sort of the same point.
After a month, it won't taste quite as perfect.
The other said that while you don't have to, it's sort of best to refrigerate it after opening.
Why not?
And I guess it all makes sense, but here's the big thing, guys.
One month on the shelf, six months in the fridge.
Personally, I vote, you keep it in your fridge.
That's what I do in my household, because you don't want to throw your ketchup away every month, and you don't want to have to eat a bottle of ketchup every month either.
No.
I want you to be forced to get through the little bit of the bottle, because you don't want it to go bad.
Save money, and it makes sense.
All right, come on over here.
This rule is not just for ketchup.
There are other condiments that we studied.
Take it away, Julia.
Yeah, so if you take a look at all these other condiments, Such as maple syrup or mustard or even soy sauce.
Now all these have a similar balance of sugar and or salt or vinegar that help preserve them to be shelf stable for at least a month.
But again, if you store them in the refrigerator, even soy sauce, they'll last a lot longer, their color will retain, and the flavor will be a lot more fresh.
See, Julie's a very complex woman.
She always saves one exception, no matter what she says.
True.
There's an exception here, too.
Yep, there is.
The hot sauce.
Now, hot sauce is made almost entirely of vinegar.
So, whereas the others are only shelf-stable for about a month, hot sauce is stable for about a year.
But again, like the others, the flavor is best preserved in the refrigerator.
You know, for a year.
I'd get through that in a year.
Yeah.
All right.
You can go to Dr.House.com for all 99 questions, like keeping your bread in the refrigerator.
Does that make sense, everybody?
Yeah.
We'll find out.
Go check it out.
Up next, we're going to solve one of the biggest mysteries in the dairy aisle.
We're investigating what the heck are the two halves of fat-free half and half.
You've been seeing those little fat-free half and halves?
What's the other half?
I don't understand it.
When we come back, we'll find out.
Next, does adding salt really make water boil faster?
Should we be washing our mushrooms?
And what makes up the halves in your fat-free half-and-half?
We're answering more of your burning questions behind America's favorite foods.
Coming up next.
Flatter by Friday.
The plan to shrink your stomach in just one week.
Slim down without sacrifice.
Let's talk about exactly what you're going to eat to get flat by next Friday.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow. - Attention all foodies, we are counting all the way to 99 today, answering all of your burning food questions.
It's a big job, so Julia Collin-Davison from America's Test Kitchen is here to help out.
The next question comes from Alexandra on Twitter, and she asks, does adding salt really make water boil faster?
What do you guys think?
Yeses and noes.
We're not sure.
Even our camera team is not sure.
All right, let's put this to the test.
I need someone from the audience.
Is Ashley here?
Come on down, Ashley.
Come on down, Ashley.
You've agreed to bravely do this demonstration.
Come on back over here, so you don't get burned.
Okay.
Do you add salt to your water before you boil it?
Yes, I do.
Because it works, right?
Mm-hmm.
You've tested it, and you're not for sure, or you're not sure?
It's what my mom told me.
Blame it on mom.
All right, Julie, you ready to do it?
Let's find out how to do this experiment.
So how would you do it?
Right, so we're going to put the water on.
Go ahead, Ashley.
And we're going to put the salt in the water, and we're just going to time how long it takes for this water to come to a boil.
Okay, so you add the salt.
I'm going to start the timer.
Are you ready?
Yep.
Go.
All right.
All right.
So, and when the water boils, I want you to blow that whistle really hard.
Okay.
All right.
Remember, when we watched a pot of water, it never boils, does it?
Can't do it.
This time it will, however.
We've tested this.
You're going to blow that whistle as soon as you see the first little bubbles in there.
And turn the timer off.
You got it.
No matter what we're doing.
Should we stay with her or guard her?
All right.
Don't mess things up.
All right, let's go to Gabriel on Facebook.
She's got a question.
Can anyone tell me what the heck the halves are in fat-free half and half?
I don't get it.
All right, here's the thing.
Gabriel, you're not alone.
I got to ask this question a bunch.
There's actually a magazine article recently written on this that got everyone's attention.
So let's talk about full fat half and half, the original stuff.
Because the original stuff It's pretty simple.
You got whole fat milk, you got cream which has fat in it, and with that you get half and half because it's half of one thing and half of another thing.
Tastes good, fantastic.
What happens when you remove The normalcy, because you have fat normally here.
What happens when you take it away?
Well, when you take it away, you then call it fat-free half and half.
But without the fat, you're missing the stuff, right?
You actually sort of want that fat.
In order to make up for the fact there's no fat in there, to give it that texture you want, you gain thickeners, artificial flavors, and sweeteners.
That's not a good trade-off, my friends.
I don't like that.
So, Gabriel, to answer your question, the haves are fat-free dairy plus all these additives that are not real.
So I don't think you ought to do that.
I think instead, if you like your coffee black, fine.
But if you don't, you can add a little real half and half.
It's not going to hurt you a little bit.
Or a little bit of real cream or a little bit of real milk, which is what I personally do.
Instead, you show a little milk fat that can actually be good for you.
Actually help in ways you never expect.
Julie, you okay there?
Oh, yeah.
We're starting to see some steam.
But no bubbles.
No bubbles.
All right, let's take another question.
In the meantime, Angela from Atlanta, here's her question.
Hi, Dr. Ott.
You know how mushrooms always seem to be covered in dirt?
And everyone says don't wash them because it ruins the texture.
Is that true?
Should I really not be washing mushrooms?
So take a look at this picture.
Mushrooms are often dirty because they grow in soil.
You get asked a lot of questions about washing mushrooms?
All the time.
What we found in the test kitchen is you can wash your mushrooms.
The idea that they're going to absorb moisture is false.
And that's because a mushroom is 80% water.
And it can't really absorb much more water.
So here you go.
Eight ounces of unwashed mushrooms.
Whoops!
Hold it.
Hold it.
Hold the fork.
Come over here.
It is boiling.
Look at that.
You stop it at 3 minutes 27 seconds.
That's pretty fast.
Not bad.
Yeah.
Is that fast enough to beat what would have happened if you hadn't added salt?
Not.
Not at all.
Salt does not make it boil faster, but it does make things taste good.
So for every gallon of water you boil, you want to use about a tablespoon of table salt.
What are you going to tell your mom, Ashley, about this new discovery?
Awkward, isn't it?
Yes, very.
Take this phone home.
Is it yours?
No.
Okay, I know that.
Just tell her what happened.
I will.
All right, come on over here.
Let's go back to mushrooms for a second.
We got the scales here.
Is the experiment going to prove So it's 800?
This is 8 ounces of mushrooms.
8 ounces.
And these are unwashed.
And the washed mushrooms, 8.1 ounces.
So you can see they really didn't absorb that water.
A tenth of an ounce!
That's not very much.
You can wash your mushrooms, save them a lot of time.
Now you want to do this before you start cooking.
If you do this too much in advance, the outside of the mushroom might get a little slimy.
So just before you start cooking, you want to give them a wash.
I'll say one more question from Andrea, who's next to you.
She's got a question about quinoa.
Now, I've always been told that you're supposed to wash the grains before you cook them.
And that just seems like an extra step to me.
Is that really necessary?
I have personal experience in this area, but I have a world expert next to you.
And we have two bowls of quinoa.
While we give you a little bit of an answer, if you don't mind, just take the spoons and taste each of these.
I'm about to tell you why they're different.
Just taste them, and you'll tell us a little later on what you see as a difference.
So you take it away.
Yeah.
So for most grains, including rice and quinoa, when you think about it, these grains are sitting in these big bulk bins.
They're rubbing up against each other, and they're breaking down making flours of rice.
It makes rice flour, and quinoa makes quinoa flour.
That coats all the grains with starch.
That starch can make things sticky, and of course it adds calories because it's starch.
So rinsing that away will give you a lighter, fluffier pilaf.
But in the case of quinoa, quinoa also has a coating on the outside called saponin.
And that saponin tastes really bitter.
So when you rinse it, you're rinsing away the saponin, so your quinoa will have a cleaner, fresher flavor.
That's the theory, anyway.
What's the reality?
Do you taste the difference?
When it's rinsed, it tastes a little bit, I don't know, nuttier?
Milder.
Which was nuttier?
This one?
That is rinsed.
Nice job.
That is rinsed.
And then the un-rinsed.
That's right.
So you can tell the difference just with the taste.
Yes.
So I tell you, a lot of folks prefer to rinse.
In our home we do because sometimes if you leave that coating on, it tastes a little bit bitter.
And people have a tough time digesting that.
But the other little secret here is when you rinse your grains off, you take away some carbohydrates.
They have less calories in them.
Even if the box says pre-rinsed, in our time, just to be safe, go ahead and give it a quick rinse as well.
But that's at least one shortcut if you don't want to have to do it.
Make sure it's pre-rinsed.
All right.
I hope that's helpful.
Thank you so much.
More questions to your biggest food questions from Julia.
You can check out America's Test Kitchen's book.
It's called Kitchen Hacks, well-named.
Coming up, does bacteria grow in your slow cooker?
We're going to answer that and all the other food safety questions you have.
Well, it's next.
Coming up next, we have the lowdown on your favorite hot and cold foods.
How to prevent bacteria from forming and making you sick.
Whether you're using a slow cooker or freezing cheese, we answer your biggest food safety questions.
Next.
Whoever said a doctor's visit isn't fun has obviously never been to the Dr. Oz Show.
Is that right?
Make your appointment today.
Go to DrOz.com slash tickets and sign up for free tickets.
- Okay, we are answering 99 of your burning food questions, and now something I know a lot of you are wondering about, temperature and food safety.
So now, it's the low down on hot and cold foods so you know how to handle them the right way to prevent bacteria from making you sick because they've grown on your stuff.
My first question is from Gabby who happens to be on my day off diet.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Is it working for you?
How much weight have you lost?
I've lost 10 pounds in two weeks.
Nice job.
What do you like about it?
What's working for you?
I like it because it is so straightforward.
That's what I like about it.
It tells you exactly what you can have, when you can have it.
I'm doing food prep.
I'm spending the past two Sundays prepping food for the upcoming weeks.
That's fabulous!
It is.
It's great because at the end of the day I have four children and I'm running back and forth from schools and soccer and you know you make bad choices when you're in a rush.
Well, this food prep point you make is critically important, but there's a question related to it that I've been reading a lot about that I understand you share with a lot of folks as well.
Yes, I was really not sure because I'm making a large quantity.
And then, do you need to let the food cool before you put it in the refrigerator, or can you put it in warm?
Aha, the big question.
This has been popping up on message birds all over the web, and today we're putting it to the test to get everybody to answer.
So before the segment, we put a hot chicken, a hot soup, and some steaming hot brown rice into this fridge right behind me.
Now, you know, the fridge temperature beforehand was 38 degrees.
You always want your fridge colder than 40 degrees.
Never want it to get warmer than that, no matter what happens.
So the real question you're asking, which we're going to test right now, is did we get the temperature above 40 by putting all that warm food in there?
Are you ready for the answer?
Sure.
Audience psyched up?
Here it goes.
Three, two, one.
Let's look at the answer.
And it is...
Look, look, look, look, look.
38 degrees!
Wow!
Who would have thought?
Awesome!
38 degrees!
38. Now think about this.
We put all that warm food in there.
We watched every bit of this.
We know what happened.
We even left the fridge open a couple times.
It's still 38 degrees.
Wow, that's amazing.
Which means it doesn't matter if you put warm food in the cold fridge.
It's still going to stay cold.
It's not an ice box.
So it's best to put it right in instead of leaving it out.
Yeah, I don't worry about it at all.
You know, put as much food as you want in your fridge.
I worry much more about you leaving it out too long before you put it in there because little boys will start growing.
Awesome.
That's a great tip.
Thank you so much.
I'm very proud of you, Gandy.
Thank you.
Thank you for the plan.
The next question comes from Twitter.
It's Jennifer.
She's asking, can you freeze cheese?
So I went to a big cheese maker to give us the answer.
Take a look.
Hey Dr. Oz, I'm Dan with Murray's Cheese.
You can freeze cheese, but not without some sacrifice of texture and flavor.
Think about how water expands as it freezes.
If you are going to freeze cheese, we recommend harder varieties, drier cheeses.
So stick to cheeses like aged cheddars or Parmesan Reggiano, even a harder Gouda.
We recommend cutting it into smaller portions, so you're thawing only what you need.
We recommend cheese or wax paper and you want to cover that with some plastic wrap or aluminum foil and then seal it up in a good freezer bag.
Keep it in the freezer for no more than six months and thaw in the refrigerator before you use it.
The next question comes from this group of friends who love their crockpots.
They get together once a month to prep and bag their meals.
They are so close they were fixing each other's hair before the segment.
I'm very proud of you.
So what's your question?
Well, we get together with the three of us, and we've got ten kids under the age of eight, so they just sort of run around.
But they run around while we cut and prep our food and bag it and get ready to put it in the slow cooker.
Yeah, we kind of call it our loud, crazy crockpot gathering.
And you've been eating your foods out of the crockpot.
There's probably a question about whether it's safe or not.
Yeah, so, Dr. Oz, my question is, how low can I set my slow cooker without bacteria forming?
You know, from the first day I heard about slow cookers, which we don't learn about in med school, I've wondered that.
And I finally got to the bottom of it because of your question.
I had my med team search it out.
I'm going to show you a little example of how the world works with bacteria and slow cookers.
So, normally what you do is you want to cook your food up to 140 degrees.
That's where you destroy most of the bacteria.
You put your food in there, you turn the slow cooker on, and what happens to the temperature?
It goes up pretty quickly, way past 140, which is the cutoff for safety, up to 170. In fact, it can go to 300 degrees.
That's fine.
And as long as the slow cooker is on, You're just fine.
Your temperature stays warm.
Everyone's happy.
You're out of the danger zone.
The problem happens when you put a timer on here, and the timer runs while you're at work, and then, boom, it's off.
And when it turns off with your stove cooker, now the temperature begins to cool from the 170 or whatever it was to less than 140. And that's where the bacteria start to grow in this Petri dish.
So the answer quickly stated is as long as you leave your slow cooker on, you are safe.
If you're going to put a timer on it to turn it off because you're worried that you're going to overcook it, which everything I can tell is not a usual worry for people to have, then you have to get home within two hours to get to the food.
That's your window, two hours after you turn it off.
But most of the time, just leave the thing on and you'll probably be fine.
You never invited me over.
Next time, you're welcome.
You're welcome anytime.
I'm coming over.
With eight kids?
Maybe we'll get a sitter and then we'll...
Oh, ten kids?
Ten kids.
We can play basketball!
Yeah!
Five on five.
All right, you can go to DrRoz.com for more of our 99 questions like, what's the difference between regular and extra virgin olive oil?
Up next, it's the most popular diet shortcut right now.
You're seeing it all the place.
It's scooping out the doughy middle of a bagel with the belief that you're reducing its calories.
But does it really make a difference?
And could it be actually adding more fat and calories to your diet?
We'll put it to the test.
Stay with us.
Next, it's driving Babel purists crazy.
You ruined the bagel.
It's not a bagel anymore.
Is this new trend really worth the hassle?
Or are you just adding calories by filling it with more cream cheese?
We get to the bottom of this weight loss craze.
Flatter by Friday.
The plan to shrink your stomach in just one week.
Slim down without sacrifice.
Let's talk about exactly what you're going to eat to get flack by next Friday.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Today I'm answering 99 of your burning food questions.
And now one of America's favorite carbs has prompted a question.
The bagel is asking whether or not you should scoop it or not.
That's the big question today.
Bagel stores around the country reporting a sharp increase in people who are literally pulling out The dough, the soft, mushy part, the part that I love the most, from the inside of the bagel.
They're calling it a scooped bagel, but not everyone's happy about this.
It actually prompted this headline in the New York Post.
Bagel scoopers are ruining New York, they said.
So, does scooping out the bagel reduce the calories enough to make it worth the hassle?
Because you're waiting behind someone in line, and the person in front of them is doing it again.
It just destroys the whole Sunday morning process.
Imagine that happening to you.
So we're going to address it today.
First, how many calories does a scooped bagel really save you?
The medical unit researched this.
When you scoop out the inside, the answer, 50 to 75 calories, depending on how well you scoop out the inside.
It's pretty good, by the way.
50 to 75 calories is sort of nice.
But then, we looked into whether or not there's another variable that might influence you.
Does scooping actually increase the amount of calories because there's room to add stuff into the middle, like cream cheese?
That, my friends, is a question we're gonna address.
Bagel lovers Willette, Melissa, and Kiara are here to help us put it all to the test.
So Willette, do you usually scoop your bagels?
I am against scooping.
Fairly against scooping.
You ruined the bagel.
It's not a bagel anymore.
Yeah.
You picked up the joy.
You want your jaws to be tired after chewing a bagel, right?
Absolutely.
When it's scooped out, you lose all that.
Melissa, do you think it's a good idea to scoop your bagel if you want to save calories?
Yeah.
I can't give up carbs, and bread is probably one of my favorite things.
So if I won't give it up, I'll take off portions of it.
So scooping, I've done.
So I have the answers right here.
Okay.
The experiment was done.
We gave each of them two bagels before the show.
One scooped, one unscooped.
And we asked them each to smear onto each of them the amount of cream cheese they might normally enjoy.
And we wanted to figure out, based on your experiment, whether it was wise to scoop out the bagel or not.
Are you ready for the answers?
The moment of truth.
Alright.
My medical unit calculated out this very carefully.
Willette?
You have a fair amount of cream cheese in there, don't you, my dear?
Well, I mean, it was no longer a bagel, so you had to do something to it.
So you're a purist, and perhaps for that reason you put 250 calories of cream cheese in there.
That's not good.
So, well, we're going to average this out here.
Melissa, you had 72 calories added, a little better, but still 72 calories is the most you could have scooped out.
And then, Kiera, interestingly, there's a lot less cream cheese on yours.
Yeah, I'm totally not into cream cheese, not into the heaviness.
You're a minimalist.
Minimalist.
Yeah, you actually used 45 calories less total.
So on average, 100 calories more.
In the scooped bagels than you would have if you just had it regularly.
So you're not saving the calories.
Here's my take on this.
I don't think that it's worth it.
If you're going to scoop your bagels, at least put something healthy in place of it.
Something like tuna fish with olive oil.
Something that's a little lighter.
Don't put cream cheese back in there.
You're defeating the entire purpose.
But I'll tell you what I do in my family that might actually become popular.
This is my little tactic.
Who says you've got to cut a bagel in half?
Is there any rule on that?
Cut your bagel in thirds.
If you cut it in thirds, someone in the family always wants the crusty sides, right?
Someone wants the bottom, because it's crunchy, and someone wants the middle, like me, because it's soft and gooey.
That way everyone's happy, they put the normal amount of cream cheese on there, and it's just a thin little wafer.
I hope you enjoy it.
Up next, if all this bread talk has you hungry, it's the grain-free bread, completely grain-free bread that is breaking the internet.
We'll be right back.
Why can your friend eat junk food and not gain weight?
But you eat a jelly bean and gain a pound.
It's not your fault.
Your gut may be to blame.
Dr. Axe says everyone has one of five gut types.
See which one you are and the three simple ways to fix it so you can lose weight.
Plus, Russell Simmons is in the house.
He's here to reveal his number one secret to live in ten years longer.
Oh my goodness!
Wow!
That's coming up on Monday. - On today's show we are counting up to 99, answering your burning questions about food.
Let's face it, we all have a complicated relationship with carbs.
That brings us to our next question.
Is there really a guilt-free bread?
So a question for the entire audience.
Think about this at home as well.
I want you to applaud if you would love a hot, fresh out of the oven piece of bread and a side benefit of zero guilt.
Who would like that?
Everyone in my family would.
But here's the thing.
There's a new thing called cloud bread.
Have you heard of cloud bread?
It is just exploding.
It's practically breaking the internet.
It's become so popular recently.
You may have seen your friends pinning it.
And it's so easy to make.
Take a look.
You can use cloud bread for burgers, sandwiches, dinner rolls, whatever you want.
Just replace the normal carbs with it.
How can you find it?
Well, I've got that how-to video on my YouTube channel right now.
Be sure to share the link with your Facebook friends.
For the full list of 99 questions and answers to your burning food questions, you can go to dros.com.
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