All Episodes
Previous Next
Jan. 28, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:51
Shocking Food Safety Dangers in Restaurants Uncovered! | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 137 | Full Episode
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
A Dr. Oz investigation.
That's maggots.
It is?
What's happening in your favorite restaurant?
None of that is edible.
We point out the dangers.
I prefer not being sick tomorrow.
Plus, Top Chef's Pat Malachmi on surviving the scariest health challenge of her life.
It's often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
And puts the rumors to rest about her pregnancy.
I was single.
I wanted to play the field.
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today. - Okay.
We are ready to get healthy!
Today, the secret food and restaurant insiders know that you don't know.
You're not going to want to dine out before seeing what our hidden camera investigation revealed about the restaurants, takeout, and fast food that you are feeding your families.
And that's not all.
All show long, we're giving you exclusive access to the best of the best, the most knowledgeable experts in the business, so you can make the healthiest choice for your family.
I've got a toxin expert who also happens to be a mom.
We're going to find out what she says is safe to buy at a dollar store.
And the ultimate food insider.
Top chefs.
Padma Lakshmi is here with restaurant secrets you haven't heard.
But first, our undercover restaurant investigation.
Hey, Dr. Oz, did you know that one in six Americans, that's nearly...
50 million of us get sick every year from foodborne illnesses.
And most of those cases come from restaurants.
So I'm going undercover with Howard Cannon, restaurant industry expert, to find out the warning signs that a restaurant might make you sick.
Hey Howard, how you doing?
Good, how are you?
Good, so what do you call this thing?
We call this MIB. It's our mobile investigative bubble.
We can check out restaurants from a long ways away and we can find out things that are safe and unsafe about restaurants.
Howard's the guy they call when there's a restaurant lawsuit or insurance claim, and they need an expert, impartial opinion.
So, Lisa, the challenge is this.
Being able to see the invisible, bacteria and virus, visibly.
And what are the signs?
Well, we call it first impression areas.
So when you first pull up to a restaurant, you should be able to look at the parking lot, the dumpster area, the overall look of the facility to determine if you think it would be safe or not.
Howard sees something worth checking out, so we go investigate.
Well, so, yeah, there's a lot of things I see here that would be a concern.
First of all, the dumpster area is dirty.
There's a lot of food and grease buildup.
You can see the grease buildup on the wall.
You can see the grease buildup around the fry dump area.
That's actually a very dangerous situation.
Foodborne illness just waiting to happen.
Yeah, no, that's disgusting.
If that was out front...
You wouldn't go in.
Yeah.
And what about the health scores on the front of the building?
The health department, when they do their job, they do their job.
But the reality is it can give you a false sense of security.
It can give you a feeling that the place is either cleaner than it is or more dangerous than it is.
And you really got to look at it with your own set of eyes.
You got to be able to be your own health department inspector and choose for yourself whether or not you think a place is dangerous or not.
Now it's time to get wired for an inside investigation.
We test mics and cameras, and then we head for our target.
That's a little crazy.
So, what do you guys look for when you're deciding where to eat?
Who looks at the outside of the restaurant to make a decision?
Go ahead.
Yeah, no, definitely the outside of the restaurant.
I want it to look clean from the get-go.
And how about those health grades?
Do you ever look at that lettering?
Absolutely.
You do?
Nothing less than an A. Nothing less than an A. Anyone else trust the letter grading?
Oh, who doesn't trust the grading?
Oh, in the back here.
A skeptic.
Yeah.
Why not?
You don't trust that grading?
No.
You just don't think it's fair or right or accurate?
No.
No at all?
No.
You're a tough customer here.
Yeah.
I gotta see the area and how they do this stuff and people around them.
You're gonna see it with your own eyes.
That's sort of what I'm starting to take away from this.
The grades are a nice start.
But there's some things about grades I didn't know.
Like if it's still not there, if there's no grade there, that often means they may have flunked.
And they're trying to reapply and trying to get a different grade.
But take a look.
The investigation went from bad to worse when the undercover team went inside.
That's what you want to do, right?
Go inside.
Look what they found.
They had a hidden camera.
Take a look.
Are you in the mood for burritos?
Sure.
All right.
As I'm walking in, I'm thinking, this place looks pretty good.
But before we get to our table, Howard smells trouble.
Literally.
If I can smell dirty mop water, the smell of dirty mop water, then needless to say, that's something I'm concerned about.
And is that what you smell when you walk in?
Oh, yes.
How about we sit?
We sit down, and Howard notices even more disturbing signs.
Well, it's difficult to tell who's in charge.
And when it comes to things like cleanliness and foodborne illness...
Someone's got to be in charge.
Someone's got to be in charge of the employees, in charge of the safety and health systems.
Before Howard orders, he makes a request.
Is it okay?
I've got to look at my food before I order it.
Can I go up there and come back and order it from you?
Yeah.
Sure.
I've got to look at my food.
Howard looks, and he doesn't like what he sees.
What you see in this kitchen, you have your sauces that they put on the proteins.
Those sauces are sitting at room temperature.
Anything below 40 degrees and above 140 degrees is the safety zone.
Between 40 degrees and 140 degrees, it's dangerous.
The bacteria that's in that sauce...
Problematic.
Off the charts.
Off the charts.
I noticed some of the people behind the counter are wearing gloves.
That's good, right?
Well, I never like when some of the people are wearing gloves, because I can see into the kitchen right now, and two of them are wearing gloves and two of them are not.
Okay.
But all four of them are touching food.
Actually, in the restaurant business, if you just follow the hands, if you follow the hands and watch where the hands go...
That's great advice.
Then Howard notices something right in front of us and drops a bombshell.
That's maggots.
It is?
Yeah, if you look at...
Maggots in the salt and maggots in the sugar.
Oh my God!
Our food arrives.
I'm not hungry, but Howard has a really interesting and useful final tip.
When they bring me my food after I've washed my hands, I touch all of my food.
I can tell something if it's room temperature or hot or cold based by touching it.
And that is definitely cold.
If you can pick up the food they're bringing you, and you can hold it like this...
That means it's too...
It's cold.
It's cold.
Yeah, that food's cold.
It's lukewarm.
None of that is edible.
I wouldn't eat any of that.
So you're not going to eat anything?
I'm not eating that.
I'd prefer not being sick tomorrow.
Okay.
Fair enough.
But if you'd like to be sick, dig in.
Oh my goodness.
Joining me now is consumer expert Lisa Lee Friedman and restaurant insider Howard Cannon.
Howard's a restaurant expert witness.
You have seen it all about maggots?
Are you kidding me?
Well, in my world, it's actually pretty normal for me to find things like that.
I'm sure it's shocking to you and your audience.
You commonly find maggots in the salt?
I commonly find issues in restaurants that lead to people being injured, harmed, maimed, or killed.
So, yes, I commonly find maggots in the condiments.
Well, let's get to some concrete things that I'm getting more worried.
Things that experts say we should all be paying attention to on the menu.
And we're going to start with Lisa who says we should avoid the wedge salad.
It's a salad, Lisa.
What's wrong with that?
Well, raw produce is the riskiest thing you could order at a restaurant.
It causes more cases of foodborne illness than any other food.
And wedge lettuce is particularly problematic because the bacteria hides in all those little nooks and crannies and it's very difficult to clean.
One thing that consumers can keep in mind when they're ordering a salad is if it arrives soggy and room temperature, that means it's a bacteria farm, basically.
What you want is your salad to arrive cool and crisp.
And Howard, there's a point you keep making, which is to never buy the signature item.
That's what I always go for.
I think that's their specialty.
Well, in the restaurant industry, what they do with signature items and specials is prior to the peak period, they par them up.
They build them up to prepare for the business.
And I don't want to order something that's been prepared prior to me ordering it.
So I tend to go two or three items down the list.
Pick something that I like and then maybe take an item off of it so that way they have to make it fresh.
Before we ruin restaurants forever, let's talk about what we should be eating in restaurants because I go out a lot and I know most of these vendors are hopefully doing the right thing.
So how do we know what to order?
Please take it away.
What's your most favorite thing?
Well, if you're in the mood for meat, steak's a pretty good bet.
Because unlike hamburger, for example, where the meat's chopped up and the bacteria end up on the inside of the meat, you're less likely to get sick.
Because the inside of the meat's going to be maybe not as well cooked in a hamburger, for example.
But on a steak, the bacteria's going to be on the surface.
And if it's served piping hot right off the grill, you're probably in good shape.
But if it comes out cold, that means that could be a problem.
Howard, you seem sort of like a skeptic, so I'll ask you, what do you like to order in a restaurant?
I order everything I like, and I don't worry about the food item as much as I do the people.
If I trust the people, chances are I trust the food.
If I don't trust the people...
I don't trust the food.
I found a co-worker for you up there at the top on the right.
Did you see her up there?
Yes, I did.
She'd be perfect for you.
Absolutely.
You want a job, man?
She's in.
She wants to look at the store.
Up next, Howard takes his undercover surveillance van.
It's a little spooky, that van, by the way.
Takes it to a drive-thru, and you won't believe what he found.
It is your fast food takeout survival guide when we come back.
Next, our undercover investigation continues.
What you need to be paying attention to when you head to the next drive-thru.
You should not rely on a health inspection score.
What to order and what to avoid.
Your Takeout Survival Guide is next.
The war on salad.
Is it overrated?
Find out if you should stop eating salad today.
We break it all down in our Food Truth series.
Plus, famed model and restaurateur B. Smith's battle with Alzheimer's.
How has it changed in the last year?
How is it more difficult?
And the frightening night she went missing.
She was gone somewhere between 14 and 17 hours.
It was...
It was very scary.
Next, Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
It's our ultimate undercover investigation.
We're going to your favorite spots with the best experts in the industry.
Now, for many families, especially if you're busy, fast food and takeout are a weekend and weeknight staple.
So watch what happens when our insiders stop for a quick bite to eat.
Eight out of ten Americans eat fast food at least once a month.
Howard has some thoughts on what they should be paying attention to.
We can tell a lot by the drive-thru.
We can tell whether or not.
A restaurant is usually cleaning the kitchen if it's cleaning its drive-through pad area.
Oh, that makes sense.
Right underneath the wall where the car is, see all that mess right there?
So you've got a lot of food waste and debris there, and that's usually not a good sign.
As soon as we go in, Howard spots trouble.
See the garbage sitting by the back door?
And see the red bucket that's sitting right here?
It has cleaning solution in it, and it's above the food, and it should not be above the food if it's got cleaning solution in it.
Because it could splash into the food.
Exactly.
I also see back there, see the bun sitting there?
It's been sitting there for several minutes.
Okay, so the bun has been toasted, and it's sitting there collecting bacteria.
So you don't want to see buns sitting out?
No.
They either need to be used or they need to be cold.
Let's look at the soda.
Okay.
And then what turns out to be a first for the day.
Well, in this case, this one's pretty clean, but the reality is a lot of times they don't clean the soda line, and so you get the mixture of all the sodas.
Also, I usually suggest you clear the line.
Then you fill your cup because the bacteria would be sitting in the bottom of the spout.
So give it a quick spritz and then put your cup underneath it.
Exactly, because the spout is where that bacteria would sit.
What is the one takeaway for the condiments?
Of course, a lot of the condiments, the seals can be left unattended.
So the reality is if they sit there too long, the seals can be broken.
And then you use them thinking they're safe and they're not.
Right.
And if there's oozing out, that could be a collection point for bacteria, right?
Correct.
Ultimately, it didn't take long for Howard to find more bad signs.
That's not a good sign.
No, actually, it's a...
It's a safety violation.
It's a violation, actually.
It's not only a safety violation, it's also highly unsanitary.
When diners and the employees who handle your food can't wash their hands, that spells trouble.
Oh, the kid's chair.
The kid's chair.
You've got food products sitting there.
It's just sitting there.
They should be all washed down.
Ultimately, it comes down to this.
There's a lot of issues with this restaurant.
We're back with consumer expert Lisa Lee Freeman and restaurant insider Howard Cannon.
Howard just shocked us in realizing what to look for when we go out to eat.
But how bad is this really for us?
Well, the reality is most of what you saw there, Doc, wouldn't kill you, but it would make you sick.
It would lay you up for a while, keep you away from doing the things you like to do with your friends and family.
And I love your point that you eat anything in a restaurant because it's not the food you worry about, it's the people handling it, which is a good wake-up call for a lot of us.
Absolutely.
To me, I agree that you should not rely on a health inspection score.
You should be your own inspector and decide for yourself if you trust what you're getting ready to eat.
Give us a survival guide.
Give me three ideas that you should be aware of right now to make sure you don't muck up your next outing.
Okay.
Number one, make one small change to your order and make it something that you're going to take off.
For example, no pickles, no special sauce.
That means they have to make it fresh for you.
It's not been sitting around pre-made for hours or who knows how long.
Number two, go during the rush hours.
For example, during lunch from 11 to 1 or during dinner from 6 to 8. That means they're making it, they're serving it.
They're making it, they're serving it.
You're seeing that it's being made fresh constantly.
And finally, if you do takeout, don't let it sit around and get to room temperature for too long.
It becomes a bacteria breeding ground.
You really need it to be hot.
So if it does sit around for a while, make sure you reheat it.
For my skeptical members of the audience, you guys happy with this now?
Yes!
Now they're happy.
Next, you'll never believe what our national survey of insiders revealed could be the hidden germ catcher in your favorite restaurant.
Stick around.
Coming up next, it's the germiest place in the restaurant that you would least expect.
Our experts share what they've seen firsthand.
Things that I have seen have been gross.
We're revealing the worst food offender of all.
Next. It's a Dr. Oz Dining Out investigation.
And we did a national survey of restaurant workers and food safety experts, and we uncovered the worst food offender of them all.
You want to know what it is?
Yes.
Oh, as skeptical as they are, they're still curious.
They told us, our experts, that the germiest place in the restaurant is where you'd least expect.
The bread basket.
You heard right.
And we had to hear why ourselves.
So we invited Rory Schepizzi.
It reminds me of cheesy, I'm told.
She has held just about every restaurant job there is, from waitress to her current job as executive chef.
She competes, she wins.
You know all about the business.
So what have you seen firsthand about these bread baskets?
Well, being in this business for 20-plus years, I have seen some amazing things, and then I've seen things that are not so amazing.
So working as a bus girl, upwards as executive chef to an owner, the things that I have seen...
Have been gross.
You know, some of the not reputable restaurants, these people will take their bread baskets, they will reuse the bread.
So just say you have the bread at your table and you don't eat it all, they will go back and put it in the warmer and reuse that bread.
You're kidding me!
Tell me that's not disgusting.
I always felt guilty.
I would eat the bread so it wouldn't go bad.
Well, you know, we don't need to all eat the bread either because that's extra calories.
But besides that, once you hear what we're about to tell you, you're not going to want to eat the bread.
So sometimes these people don't wash their hands.
Think about your servers.
They might go to the bathroom.
They might go outside for a smoke break.
Not wash their hands.
Come back in.
Reach their hand into the bread warmer.
Put it in your basket.
Especially, you see bread baskets without the napkins underneath?
Yes.
So all that stuff is just settling to the bottom of these baskets.
And creating different bacterias in the basket, which is kind of gross, right?
So if I were to flip this over, what's under there?
Watch this.
So what we've done is we are representing what could possibly be in your bread basket.
And you can see we have green sparkles representing the norovirus.
Well, it got on the bread.
Look at that.
It's on the bread.
And now not only is it on the bread, but what happens is a lot of these restaurants, not reputable restaurants, ones that are trying to save money, will take this bread, bring it back, and reutilize it for breadcrumbs, for croutons, and for bread pudding.
Yeah.
But what I'm getting to, it's not just the restaurant workers, as you point out, your prior patrons who may have norovirus, for example.
In this case, we're putting glitter here, but it could be germs in the basket, and it becomes a culture medium.
Yes, it's everybody's fault, including your own Dr. Oz.
Yeah, but I don't eat the bread.
But if you're at your table, and just somebody in your family is sick, even though you wash your hands, and you come back out and you touch the menus, you touch the table, the chair, next thing you know, if there was somebody contaminated with it, they're touching the bread basket, then you could spread it yourself.
So washing your hands is key.
Let's take two seconds about norovirus.
You guys are a world expert on noroviruses?
That's actually the infection that gives you that upset stomach.
People say they had food poisoning.
A lot of times it's not really food poisoning like you think of it.
It's norovirus.
The number one cause of what we actually all call food poisoning, but it's a virus.
21 million Americans every year get norovirus.
You get diarrhea.
You get chills.
You're not sure if it's the flu, but it was often the last meal.
And just to put it in comparison, because people don't realize how infectious this is, the average person needs a thousand particles.
Of a flu virus.
They breathe it in in order to get the flu.
And this is how tiny these particles are.
They're smaller than this.
50% of all food-borne illnesses are actually from the norovirus.
Yeah, especially because you only need, not a thousand, you need 18 particles to catch it.
Oof!
18, one-eight.
So this piece of bread is more than a plenty to give you the norovirus.
Exactly.
Which is why, from now on, another reason.
Same thing, Mexican restaurants think about the tortilla chips.
Same exact...
Did we use those, too?
...baskets or tea trips?
Same thing.
So be careful.
We don't want to scare you away from eating.
We just want you to be careful.
Up next, we are giving you peace of mind, finally, about your favorite store when our investigation takes us inside the dollar store.
I'm going to show you what's safe and what you can buy there.
there stay with us that household items we use everyday can look tempting in the dollar store But can these products be toxic to your health?
In a leaked battery acid.
It can really affect your skin, your lungs, your eyes.
What's safe to buy and what needs to stay on the shelf.
Coming up next.
The War on Salad.
Is it overrated?
Find out if you should stop eating salad today.
We break it all down in our Food Truth series.
Plus, famed model and restaurateur B. Smith's battle with Alzheimer's.
How's it changed in the last year?
How's it more difficult?
And the frightening night she went missing.
She was gone somewhere between 14 and 17 hours.
It was...
It was very scary.
Next, Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We just showed you what to order and what to avoid in your favorite restaurant.
Now, our insider investigation continues.
And the next stop is a place you all know and love, the Dollar Store.
But what is safe to buy there?
Sophia Rouen-Gouchet is an insider who knows because she's a toxic exposure specialist.
She's researched the dangers.
That looks from products like the ones we can find at dollar stores and other retailers.
So, what do we need to know?
Break it down for us.
Well, I used to think that toxic exposure should only be a concern if you live next to a hazardous waste dump.
I was shocked to learn that I should be concerned about chronic exposures to low doses of chemicals found in household products we use every day and often several times throughout the day.
And many of these items we don't need.
So, what's the best way to avoid getting that low-grade exposure?
Well, as an expert in toxic exposures, I know there's a lot of things we can't control, but as a mom of three, I focus on what I buy for my family and home, because that's something I can control, and home should be a safe haven.
So I built you a dollar store, your own dollar store.
Come over here.
In our studio, I want you to show all the wonderful people at home what they can buy and what they shouldn't buy.
So we're going to start off in the cleaning supply category, the household items.
So you're in your dollar store.
What's good?
What's not?
Well, I generally steer clear of conventional cleaning products.
It's just very hard to get comfortable with which ones are safe, and they tend to be tox-exclusive chemicals.
So instead, I clean with baking soda, cornstarch, and vinegar.
They have a long track record of being safe, and my home is filled with microfiber cloths throughout the home because I like to fight the dust, and when you wet them and wipe surfaces, they're very effective in capturing a lot of dust rather than...
Recirculating them in the air for the children to inhale.
Alright, so it sort of makes sense.
I would understand why these would be concerning, especially as a toxic exposure specialist.
Alright, discounted food storage items.
Here's a place where I think you'd probably find some pretty good ideas.
Yes, well I also steer clear of plastic food containers.
It's really hard to get comfortable with which plastics are safe and studies are mixed, and so we have glass.
And they're safe in the microwave, which we know plastic in the microwave can leach chemicals into the food.
So, glass is glass.
It's non-toxic, whether you buy it discounted at the dollar store or full price at a department store.
And I love these bell jars.
I use them all the time, too, to store various things.
And my wife won't let me use plastic containers because she knows I'm in a hurry all the time, so I microwave, I cheat.
But you can't go wrong with the glass ones.
Alright, and finally, kitchenware.
Well, at the dollar store, I make a beeline for the stainless steel products.
I buy pots and pans, mixing bowls, utensils, and also for the pets because what's good for the family is also safe for our pets.
But you don't get the plastic containers?
I don't.
I love that.
Thank you very much.
Before everyone leaves, I've got consumer expert Lisa Lee Freeman.
She is back.
She has a dollar store idea that everyone's going to enjoy because nowadays not everything in a dollar store is just a dollar.
You can buy all kinds of things.
That's right.
So walk me through what's smart.
What are the best ideas in a dollar store from your perspective?
Well, there are certain things that I think you should avoid.
And one of the things is knockoff brand batteries.
First of all, you don't know if they're a good deal or not because you don't know how long they're going to last.
And secondly, I've purchased knockoff brand batteries from a dollar store and they leaked battery acid.
Now, that can not only damage your electronics, That's very toxic, as you know.
It can really affect your skin, your lungs, your eyes.
Potentially dangerous.
It's a definition of toxic, I think.
Yeah.
All right, next.
Another thing you want to avoid are expired products.
Now, you can find these at the supermarket.
You can find them in many stores, but you want to be...
Especially vigilant to keep an eye out for expired products in dollar stores, because sometimes these stores are purchasing old merchandise that manufacturers and distributors want to get rid of, and that's how they give you the good prices.
So that's something to be aware of.
This last one really surprised me.
Yeah, super cheap electronics, like fans, lamps, extension cords.
They might have undersized wiring.
They might have substandard components.
And that could cause an electric shock or even house fire.
So you have to be really vigilant about these things.
And I would just skip them if they're just super cheap products at dollar stores.
Love your tips.
Thank you, Lisa.
We'll be right back.
Next, food expert and host of Top Chef, Padma Lachner.
How she survived not only a life-threatening skin condition...
I couldn't even swallow my own saliva.
I was blind and mute.
...but also an almost fatal accident that scarred her for life.
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.
Size matters when it comes to buying clothes.
But what if the size and the tag is a lie?
I'm looking for a size 8. Found it.
These look cute, but they are super big.
We have the skinny on vanity sizing.
Are the retailers pulling a fast one by changing the sizes to make you think you're a smaller size than you really are?
Plus, alleviate back pain for good.
We show you how.
Take it away.
What's the first step?
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
My next guest almost died at 14 years of age when she developed a life-threatening skin disorder Then two days after she's released from the hospital, she's almost killed in a car crash.
But the strength she developed was just what she needed to overcome the next challenge life threw her away.
And she's about to tell us all about it.
Please welcome mother, author, and ultimate foodie, Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me on.
There's so much to talk about.
You're like a walking encyclopedia of medical issues.
I know.
I thought, oh my God, what are we going to talk about?
I guess we're going to talk about it all.
Well, let's start with this 14-year-old illness you had.
What happened that almost took your life?
It was so strange.
You know, it's a very strange, rare disease called Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
And very plainly, it was explained to me that it's a hyperallergy to either a drug or a virus.
I happened to get the flu, just like any other freshman in high school.
And I stayed home, and I wasn't getting better.
And then I started to have lesions in my mouth and my nose.
And I wasn't getting better.
I wasn't getting better.
And I went to the hospital.
And eventually, my mother took me to City of Hope.
And that's where the head of infectious diseases diagnosed me.
And really, they just gave me steroids to bring down the symptoms.
And in my case, it was just the flu virus that I was allergic to.
And it's something that did reoccur to a lesser degree all during my adolescence, but never as seriously as that first time.
I had a couple of hospitalizations.
It got so serious that I had to sleep sitting up in the hospital and have one-to-one nursing care because I couldn't even swallow my own saliva.
I was blind and mute for three weeks.
You know, there aren't that many dermatologic emergencies.
Most of the time when you call the dermatologist, they can see it tomorrow or the next day.
Right.
It's a mole, it's something.
Yeah, this is one of the few ones that can kill you.
You get out of the hospital after this crazy illness, which is not rare, by the way.
People don't diagnose it all the time, but it does happen.
And then you're in this terrible car accident.
Yeah, you know, it was just one of those things.
In fact, my mother was so relieved that I got home from the hospital from Stevens-Johnson.
I remember it very clearly.
It was a Friday.
And then on that Sunday, my mother's religious, so we went to the Hindu temple.
Then the nearest one is 50 miles from our house in Malibu.
It was in California at the time.
And on our way back on that Sunday afternoon from the temple, we got in this very serious car accident.
And my parents and I almost died.
They had to land the helicopter on the freeway.
They took both my parents to another hospital, USC Medical Center.
They took me to the City of Angels.
No, not the City of Angels.
You know what I'm talking about?
You don't want to be with the Angels.
No, not yet.
But anyway, another hospital in Los Angeles.
And I really didn't know if they were okay for, you know, almost a day.
And I broke my right humerus.
I fractured my hip.
My stepfather broke.
His leg in four places.
Is that where the scar is from?
Yes.
This is from surgery, though.
So this is a keloid scar.
I'm very lucky to have my arm.
And there's a very gifted orthopedist that my mother found.
And they put a metal plate in and six screws.
And then I had another operation, you know, because I was still growing when I had it.
And they took the screws out.
And now I don't have anything in my arm.
But, you know, some years I did for a while.
African Americans, obviously, but also Indians, keloid.
It's a scar that's bigger than the original scar was.
That's right.
You never hid that.
You would actually take pictures.
I didn't hide that.
You know, it took me a while, though.
When the scar first appears, it appears like any other surgical scar, just a line.
And then over a year, it spreads out and it's actually raised.
And then finally, another doctor put a Kenilog injection with a really long needle.
A doctor in Los Angeles did that.
Yes, but I'm telling you that because I did suffer from anxiety.
It happened to me when I was 14, and I did feel self-conscious or insecure about it.
I kind of made this pose up so that it didn't look like I was trying to hide it, but I was very casually putting my thumb over it.
I tried to flatten it.
Eventually, I just decided it was part of me and I couldn't do anything about it.
And I started modeling to pay off my college loans.
And I did very modest kinds of modeling.
And then a photographer, a very famous photographer named Helmut Newton, discovered me.
And he loved the scar.
And he wanted to shoot me, not in spite of the scar, but actually because of it.
The view of my own body and my scar kind of changed.
It was almost that, you know, I got to see it figuratively and literally through another lens, his lens, which was much more open-minded.
And it really did a lot for my self-esteem, and it changed my life in very profound ways that I'm sure could never even imagine.
Amazed at how harsh we are on ourselves.
Yes.
Everyone sitting here, everyone at home is probably looking at a part of their body they don't like.
And yet it's what makes you unique and special.
Yes.
Alright, when we come back, Padma's miracle baby.
and she's going to set the record straight about what really happened.
Next.
Patna opens up about her biggest health challenge, the hidden condition that kept her from having a baby.
Women go on average for 10 years without getting a proper diagnosis.
Plus, Patna speaks out about all those fraternity rumors.
That's next.
The war on salad.
Is it overrated?
Find out if you should stop eating salad today.
We break it all down in our Food Truth series.
Plus, famed model and restaurateur B. Smith's battle with Alzheimer's.
How's it changed in the last year?
How's it more difficult?
And the frightening night she went missing.
She was gone somewhere between 14 and 17 hours.
It was...
It was very scary.
Next, Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with Padma Lakshmi, who's opening up about some of the greatest health challenges of her life.
And I want to get to a condition.
That is often underdiagnosed.
Yes.
If you're okay talking it.
I am very okay talking it.
I would shout it from the rooftops because I don't want any other young girl to ever go through what I and really millions of women in this country and all over the globe suffer from.
It's a condition called endometriosis.
It occurs in, we believe, at least 10 or even 15% of the female childbearing population.
You know, it's not just scar tissue.
It has glands.
It responds to hormones.
And it can grow.
They grow like weeds in a garden.
If you think of your womb as a garden where the very life of human beings grow...
Though that endometrial tissue is like weeds in a garden, so it can stick itself.
In my case, it was on my liver.
It was on my kidneys.
It had coiled itself around my intestines.
And it's often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
Women go on average for 10 years without getting a proper diagnosis.
Because really, the only way you can really, really know if you have it is through laparoscopy.
So, have you held the uterus?
I have not held the uterus, no.
I have eaten my placenta.
You did?
Yes, I did.
I did eat my placenta.
What does it taste like?
It's a little meaty.
Are you serious?
I am serious.
It's in the book.
I mean, it wasn't a very...
It's not a very juicy story, excuse the pun.
You know, I... Tastes like chicken, I bet.
It doesn't taste like chicken.
It tastes like oatmeal.
Like what?
It tastes like offal or like organ meat.
It does.
Let me tell you, it's not as gross as how I'm making it seem.
I don't know.
I'm not going to try it.
You're not tempting me, believe me.
You shouldn't eat anyone else's placenta, by the way.
Just for all of you.
I think your own placenta is plenty for most of us.
So this is what...
This does look like chicken.
This looks like overcooked chicken.
So there's the uterus.
Is it that small?
Yes.
When you're not pregnant, obviously.
And these are the ovaries.
Wow.
That's the womb.
That's the gold.
So, I lost part of my left ovary.
And then later, I lost my right fallopian tube.
So, I mean, I really feel that Krishna was a miracle baby.
I mean, I don't even know.
I mean, you would...
Describe it more scientifically, but basically there's like tinfoil and rabbit ears holding everything together.
And I don't, you know, I don't know how, I mean, I know how I got pregnant, but you know, like...
It's immaculate deception.
But...
Really, if you think about it, I mean, I didn't have a fallopian tube in the one side that had an intact and functioning ovary.
So, I mean, she's such a gift for me, and I just feel like it's kind of karma, my good karma, that Krishna came into my life.
Since you brought up the miracle baby, Krishna, you speak very openly in the book, and I was so impressed you did this, about the fact that the paternity of Krishna was uncertain.
That's right.
How healing was it to own that history?
It was very healing, Mehmet, because it was something that so many news outlets were speaking about in the most cynical and salacious way because that's how our culture is.
You know, it happens.
It happens to a lot of people, and we don't talk about that either.
And, you know, in my case, I was recovering from a divorce, and I was presented with two very different men.
And, you know, it's just...
I didn't want to settle down.
I wanted to play the field.
I was an adult woman.
I was single.
And I think men do it all the time.
And they say, you're a playboy if you're a guy.
And if you're a woman, there's kind of a double standard.
I was perfectly up front.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I, you know, I was perfectly up front with Teddy, who was, you know, no longer with us.
He was very supportive of me, even when we found out that the child was not biologically his.
And he was with me every step of the way when, you know, 99 out of 100 men would have turned around and walked the other way.
Teddy was not your average man.
He held my hand so tightly and so publicly.
He was in the delivery room when Krishna was born.
Wonderful human being, Teddy Forsman.
Really wonderful human being.
So you wrote a beautiful book.
It's called Love, Loss, and What We Ate.
And sort of the way you describe your scars, you correlate your meals with memories of your life.
So we made a timeline, a lifeline for you.
And you know, while we're working over there, there is a scientific reason that we always associate tastes.
with certain emotional memories because most of taste is actually smell and where the olfactory bulb is is actually close To where emotional memory or the amygdala is located.
So it is why you can go into a movie theater, smell the cologne of the guy sitting behind you and be reminded of your first boyfriend in college because he had the same cologne.
That memory or taste your grandmother's cinnamon rougula and automatically you're a six-year-old again in her arms.
That is the scientific reason.
And you can't even filter it.
It's there.
It's automatically.
You can't.
And that's why food is so emotional.
That's why, like, in our culture, Every major milestone or celebration or ritual in our lives is commemorated over food.
A wedding, a death, a date, you know, a power lunch, whatever.
Well, this is a cutie who probably enjoyed food quite a bit.
Yes, that was me at two years old.
So at this age, I was already eating chilies and tamarind and all kinds of things you wouldn't normally give to a toddler.
You grew up to be a, you had a little attitude there, I like.
Yes, that is in 1970. No, my, my.
Sorry, 1977. I was seven years old.
And that, I was very dressed up because it was my grandfather's 60th birthday.
My daughter's named after my grandfather.
And you have foods linked with all these, but I want to concentrate on two foods here.
This is obviously when you're pregnant with Krishna.
Yes, I'm very, the dress is so tight, you can see the tag.
Yes, I was very pregnant with Krishna.
And I, you know, when I got pregnant, I didn't want to eat very complicated foods.
I actually wanted very simple foods.
And so I ate things like an egg.
And by the way, there's a recipe.
I know it sounds silly, but some people call it toad in the hole.
There it is.
My favorite with really good green olive oil and just...
Sea salt and pepper, and that's all I could eat.
And I went into labor.
The whole scene is there in the book.
I was enjoying this egg in a hole.
I would cut it, and the best egg in a hole is when all the white is cooked and the bread is fried, but the yolk is still quivering, and you cut it with a knife, and that yolk just oozes out, and you get these grains of little sea salt that crunch.
And it puts you in labor.
Yes.
And I went into labor.
You look pretty busy here.
I'm very busy here and every working mom will recognize some form of this photo.
So this is one of my...
But you actually have an applesauce you made for Teddy.
This is my favorite, favorite photo.
And I'm getting ready for Top Chef and nursing Krishna, as you can see the curlers.
And, you know, it was a very moving time in my life because as Krishna was growing and blossoming at the beginning stages of her life, my lover was actually at the end of his life and dying.
And so I found myself taking care of the two most important people in my life.
and so I would make the same thing because they both love cinnamon.
They both love sweets and applesauce is something that's very gentle and when you make it at home, it's very wholesome and so when Teddy was going through chemo, as you know, he didn't want to eat much but he would eat the applesauce and Krishna would love it too.
So there's a recipe at the end of the book.
The stories are all big.
In fact, all the recipes are fantastic.
They are in the book.
They're on drraz.com as well.
We'll be right back.
Is salad overrated?
Find out if you should stop eating salad today in our Food Truth series.
Plus, model B. Smith's battle with Alzheimer's.
How's it changed in the last year?
How's it more difficult?
Next, Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Size matters when it comes to buying clothes.
But what if the size and the tag is a lie?
These look cute, but they are super big.
Are the retailers changing the sizes to make you think you're a smaller size than you really are?
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
Breaking health news.
The Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health used their strongest language to date, warning about a Zika virus outbreak here in the U.S. Most of what we're learning is not reassuring.
Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought.
Since we last informed you about the virus, it has spread throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and the CDC says the mosquito that carries the virus is now in 30 U.S. states.
The CDC and the NIH say there could be hundreds of thousands of cases in Puerto Rico alone.
Think about that.
In a US territory, anywhere between 25% and 80% of the population could become infected.
As summer approaches, officials caution that mosquito eradication efforts, lab testing, and vaccine research may not be able to catch up.
The symptoms are mild, usually, and many don't even know they have the virus, but the real concern is in pregnant women.
And there are some precautions you can start taking today, and you should.
The first is to use insect repellent.
The second is to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts that are thick enough to block a mosquito bite.
And you ought to sleep in air-conditioned or screened rooms just in case.
And the little trip that I'm using in my house is to put a fan on because it blocks the mosquitoes from entering your home area.
They're not very good flyers, so take advantage of a simple little safe tool.
It's not the last we're going to hear about this virus, but if you take action and protect yourself, we can overcome it together.
Thanks for watching, and remember, happy and healthy starts at home.
▲
Export Selection