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Dec. 25, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:50
The Hidden Toxic Ingredient in Your BBQ Sauce Revealed! | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 125 | Full Episode
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We love barbecue.
Who doesn't?
But before you take another bite, see the hidden ingredients lurking in your sauce.
Are they dangerous?
See what we uncovered in our Food Truth series.
Plus, it's a story everyone is buzzing about.
Is the honey you're eating really from bees?
We're getting to the bottom of it.
And is wine causing more hangovers?
What's different in your favorite bottle?
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
We are great and healthy!
Today's show is all about uncovering the truth behind America's biggest foods and beverages.
And we're starting with one of your favorites.
Barbecue.
Be honest.
Who doesn't love the sweet, smoky, sticky goodness of that?
You're on, aren't you?
But today in our Food Truth series, we're addressing growing concerns over a hidden ingredient some worry may be toxic to your health.
It's called liquid smoke.
It has started an internet firestorm that has people asking, is liquid smoke safe?
Our investigation found all 10 Of the best-selling barbecue sauce brands in the country.
All ten of them contain this hidden ingredient.
Liquid smoke has made its way into almost all of the barbecue that we eat.
And today we're investigating why.
And that's not all.
We're bringing you the truth behind America's biggest foods and beverages, all of them, like wine.
We performed a lab test to find out if there's something in today's wine that wasn't there before and could be making your hangovers worse.
What about honey?
Don't you love honey?
So simple.
Does the honey sold in stores always come from bees?
We're going to show you.
Shark Tank star and entrepreneur Dave and John is here to narrow down the best and safest honey on the market.
Let's get started with our investigation into a hidden ingredient in barbecue sauce that some say is toxic.
In barbecue country, smokiness is everything.
And slow-cooking meat is an art form.
But for the rest of us, barbecue comes in a bottle or on the menu of the chain restaurant down the street.
And when barbecue went commercial, there was a need to get that slow, smoky flavor fast.
Enter liquid smoke.
It's the hidden ingredient in most of the barbecue you eat.
Liquid smoke replicates the flavor of smoke curing by collecting the liquid byproduct from burning different types of wood chips.
Invented in Missouri in 1895, the process of creating liquid smoke is not new, but it has seen a recent spike in use.
Despite the popularity of liquid smoke all across the country, barbecue purists say nothing can replace that genuine smoker pit taste.
The smoke flavor from the meat comes from the actual smoke from the wood, you know?
So you can get a flavor out of this liquid smoke, but it's not going to be the real thing.
But other foodies swear by it.
How do you get great, amazing barbecue without the outdoor space or smoker?
I love a bit of liquid smoke in my ribs, in burgers, roasted vegetables.
A couple drops of this stuff adds that unique smoky flavor.
You can use it indoors.
It's vegan and gluten-free.
It takes seconds rather than hours.
It's a great way to bring in that backyard barbecue flavor to all your recipes, especially in the dead of winter or you just don't have access to a barbecue.
Yet some health experts are concerned.
Claiming the real smoke used in liquid smoke contains carcinogens and toxins that can damage DNA. And now those fears are spreading throughout the online community.
Today we answer the question every BBQ fan needs to ask.
Should you be using liquid smoke?
It's clear there's a real concern brewing online over this ingredient in our barbecue.
But how much of that concern is just hype?
Food journalist and core team expert Mark Shaskier is back.
Liquid smoke.
Liquid smoke.
What is this?
I've never heard of it before.
It's this right here.
It comes in a bottle.
First of all, you've got to smell it.
Oh my goodness.
Oh gosh.
It smells like the best barbecue.
Really?
You know, if that came out of your neighbor's place, you'd be knocking on their door saying, can I have some?
It is fabulous.
This is what it looks like.
It's just a liquid.
A little bit of color there.
It looks like a smoky liquid.
Does it taste like barbecue?
It tastes really smoky.
Like really smoky.
Like hickory.
If you bought anything with barbecue on it, you'd expect it to taste like this.
Exactly.
But they don't add it directly like this, do they?
Or maybe they do.
Most people don't buy liquid smoke and keep it in their homes.
You find it in things like barbecue sauces.
A lot of restaurants will add it to dishes that they cook.
But this is what this stuff looks like.
So the question then becomes, how do they get smoke in a bottle?
You guys ever heard of this before?
Right?
You know, we investigated.
And we decided to figure out, first of all, how do they physically do it, and then does it make a difference that they're doing it?
So here's how liquid smoke is made.
So what they do is they torch wood chips.
It's super simple.
And when they torch those chips, the steam, the heat goes up into a funnel, right, and then into a condenser.
As the smoke rises up, it begins to cool.
And what happens when you cool smoke?
Little droplets of water come out.
Then these droplets of water are filtered, not once, but twice, and then they're captured Into a bottle.
And that's the smoky flavor we're just enjoying with Mark.
But there's no smoke in there.
It's just the smell, the taste.
And it's not a synthetic chemical.
It came from these torched wood chips.
Now, we all know smoke inhalation is not good for us.
We all know that.
But what about smoke ingestion?
Is that safe?
Licensed nutritionist and trained chef Monica Ranigo is here.
She's looking into this for us.
Folks are very concerned about liquid smoke, and I can understand why, but is there a rational science argument here for or against it?
Well, smoke does contain carcinogenic chemicals called PAHs, and some of those do make their way into liquid smoke, and I think that's what people are talking about online.
That's the concern.
But there has been absolutely no evidence linking the use of liquid smoke to any kind of health problems, and I think that's because the amounts that we're talking about here are very, very low.
So if we ingest something with liquid smoke in it, does it have any implications for us at all?
We do not need to worry that using liquid smoke is going to give us cancer.
The harmful compounds, they don't dissolve very well in water, and so as we make the liquid smoke, most of them get left behind.
So walk me over here.
You're arguing to me, if I can get this straight, that making barbecue with liquid smoke, paradoxically, is at least a safe, maybe even better than the old-fashioned way.
We would literally put the beef on top of a burning wood pile.
Ironically, this may be the safest way to get that natural smoke flavor because, as you just saw, it only takes a tiny little bit.
It's very potent.
And you'd have to drink three entire bottles of this before you would even get close to an amount that I'd be worried about.
It makes me feel much more comfortable now.
They're so mad at me if you're doing this.
For people who love barbecue like me, whether you make it with liquid, smoke, or the old-fashioned way, what do you recommend as a nutritionist to make it a little healthier for us?
Either way, you always want to round out that menu with some vegetables.
And what goes better with barbecue than coleslaw or whatever kind of salad you want to add because the antioxidants in the vegetables contain compounds that protect ourselves from any harmful compounds that we might be exposed to.
So the natural, old-fashioned foods that we would eat, including barbecue, if we eat them in the balanced way we're talking to, it makes sense.
That's right.
This is a great combination.
You keep eating while I'm going over here to talk to Mark.
Thank you very much.
Now, Mark wrote a whole book about phony flavoring.
It's called The Dorito Effect.
And I would think that would raise flags for you about liquid smoke.
This is not a natural way we would have cooked meals more than 100 years ago.
Yeah, not the way you might think.
I'm not concerned that liquid smoke is going to cause cancer or give anyone Alzheimer's, but it is a fake.
Think of it this way.
If I invited you over to my house and cooked you a steak, but instead of putting it on the grill, I put it in the microwave, and then I poured on this liquid grill flavor, which also exists, you'd think that was weird.
What we need to do is look at how these things are used to incentivize us to eat foods that maybe we shouldn't eat.
And that's where you find the problem.
So Mark traveled all the way to the barbecue country of this, you know, the real heartland for this investigation.
Now, were you able to find things that concerned you there about the way we're eating barbecue in America?
Well, Texas is an amazing place.
It was an amazing journey.
It's a window into the way barbecue used to be.
They still do barbecue the way they did a hundred years ago.
It's just smoke, fire, meat.
The old timers there, like we heard, will say if it's got liquid smoke in it, it's not the real thing.
And where there's liquid smoke, there's fire.
And in this case, it's sugar.
There is just a ton of sugar in those commercial barbecue sauces, and that's the problem.
The sugar, not this liquid smoke.
But the liquid smoke makes the sugar taste like barbecue.
Up next, the rest of Mark's investigation into barbecue continues.
We're gonna show you how you cook your barbecue the right way and why it really matters.
Stay with us.
Coming up next, Mark shares what he learned on his trip down south to find out what's going wrong with this American classic.
How did we turn good old-fashioned barbecue into meat candy?
We uncover the truth.
Next.
Everyone's raving about Greek yogurt.
It's rich taste.
It's thick texture.
But are you eating the real thing?
Look at how liquidy this is.
We pick out the impostors.
All new eyes.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We'll continue our investigation to uncover the truth about good old-fashioned barbecue.
But it's not so old-fashioned anymore.
So what's gone wrong with this American classic?
Marshasker took a trip down to barbecue country to uncover the food truth.
When it comes to barbecue, does anyone take it more seriously than the Lone Star State?
We love barbecue here in Texas.
Best in the country.
Hey, this is some of the best.
That's why I traveled all the way to the city of Lockhart, which is considered the capital of Texas barbecue.
Or as I like to think of it, the Vatican of barbecue.
Nothing like the Texas beef.
We pride ourselves on good barbecue.
But Texans didn't invent barbecue.
No, sir.
Some say its roots stretch back 200 years to the cowboys, who sold off the best cuts and cooked the rest, low and slow, to make them tender.
But really, barbecue goes all the way back to prehistoric days, when big hunks of meat were cooked over smoky wood fires.
To be human, you might say, is to eat barbecue.
Certainly that's how they feel at Black's Barbecue here in Lockhart, Texas.
Everybody loves barbecue in America.
There's a lot of different ways to cook it.
Here in Texas, we cook beef.
In the Southeast, they cook pork.
That's pit master Kent Black.
Your barbecue is famous all over the country.
What makes it so good?
Well, I think it's what we don't put on it.
We just use dry rub, our family recipe.
We could use local wood for the smoke, and we cook it 12 to 14 hours, low and slow.
Okay, and what don't you put on it?
We don't use any of those sweet sauces that covers up the flavor of the meat.
Sweet is right.
In fact, a typical bottle of store-bought barbecue sauce contains a full cup of sugar.
So when did we turn barbecue into meat candy?
Because check this out.
This 1930s barbecue recipe from the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls for a quarter cup of sugar.
But that's for a hundred pounds of meat.
Somewhere along the way, we decided dumping lots of sugar into barbecue sauce was the way to go.
But in the Vatican of barbecue, they still do things the old-fashioned and healthier way.
Here at Kreitz Market, their barbecue is about two things.
Great meat and smoke, not sugar.
So James, in your view, what is the secret to great barbecue?
Simplicity.
We have three ingredients in our rub.
Salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
And you guys don't even let people have sauce, do you?
No, we have signs on the way in that says no sauce, no forks, no kidding.
So how long do you cook the meat for?
Typically about five to eight hours.
Would you like to try some?
Absolutely.
And that is delicious.
It would be a prime to put sauce on something that tasty.
Oh my god.
Mark Shaskin is back.
The Texas has a spot.
All you all know, go big or go home, but not so much with the barbecue sauce.
Mark calls this meat candy.
Look at this.
This is a big change.
This plate of ribs has about the same amount of sugar as 21, you heard me right, 21 donuts.
That's enough to turn a healthy piece of slow-cooked meat into a sugar-coated diet buster.
This is shocking to me.
I thought the big problem was the liquid smoke, which turns out to be just safe.
But you see, that's just a way of tricking us Encouraging us to put this kind of sugar in our barbecue.
Exactly.
You know, we lost the plot with barbecue a few decades ago when it kind of went mass market.
The big fast food chains, they don't have time to cook briskets for five or six hours like they do in Texas.
So what do they do?
They take smoke in a bottle, they put it in this really sugary sauce, because who doesn't like sugar?
And then they create this Basically fake barbecue, but it's gotten to the point now that more people think barbecue is the sauce and not the meat.
So you might say we traded in authenticity for more sugar and more calories, and who needs that?
We've all been there, right?
I've eaten barbecue in Texas, and I actually feel sort of light when I get up for a meal.
You eat this sugar-laden stuff, and you do feel like you had a bunch of candy bars.
It has the guise of being okay for you.
That's right.
That's what really gets me upset.
Yeah, because no one has any idea that this equals this.
There's a second benefit, you argue, really a scientific benefit of authentic, slow-cooked barbecue, and that it actually can increase your flavor without increasing the calories if it's done right.
So walk everyone through this science-based understanding.
So let's talk about collagen.
That's the connective tissue in meat.
So if you ever cooked, let's say, a low-quality steak and it's really tough and gummy, you can thank collagen.
It's like elastic bands.
Sounds terrible, right?
Who would want that?
But something magical happens to collagen when you cook meat low and slow.
This rubbery stuff melts into this succulent, gooey meat jelly.
When meat is fall off the bone tender, it's because the collagen has turned to jelly.
But wait, there's more!
Because there's fat in meat, and we know the fat in meat is a bit more saturated, has a higher melting temperature.
When you cook it low and slow, some of that fat melts off, so you're losing it, but what remains makes it moist and delicious.
Combine that with the Maillard effect.
That's when meat turns brown, when you cook it, like you see here in this brisket.
That is...
Get this off for me, I'm stuck.
He tied me down.
You just gotta lick it off.
Oh gosh.
It is appetizing in a way.
The Maillard effect, that's the effect that when you cook meat, that's what gives cooked meat flavor, because raw meat has very little flavor.
With barbecue, that mixes with the smoke and the rendered collagen and that fat to create this incredible, delicious experience.
You have to finish that, by the way.
Yeah, I'm going to finish this.
So taste that and tell me, do you want to put a sugary sauce on that?
Well, I want to taste it, but I'll tell you, the fact that it crawls off and grabs your fingers like that, oh, it's so good.
It's incredible.
And it's nothing like that 21 donut equivalent thing we looked at before.
And you actually taste what you're eating.
It's delicious.
All right, now...
Let's go past this.
I'm talking a little bit about the ribs.
And we might make them a little differently.
We have three different kinds of sauces here, because I don't want that sugar-laden stuff anymore.
This is a very simple way of making barbecue sauce if you want it, because I happen to love barbecue sauce with the meat, even if I barbecued it the right amount of time.
So you're going to make this based on simple ingredients.
It's balsamic vinegar, right?
You can mix it with grainy mustards or some blueberries.
This is with blueberries, and these two are made with mustards.
Go ahead and taste that.
I didn't make them myself, but I know how to make them.
And the reason I want you to understand this is because like me, many of you are sauce people.
And I want you to be able to get your sauce.
But a couple little things.
You've got to have the TLC to cook these ribs or the biscuits slow.
These were made to 190 degrees for about two and a half hours.
And you know where they're ready when the meat peels off the ribs like that.
You're gonna eat that too, aren't you?
I'm gonna eat all this as well.
And then, all you gotta do, I like to dip it in the sauce, but you can always put the sauce on the ribs if you want.
But these things are unbelievable.
And I'll put the recipes on DrRoz.com.
You can do the right thing, you'll enjoy, you'll have a lot less calories, you can actually be the person you wanna be and enjoy your life at the same time.
And here's the thing.
When you start to eat barbecue like this, you go back to one of those meat candy sauces, and you're just like, what is this?
All I taste is the sugar.
So this, I would say, kind of retrains your taste buds.
It gets you back in touch with how food should really taste.
All right, so we've got three wonderful women here joining us.
Grab the sauces.
How you doing, ladies?
May we join you?
Oh, my God.
I love barbecue, and this is so good.
Would you trust me making this at home for yourself, the way I just described?
Absolutely.
What do you guys think?
Definitely.
It's so good.
Scrumptious.
Don't talk with your mouth full.
I can't help it.
Give these ladies some napkins, please.
Their hands are a mess.
It's a finger-looking good.
It's like smack your mama good.
But I wouldn't smack my mama.
We're not going to do that today.
We're going to enjoy it.
Mark, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Next, wine has become the alcoholic beverage we're drinking more than ever before.
But why are we getting more hangovers from it?
The next day, I'm practically a walking zombie.
We head to the vineyards to investigate.
What's changed in your favorite bottle of wine?
Next.
Today, we're getting to the truth behind America's most popular food and drinks.
And now, the alcoholic beverage we're drinking more than ever before.
893 million gallons of this stuff a year in this country.
Talk about wine.
I love it as well.
But who has ever had a hangover after drinking wine?
Let me see a show of hands here.
I can go to anybody here.
I'm just going to troll through the audience.
Let me come up here.
You look particularly guilty.
How are you?
What's your name?
I am guilty.
My name is Deidre.
So describe your last wine hangover.
Oh, my goodness.
It's not like when I was younger, I can tell you that.
Definitely much rougher.
I'm in bed a little bit longer, and I'm very envious of my daughter, who was in college, who can just get up in the morning and go on with her day, and I cannot.
She just powers through.
She powers through, and I suffer through, and she likes to make fun of me for that as well.
So, how much wine does it usually take for you to have a bit of a hangover?
Honestly, probably three glasses, and I will feel it the next day.
Two glasses, I'm like, eh.
But anything other than three, I definitely feel terrible.
So I don't know how many of us agree with you.
I do.
That it seems like I have more of a hangover now with the same amount of wine that used to not hurt me.
And it might not be age.
It might be something that's changed with our wine.
In fact, a lot of folks complain about worse hangovers, including food journalist Mark Shasker, who set out to find out why.
Wine.
We've been drinking it for nearly 10,000 years, but lately just a single glass can keep me up all night, and the next day I'm practically a walking zombie.
So I want to know, is there something about wine these days that's giving us a worse hangover?
To find out, I paid a visit to Vineyard 48, So I could learn how wine goes from grape to glass from local winemaker Matt Behrens.
Hey Mark, how are you?
I'm great.
Come on inside, let me show you around.
Matt took me on a tour and showed me how they make their wine.
Then we went to the lab to learn about what other ingredients can typically be added to a bottle.
So the main ingredient that gets added to wine is sulfur.
Also called sulfites, right?
Right, correct.
Sulfites is sulfur dioxide.
What are they and why are they added to wine?
It's added to wine as a preservative.
It's a must-have.
Without it, the wine could potentially spoil.
So without sulfites, if I open a bottle of wine, it might smell skunky?
Absolutely, correct.
And do you add a lot of sulfites, a little sulfites?
I like to keep it as natural as possible, so I like to keep it tender on the lower side.
More in a mass market, more of a commercial winery that are producing millions of bottles per year are going to have to add higher sulfur levels.
So do you think it's possible those high sulfite wines could be causing the so-called wine hangovers that people are getting?
Oh, it's definitely possible, sure.
It's not required by the FDA to put that on the label.
The only thing that's required is that it contains sulfites, but you're not seeing the level of amount.
Wow, so the label itself tells me almost nothing about what's really in the wine.
Exactly.
And I have no way of knowing.
You have no way of knowing.
So could additives like sulfites be increasing the severity of your hangover?
No one knows what causes a hangover better than Dr. Adam Nadelson, whose company specializes in easing the after effects of alcohol.
Do you think wines with elevated levels of sulfites could be causing these adverse reactions that people are experiencing?
It's quite possible.
People have sensitivities to sulfites, and sulfites can be linked to causing flushing, the flushing you see in people's faces after drinking, and also that severe headache you have in the morning after.
So what about the standard alcohol hangover?
What causes that?
A hangover, basically, is a result of inflammation and dehydration.
More urine is produced by the body, whereby dehydrating the person, and thus the theory is the more alcohol you drink, the more dehydrated you get, the worse your hangover.
So I could see that happening after four or five glasses of wine, but no one should feel that way after just one or two glasses.
You know, one reason might be an interaction with the alcohol itself, the alcohol causing an interaction with medications you might be taking, or just the alcohol content is higher than it may actually be stated.
So how accurate are the alcohol labels on wine bottles?
According to the Liquor Board of Ontario, not as accurate as you might think.
They found that nearly 60% of the 100,000 bottles they tested had more alcohol in them than the label disclosed.
We wanted to do some testing of our own, which is why I packed up bottles of wine and sent them to be tested by a wine expert at an independent lab.
These boxes are going out for testing tonight, and hopefully we're going to get some answers.
In the meantime, I don't know about you, but I could really go for a bottle of perfectly aged water.
When we come back, we're revealing the results of our wine investigation.
They may surprise you.
Next, why are your headaches worse these days after you drink wine?
We put 28 bottles to the test to find out what's really going into your wine.
And what about sulfite content?
We'll show you the best ways to choose wine and avoid a hangover.
Next.
Charlie is back.
There are some reports that you sent angry texts.
A little alarming for me to hear.
Is he ready to face his truth?
According to Denise, you said, I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to kill your mom.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
Our hangover is worse these days.
Has there been a change in your favorite bottle?
We tested 28 wines to find out two things.
Whether the alcohol content on the labels is actually what's in the bottle, and how many sulfites are in wine these days.
Because some people claim that sulfites trigger that sort of icky next day feeling.
Even after just a little bit, a glass or two.
So food journalist Mark Shasker has been investigating.
I gather you had to do a lot of testing yourself personally.
I once again sacrificed myself.
For the advancement of the food truth.
After that 28 bottle, did you have a hangover?
Just a little.
So how'd you choose which wines to send to the lab?
We chose red, we chose white, we chose organic, non-organic, old world, new world.
We ran the gamut.
I mean, 28 different wines.
You put the wine in there each time.
In the lab, they literally did scientific experiments, stopped them off, and they analyzed all these for us.
I'm going to come back with some of the results.
I asked Lori Forster, she's a leading wine expert, to help break down these results.
We're going to start with the alcohol content, which might explain some of the problems.
Were the bottles actually labeled correctly?
Well, 28 out of the 28 wines that we tested did not have the same amount of alcohol in the bottle as was on the label.
28 out of 28?
Yes, but the good news is it was a very small amount, most a half a percent or less off, so negligible.
What was the most glaring difference?
How big of a difference could there be?
Well, one of our wines was labeled 14.6% alcohol, and it was really 16.4%.
That's almost 2% more alcohol.
And you're kind of getting into the level of a light liquor at that point.
And what I found interesting is this is a wine that was labeled as organic, so no wine type was immune from being off in the study.
And alcohol can make a big difference, because you get every glass, you multiply it that much more.
Right.
Is there an explanation?
Why would people not label it the right way?
Well, you know, some wineries can't afford to send their wine to a lab to be tested.
So when they harvest the grapes, they actually will test the sugar and that'll give them an estimate of what the alcohol will be.
And they can be about a half a percent off.
So we have some wiggle room in the industry, about one and a half percent.
And most of the wines we tested really fit into that level.
Is there another reason they're trying to, you know, underestimate the amount of alcohol?
Well, there is one theory that some wineries will under-report because any wine over 14% alcohol is taxed at a much higher rate, so dollars and cents.
That would make a difference.
It would.
And what about sulfite content?
I actually had this charted out here.
Yes.
This is important because so many folks write into me and say, I can't drink wine anymore because of the sulfites, and yet I've never actually been able to study how big a deal that might be.
Well, I love this because I think sulfites are the scapegoat and not the problem.
And we actually studied all of these wines.
We got all of their sulfite content, as you can see.
They're all under the 350 parts per million level that the government set, and most of them under 100, and some of them down to almost nothing.
So sulfites aren't really the problem in my estimation.
If you go to the grocery store and get yourself some dried apricots, you can be looking at a thousand parts per million of sulfites.
From apricots?
From apricots.
And I've never heard of anyone getting a hangover from apricots.
I don't know about you.
So I think it's not the sulfites.
Thank you for the advice.
But nevertheless, we'll go back to Mark here.
You argue, and you're not alone.
That even a glass or two of wine will sometimes just throw you off.
You'll have a negative response to it.
So does this data surprise you at all?
Well, you know what didn't surprise me were some of those higher alcohol percentages.
It turns out alcohol has been getting boozier.
Over the last 20 years, the maximum level of alcohol in wine It's gone from 13% to 17%.
Now here's what we need to think about.
We tend to think of a glass of wine as a glass of wine.
Like I had three glasses of wine last night.
Well, if you had three glasses of a crisp white at 9%, that's a whole lot different than three glasses of a heavy red at 16%.
So maybe if people are having a bad reaction, it's just a good old-fashioned hangover.
Plus a glass of wine is growing.
Yes, right.
Big pour.
Especially the third one is like, ah, fill it up!
Topped me off!
And what about this issue of sulfites?
Because a lot of people do argue that sulfites throw them off and you can't predict.
So how is the average consumer knowing whether it could be something besides sulfites, some other chemical in the wine?
It's really tempting to think of sulfites.
I have this problem, so I really want to find the solution.
But here's the thing, if it's not sulfites, we're wasting our time by going after that.
What this investigation showed me is that there's a lot of variation in wine.
So what some people who have this problem might want to try are winers that take a more minimalist approach, like an organic wine or biodynamic, if you can find it.
They're really rare.
The bottom line is people need to find what works for them.
So what I suggest doing is when you drink a wine, take a photo of the label.
If you feel okay the next day, Write it down.
You get your own little database of wines that work for you.
Then you can drink wine and love it.
I have for breakfast the next day.
Exactly.
Thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Next, it's known for its natural sweetness and amazing health benefits.
But is the honey being sold really from bees?
We investigate the hidden market of impostors.
How to tell the real from the fake.
Next.
We've been talking about the truth behind America's foods.
And one of the biggest food frauds has to do with honey.
Also known as liquid gold for its natural sweetness and health benefits.
And just like gold, there can be a lot of impostors claiming to be the real deal.
Your honey could be tainted with illegal antibiotics, with heavy metals, and may not entirely come from bees.
We consume 400 million pounds of honey here in America every year.
I love honey so much that I even have bees and harvest my own honey.
Can you stop eating it?
Just hold it.
In its purest form, this natural superfood sweetener has no added preservatives and no added coloring.
Honey can also heal wounds and boost your overall health.
Now I know where my honey comes from, but do you?
And is the honey you buy in the store really honey at all?
According to a Food and Safety News investigation, at least a third of all honey consumed in the U.S. may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.
Since American beekeepers only supply about half of the honey sold in the United States, the remaining half is imported from 41 other countries, much of it likely to be smuggled from China.
In order to protect consumers and customers from illegally sourced honey, an industry watchdog group called True Source Honey was created.
What we do is an audit system for honey packers to make sure that their honey is legally and ethically sourced in a traceable manner from the beehive to the jar of honey in your local store.
But unfortunately, to save money, some companies will add cheap high fructose corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners to fake good taste.
So how do you know if your honey is pure or not?
Fellow beekeeper and star of Shark Tank, Dave and John is here.
What are you doing?
I'm working here.
What is this thing?
It's a fever fever.
I don't get stung when I wear that thing.
Yeah, that's not where I get usually stung.
I get stung on these little babies.
That's cool.
Thanks for having me.
I'm so happy you're here.
So why are you so passionate about consumers learning more about buying the right honey at the supermarket?
Well, first of all, I fell in love with these little creatures called the bees.
About a year ago, somebody came on the show, and it was called Bee Thinking.
They had some hives.
I didn't really want to invest in the company.
I don't think it was the right play for me.
But I started to find out about the fact that the bees, how important they are.
And then I decided, okay, I'm going to decide to set myself up with a beehive.
Well, you know, I have resources and I can get things done fairly quickly, but Mother Nature's a little tricky.
When I decided to call around to get a queen bee, they were like, you can't get one.
And I was like, what are you talking about?
I can get a Maserati right now if I want, but I can't get a queen bee.
So I had somebody named Dennis Remsberg who starts to take care of my hives, and then I started to taste the honey, and I became fascinated with bees and honey and all the health benefits.
So, we've got your honey here.
Yep, this is my honey from my farm.
This is my honey.
I don't have a farm.
I just have beehives outside the front door.
Okay.
And I'm allergic to bees.
Are you?
I'm still worried why there's a beehive outside my front door.
But I'll challenge you.
All right.
So describe how yours tastes, everybody.
We'll switch it like that.
Okay.
Mine's from New Jersey.
Where's your farm?
Upstate New York.
All right.
Let's just see this, baby.
It's earthy.
Mmm.
With a robustness that tickles my palate.
This is a little springtime.
Get out of here!
It makes me feel like, yeah, it's nice.
Like a man again.
Yes.
It's like a Viagra in a bottle.
It's like one of those commercials when the women are running through the...
How many bees do you have?
I have one million bees on my property.
I have one million and one.
You do?
Just one more than you.
I've only named up to 100,000 of them, but I have a million.
That's where real honey comes from.
It comes obviously from those bees, the million that Damon has.
If you look at his farm, you'll see them crawling all over the place.
But let me show you the truth behind these bees, because making honey is not easy.
These little babies are making that honey by working really hard, and they don't just wander into it.
Bees fly maybe these long tube-like tongues that suck the nectar out of flowers and plants, and they can visit up to 1,500 flowers in order to fill their second stomach.
That's how they actually bring nectar back to the hive.
Then, when they go back to the hive, they meet up with the worker bees.
See, they're working real hard?
And they pass that nectar to the worker bees in their mouths, who then start to break it down in the sugars, and then they have to flap their wings to make it thicker, more syrupy.
And they're all female, by the way.
They're all females.
Only the females work.
So, if you are concerned about where your honey is coming from, you've got to look for this label that verifies its source.
I'll put it up here.
Everyone can see it.
It says Truth Source Certified.
And I want you to check that out, because up next, I want you to know how to make the right kind of decision about your honey.
I want you to understand, from buckwheat to clover, there are hundreds of types of honeys out there, and we've got the buzz on which one is best for you.
Stay with us.
Next, Shark Tank's Dave and John joins me in the hive to put the most popular honeys to the test.
From fighting heartburn to moisturizing skin, we'll help you find the best honey on the market that's also good for you.
Next.
Everyone's raving about Greek yogurt.
It's rich taste.
It's thick texture.
But are you eating the real thing?
Look at how liquidy this is.
We pick out the imposters.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Witnessing these little creatures of nature in action.
I mean, they are amazing.
It makes me feel very good that Damon is as passionate as I am about bees.
I never thought one of the sharks would get so into it.
I'm almost obsessed with this journey to help save our planet and the bees, and I never knew the value they had.
Is that the queen that just fell?
That is the queen.
You have a good eye.
I was just looking for her.
Yeah, you gotta put her back in or the party's over.
Does she fall because she's just heavy?
She's unwieldy.
She's full of potentially thousands of eggs.
Shark Tank's David John loves honey as much as I do.
Today we're investigating the truth about honey together and how to make sure you're getting the best, pure, uncontaminated stuff.
Now he eats his honey raw, straight from the source, just like I do.
So please explain for everybody the difference between the raw honey we eat and the stuff they may be buying in a store.
Well, the raw honey we eat, first of all, I love the fact that normally it comes from local growers.
The crystal honey that you see right there on the shelves in those nice little great local community stores are the ones that you should buy.
So you'll notice these are a little bit thicker in general.
They're more viscous.
And this is the syrupy stuff that sometimes you find in stores.
It sort of pours out pretty quickly.
So to help us find the best, the best honey out there, Damon, who's known for investing in winners on Shark Tank, is going to help pick the buzziest ones.
It's something I call the beehive.
We've selected the three popular honeys, most popular of all, to join us in the hive.
Each honey will give us their best pitch.
We'll then vote at the end for the top honey that you may want to bring into your house.
First up in the hive is Cherie, who says Manuka honey is her go-to fix for anti-aging and heartburn.
Come on over.
Give us your best pitch, Cherie.
You've got the manuka there.
Hi, how are you?
Damon, I love what you're doing for the environment.
Well, thank you.
I just want to say that.
It's great.
And I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm very excited to be here.
So pitch the manuka to us.
Okay.
Well, first of all, I am a beauty guru.
And I like manuka honey, even though it's not, this one comes from New Zealand.
I use it for anti-wrinkles, anti-inflammatory.
I even use it to brush my teeth.
I always get compliments on my smile.
And you say, no, it's manuka.
And I swear it's manuka honey.
All right, so it's got a little bit of milky consistency.
You can all see it here.
Again, quite thick because it's raw.
And what does it cost normally, do you know?
Yes, it's $15 for a jar, which is far cheaper than buying a beauty cream, toothpaste, or deodorant.
That's quite expensive.
Is that because it's imported from New Zealand?
It's imported from New Zealand, and it has the highest consistency and the best taste.
I'm going to eat it all up.
Well, it is good.
At that price, I'm going to eat it, too.
It's got strong antimicrobial properties.
You checked into it.
And there are companies that actually put this on bandages to dress wounds.
So I see that part of it and done a lot of research, but I'm concerned about the cost.
So let's hear from Vanessa, who makes a beeline for the buckwheat honey every time she has a cold.
Come on up, Vanessa.
Give us your best pitch.
All right.
Take it away with Buckwheat Huddy.
Buckwheat honey.
I'm so excited to be here to share the amazing benefits of buckwheat honey.
Now, it may look dark and more like molasses than honey, but the health benefits are amazing.
I have a seven-year-old daughter and buckwheat honey is my absolute go-to for a kid-friendly cough remedy and has more antioxidants than any other honey that's out there.
Really?
It's amazing.
And this comes from the United States?
It comes from the United States.
It comes from the tiny white flowers on the buckwheat plant, which is also where the grains come from to make buckwheat flour that you can use to make pancakes.
Yeah.
So this has got a very robust taste.
They get earthy like yours is a little bit.
And the antioxidants you point out, you're absolutely right, which is one of the reasons, if you're going to buy buckwheat, everybody, so we all went on this one, buy it raw.
It has to be raw.
If you cook the honey, you pasteurize it.
Once you heat it and you filter it, it takes all of the antioxidants and health benefits out of the honey, so it has to be raw.
In comparison in price, that one was about $15 a bottle.
It looks about half the size.
How much is that?
This is about $10 a bottle.
But I have to tell you something.
This one is far sweeter and tastier.
And this one is higher levels.
We better get to Zenobia here.
Hold on, hold on.
Barbara and Lauren, calm down.
Acacia is coming out.
Acacia, join us.
Talking about your honey.
Acacia honey.
I'm going to have Zenobia come out and talk about it.
She's making her way here.
She's high-fiving Zenobia.
All right.
Thank you, guys.
You have acacia honey to pitch to us.
So I see that you guys saved the best honey for last.
That's good.
We've got Kevin Leary here.
I'm a baker, and acacia honey is my go-to ingredient in the kitchen because it's one of the more versatile honeys to bake with because of its sweet taste, and it can be used every day.
And today, I have baked you some of my famous oatmeal breakfast cookie loaded with acacia honey for you to try.
Oh, she snuck this in on her competition.
These cookies are the best you've ever had.
You want to share one with your competition over there?
Oh, sure.
All right.
So the honey itself is very light.
It's very sweet.
Which means, in case you're so sweet, you probably got away with less honey in this cookie.
Yes.
You normally would have had to use.
This is delicious.
Thank you.
Well, that's great hearing that from you, Damon.
Damon, it's your choice.
You've got to pick one of these little winners.
They're all winners.
Oh, you know what?
I'm always going to be into the money.
How much is the acacia honey for that bottle?
$8.99.
$8.99.
Okay.
Remember, the nectar of love.
$8.99, $15, $10.
Health benefits, health benefits, really big health benefits.
This is really bad.
Imported.
America, America.
I'm going to go with the center one, buckwheat.
You are the Queen Bee!
Congratulations!
We have our first Queen Bee!
You can find my top five healthy users for HeidiOctorage.com.
David's new book, The Power of Broke, is available now.
that.
I'll be right back.
Charlie is back.
There are some reports that you sent angry texts, made some comments that were a little alarming for me to hear.
Is he ready to face his truth?
According to Denise, you said, I'm going to kill you and I'm going to kill your mom.
I'm concerned as a father and a husband.
Was it a manic episode or a man on the edge?
It's claimed that you said it.
All new Oz.
What do you want to say to set the record straight about Denise and your kids?
That's coming up on Wednesday.
We launched the Food Truth Series because we believe you have the right to know exactly what you're putting in your body.
That's why this season we've taken you to a chicken farm in Indiana, right?
Went up to lettuce patches in New Jersey.
We even headed down to a pork ranch in Virginia.
All to uncover the truth about the chemical ractopamine being added to pigs' feed.
And we're not done yet.
We want to know the foods that you want us to investigate.
So go to my Facebook page or our website.
Just tell us the food questions that you want the answers to.
Today, I'm revealing our new Food Truth Insiders Guide.
Everything you need to know before your next trip to the grocery store.
It has the best tips to ensure you get the healthiest foods for your family.
It's all in one place.
For example, I'm going to tell you how to avoid sugary barbecue sauce, which we learned about today, and your best bet in the bread aisle, which I think is Ezekiel bread.
We've talked about that, along with a ton more on that one sheet.
You can find all this good Food Truth Insider stuff, our full guide, on DrOz.com.
So I want you to print it, pass it around, share it with your friends, and you won't want to leave home without it.
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