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June 18, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
40:21
Microwave Breakfast: Healthy Hack or Hidden Junk Food? | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 170 | Full Episode
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Time Text
Microwave breakfasts.
Omelette cups.
Burritos.
And egg muffins.
Fast.
Easy.
When it comes to frozen food, breakfast foods are queen.
But are they really good for you?
Or are they just junk food in disguise?
Plus, fat shamers.
I can't sit here because it's both so big.
Caught on tape.
She's eating too much chocolate.
Why are you insulting me about my weight?
coming up next Y 'all ready for season 10?
Yeah!
I love you Becca.
Today, an investigation into a giant shift happening in your frozen food aisle.
The food industry is offering an unprecedented number of microwavable frozen breakfast food options, including your favorites, breakfast sandwiches, delicious-looking omelet cups, burritos, and egg muffins, all hot and ready in minutes.
Many even claim to be healthier.
But are they?
Or are they just junk food in disguise?
Investigator and mom of two, Marcia Avocampo, put many of these options to the test in the best food lab there is, her own busy kitchen.
So I'm shopping for breakfast sandwiches.
I can't remember the last time I bought a breakfast sandwich.
So this should be interesting.
Hey, quesadilla.
Do you want to try these for breakfast?
Um, what are they?
It's a breakfast sandwich made on a waffle.
It's bacon, egg, and cheese.
I don't really like egg or cheese, but I could try it with something else.
Maybe just bacon?
So this is what I ended up getting.
We have two different English muffins.
They are different.
This one is like on a waffle and this is a breadless egg cup, which I am very excited about.
Mark, be honest.
Was that the best assignment you have ever been given?
You know, any assignment that involves tasting food, I'm in.
Sign me up for it.
And your daughter's already an investigative reporter.
She's very discerning.
You know, breakfast is a really hard meal for me.
I was really happy to get this assignment because this is tough for me.
I'm a low-carb eater, so I'm always looking for portable, low-carb options.
And with my kids, I'm looking for alternatives So this could change things in my house.
And how big have these products become now, these microwavable breakfasts?
When it comes to frozen food, breakfast foods are doing so well.
Really, it's for two reasons.
One is millennials.
So 82% of millennials say that this is a good option for their kids.
And case in point, I agree with that completely.
The other one is the keto crowd.
Keto is huge right now.
They're looking for low-carb options.
Yeah, the bun is actually egg.
And it looks so delicious.
It does look good.
All right, let's just start.
So we asked food scientist Taylor, and he's a fanatic, by the way, about breakfast food.
Taylor Wallace will be here to break down exactly how microwavable breakfast Is there a real egg in these microwavable breakfasts?
Crack the egg for me.
So actually, yes.
Many of these products, the main ingredient is a whole egg.
Now, also in these products, you're going to see some of your other normal culprits, different food additives.
Now, they might look scary, but they're all in there for a functional purpose, right?
So, for instance, it looks scary.
Xanthan gum, that's just a dietary fiber that we add to food.
We add it to eggs because we don't want the egg to crumble when you bite into it and fall into your lap.
Modified cornstarch, that just provides a little bit of texture to the product.
And then you have all these different flavors and you might ask, well, why not just add butter?
Because butter oxidizes and makes the product go stale.
So instead we add these flavors that won't oxidize and produce a bad taste.
But you just expressed a bias.
I love that it's a real egg.
I sort of wish I didn't have to add all these things in there.
But I know you guys have other technologies.
For example, you have a way of making them.
The frozen microwave breakfast, flavorful and locking in that flavor.
And it has to do with this.
You're a flavor scientist, so what does this have to do with flavor?
Well, so there's two main things that you have to worry about in products like egg sandwiches.
One is water, because we know water makes things go bad.
And two is oxygen, because oxygen oxidizes things.
So what do we do?
We freeze the water, because frozen water can't do much.
And then we add nitrogen to the bag or to the package.
So it's very similar to what you see in potato chips.
If you buy a bag of potato chips with all the air inside, that's nitrogen.
When you open the bag, then the oxygen comes in.
You leave it out for a day and it goes stale.
The same thing happens with egg sandwiches.
All right, so let's take a look at different types of I took that list that you just got, Mara, that treasure trove, and I split it out.
And I know that there's a big keto move.
So explain how people have hacked that system.
Yeah, so just as a reminder, it's very, very high fat, very low carb.
So when you take a look at these traditional breakfast sandwiches here, these are not going to be an option for keto followers because of the bread.
But when you look over here, this is really a game changer if you're a keto devotee.
They have made the bread out of eggs.
So this is breadless.
It's essentially two egg patties.
I saw that.
I wasn't sure if that was real.
It's real.
It's eggs.
It is high protein.
It is extremely low carb.
Egg bun?
Yeah.
So this is the industry responding to that demand.
They have heard loud and clear what low carb dieters want.
All right.
So seven grams of carbs.
How do the rest of your options compare?
Big difference.
So the English muffin option, 28 grams of carbs.
So I've never been good at math, but I think that's four times the amount, right?
Better than you say.
Exactly four times.
And here we have the croissant, 27 grams, pretty much the same.
The biscuit, which to me looks like the most delectable, delicious one.
I think that's a pretty good deal.
Oh my goodness.
I'm working hard not to take a bite.
This is intriguing to me.
Flatbread's a good idea.
Flatbread is a great idea.
You see that it is the lowest carb of all of them, but still much higher than the breadless one.
Now you tasted these and you had that discerning daughter of you taste as well.
How did this breadless version do?
It was absolutely delicious.
I did not miss the bread at all, but I did have to wonder, is that too much protein?
Am I overdoing it?
And I looked into it.
I think the protein's okay.
The bigger concern for me is salt.
Sometimes in order to make it flavorful, because when you freeze things, it doesn't taste the same always.
They can have more salt than you want.
So just take a look at that.
But overall, I was impressed that you had this many options.
But I want to go to our audience member here, because the next microwavable frozen breakfast investigation had to do with the crustless quiches.
There's no carbs in a crustless quiche.
Do I have this right?
Yes.
Well, I want to do it.
Compare these two.
And see if you taste the difference.
Mara, you can go do it as well.
Here.
Oh, thank you.
I thought you'd never ask.
That's exactly it.
I figured you ate them all at home before you got here.
I'm going to reveal something to you in a second.
But these are not quite made the same way.
So, what would you like more of these?
This one's much better.
Much better?
Mm-hmm.
All right, so I'm just going to reveal something to you.
One of these is actually homemade by yours truly.
And the other one was made in a store.
This was made by us.
Nice job, Dr. Oz.
Oh, wow.
This is the store-bought one.
I only point it out because this didn't take a ton of time.
I think most people prefer it, but I get why you don't do it.
Right.
It's a lack of time.
Did this taste good enough that if you didn't have time to make it on your own, you'd still be okay with it?
Yeah, I'd be okay with it.
All right, so it works.
Yeah, it's a great option.
You pick and choose what you want.
I don't think it's quite the same as making it yourself, but it's probably good enough for most people.
Right.
Especially busy moms out there.
Yes.
How do they compare nutritionally?
So it's actually, there's a lot of good news here.
These have, the store-bought ones are real egg or egg-based, which is just basically liquid egg.
Now, they do have other things added in because they do have to live on a shelf.
They do have to be frozen.
But for the most part, it is very close to the real thing.
You can feel good about eating them and giving them to your kids.
Show off at home, Lisa.
All right, one last topic.
We investigated frozen microwave breakfast burritos.
Taylor, he's gotten a lot of criticism over the years, but they seem to be making a comeback.
Right.
You know, when I was a kid, it was like, these things are terrible, right?
I mean, they're mushy and gooey and not great.
Food scientists have this down to an art, and now, just like over there, they taste fantastic.
And not only that, there's vegetarian options, there's farm-to-table options.
We've got something for everybody.
All right, so you still want to watch the Sordi Mondies, especially if you've got pressure issues.
We always say make bacon a special food, so you don't want to have that every day.
It's going to be twice a week kind of thing.
When we come back, we show you a brand new microwavable breakfast that allows you to use your own fresh egg.
Is it the best of both worlds?
We'll find out when we come back.
If you have ever tried to make an omelette and this happened, right?
You're not alone.
Guess what?
Restaurants, the best ones in the world, use making an omelette as the ultimate test of a chef's true skill.
So I didn't pass this time, but I'm getting better.
I can cover it up.
I can stitch this back together again.
I've got the technology.
Anyway, today we're investigating a brand new shortcut, turning omelettes into a weekday quickie meal using your own microwave.
These are called omelettes in a cup.
Now, food scientist Taylor Wallace is here to help us figure out what's really in these.
There are two main kinds.
I'll add them to the cup.
Break them up for us.
Okay, so your first kind, go ahead and open the package, and what you'll see, it's got everything inside, right?
So you've got your little vegetables and meat, and then you have a liquid egg.
So go on and check it out.
And a liquid egg is basically the same thing that you buy in the grocery store in those milk carton-like jugs.
It's just been pasteurized a little bit more than the whole egg to prevent bacteria from growing.
Pour it in here?
Yep, so pour it right in.
You can pop it in the microwave, and you're ready.
I'm good to go, basically.
Put my fixings in there, I'm good to go.
Absolutely.
It's so easy, so simple.
Absolutely.
So how is yours different?
So the second one, this is for consumers that prefer their products a little less processed.
So we charge them the same price, but don't add the egg.
You have to add your own.
You're kidding me.
It's the same price?
Right.
And instead of the egg, you have to add your own, and it's not a liquid egg.
So if you see, you've got the cheese, the vegetables, the meat in there.
Same thing as in your other product.
Break the egg.
Yep.
I heard they break it on plastic.
Oh my goodness.
Here, break it over here.
I'm going to put it in the pan.
There.
All right.
That's it.
And then you add the stuff to the goodies in there.
Then you add the stuff, mix it up, and there you go.
I got to say, I'm impressed.
This is actually so close to what I would normally want to do, I probably would think about this.
Right.
And like Mara said, they're very close to the normal food product that you would cook in your kitchen.
Got a little bit of additives in there to help prevent mold growth or bacterial growth.
But overall, it's the same thing.
Food scientist is happy.
I'm happy.
All right.
And the price you mentioned is the same.
Yeah, the price I mentioned is about $3 a pack.
So great for someone like a college student or somebody like you and I that are on the go.
Might not want to feed the whole family with it because that gets kind of expensive.
But great on the go.
I got to say, as I look at these, I wish I didn't have the preservatives.
It's not that complicated to cut this up.
I would think I'd just put it in the fridge and add it myself.
Well, remember, the number one goal of a food scientist is to make sure your food products are safe.
So you have to add those in there because you want them to be shelf-stable so they don't grow bacteria on there so you don't get sick.
Fair enough.
Those who know what you're getting.
All right.
Thanks, Taylor.
So for those of you who want to make breakfast in the microwave, Thank you.
Mara's got a DIY solution that has become incredibly popular.
It's all over the web.
Share it with us.
This is a great food prep hack.
You can get a fresh omelet in the morning in seconds.
So a good idea is to start the night before, right?
You take a mason jar.
You just finish eating dinner.
You're putting away leftovers.
Just take a spoonful of each of these leftovers.
And while I'm doing that, can you please be my sous chef?
Can you crack those eggs for me?
Put them here or here?
In that bowl.
So you put your leftovers.
You got some veggies.
Maybe you have some meat from dinner.
You put it all here.
And of course, I would be much neater if I were actually doing it in my house.
And then you take this and you just stick it in your fridge.
You put this in the fridge.
You put it in there overnight.
In the morning, you wake up.
You do what you just did.
You crack a few eggs, and you pour them into the mason jar.
That's it?
That's it.
So you're getting an omelet in a cup.
You stir this up.
You put it in your microwave.
You put the paper towel on it.
You put the rubber band over the top.
Oh, I like this idea.
You put this in the microwave, and we have a little switcheroo here.
It's actually hot because we did just cook it.
Okay?
And then you have an omelet in a cup.
You microwave it 45-second intervals.
You stir.
You put it back in for 45 seconds until it's done.
Put it down.
Let's test this.
You can run out the door with this.
You can eat it on your commute and you have an omelet to go.
See, this I like.
There's no preservatives, no products.
I bet this doesn't cost much either.
No, I mean, it's fresh.
It's leftovers in the egg.
It's easy.
It's leftovers.
You do most of the work the night before.
It's delicious.
I toast you, Maura.
Thank you very much.
This is how a mom makes breakfast.
Thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Woo!
Up next, we investigate.
Can you get addicted to microwave meals?
what you need to know about what your favorite frozen foods could be doing to your brain.
Thank you.
I know!
Did you start to salivate at that sound, right?
Did you start to think about booing that beep?
Sleep starts with the microwave.
Millions of you rely on quick microwave meals because it's a quick lunch or ready-in-minute hot dinner.
But can you get addicted to these fast-food frozen foods?
How does your freezer look?
Does it look like this?
Someone in our audience is the owner of this stocked freezer full of those microwave meals and is being turned in for their obsession with microwave meals.
Please welcome Angela, who's turning in her best friend, Suella.
You didn't know this was happening, did you?
No.
I think I'm fine.
You think you're fine.
What is the issue here?
She has a problem.
She has a very big problem.
And that's a real photo of her freezer?
Yes.
And how often is she eating microwave frozen food?
All the time.
Breakfast, lunch, snack.
I'm busy.
No, it's not.
I really love it.
What do you love about it so much?
They have healthy ones.
I like lean cuisine.
So, you know, it's easy, it's convenient.
What do you think about your friend's concern over your perceived addiction towards microwave fast food?
I don't know what her concern is.
You don't know my concern?
No.
You send me coupons?
You want to buy things off eBay?
It's microwave fast food!
No food!
No, you go to the dollar store.
You go to all the stores.
No, no, no.
It's too much.
Popeyes.
Let's just talk about it.
Come on up here a little bit, Sue Ellen.
We have a little discussion.
I understand the allure of frozen meals, but in reality, there's something And he tastes good.
So Mark Shasker, food journalist, extraordinaire, and a real expert in the area.
He's made a taste test for us that you and I are going to be participants in.
We get to the truth, though.
All right.
So take us.
What are we going to taste?
What kind of an organization do you have here?
Okay, we got three lasagnas.
The first one is fresh lasagna.
We made this.
This is like what you'd make at home.
This is also lasagna we made, but not fresh.
We froze it, and then we reheated it.
Mmm.
That fresh is good.
Keep going.
I'm moving along here.
Let's look at the microwave here.
There'll be something interesting here.
That is good.
That is really good.
Tell me what you like about it.
You should have this.
You'd like it.
Yeah, it tastes real good.
Okay, so there's something really interesting.
This is actually better than the fresh.
Better than fresh.
Something really interesting happening here.
So this is another tale of tastebud trickery.
This is where it's in the flavor.
It's in how they created this experience of lasagna in a frozen food where we're going to find something interesting.
Let's uncover the anatomy of a microwave meal.
How did they actually pull that off?
Because I do think, like you, it definitely tastes better than the frozen stuff that you So, yeah, one thing they do to get that flavor, they use synthetic flavorings.
We've talked about that before, but that's how they jack up that flavor.
We also see a lot of the same guilty suspects that we see in other processed foods.
There's polysorbate 80. That's a bulking agent.
That makes the sauce taste nice and smooth.
There's something called potassium bromate.
That's a dough additive.
It's actually illegal in some countries.
And then we have sodium nitrite.
It's illegal.
And it's in our frozen foods.
So these are theoretical concerns.
But the next issue is a real concern, which is sugar.
And how much sugar...
There's already pasta in there.
Well, because as we saw, the flavor takes a beating.
So what's an easy way to jack that flavor back up?
Just dump in some sugar.
And you're going to be shocked at how much.
We found one frozen entree that had 29 grams of sugar in a serving.
Estrell, did you hear that?
29 grams?
Okay, it gets worse, because guess how big the serving is?
This big.
It's only half.
Most people think, they pull it out of their microwave, and they think, I get to eat the whole thing.
Yes.
Well, then you're getting 58 grams of sugar.
That's the sugar that's in two candy bars.
So who would ever think, I'm nuking my dinner, there's two candy bars worth of sugar in there.
It's crazy.
So a lot of sugar, and then there's another hidden source of carbs.
Modified starch, which I don't even know.
What do you modify starch to do?
Yeah, modified starch.
What is it?
Well, it's there to get rid of some of the problems that you get when you reheat frozen foods.
You don't get those puddles of water so that it holds its shape.
But it's essentially carbohydrates that have no flavor.
So you're getting carbs in your tummy that you don't taste on the way down.
And I think that's where the worry is.
So stay with Mark for a second.
I'm going to explain to everybody what happens to your brain.
While you're having all these empty carbs that are hidden from you.
You got the brain here, you got you there, right?
Take a bite out of one of these meals, right?
And what ends up happening is you begin to fall in love with it, right?
Begin to crave it.
Then what happens is your blood sugar starts to spike up.
When the blood sugar goes up, dopamine is released from your brain, which makes you really happy and smiley, right?
We all know that, right?
Like comfort food.
But then, over time, your blood sugar falls back down again.
And you crave that high you just had.
So your low blood sugar levels cause an increased appetite, right?
You eat more food because the time seems like it's the right to do.
And the next thing you know, you eat more of those frozen meals that you've been craving and feeling okay about doing it.
So Mark, do you say in addition to this, which is sort of a chemical addiction, there's a psychological addiction these microwave meals can cause?
Yeah, so we've seen this interaction before.
You've got things like foods with a lot of sugar and flavoring, makes it compulsive, makes it really delicious in the moment, hard to stop eating.
So I think there's a lot of ways these get us eating too much.
So don't be a killjoy hero.
If we're going to eat our microwaves, because I think Suella, who's nervously laughing now, is probably going to still eat some of the microwaves that are in her freezer.
Give us some tactics, some hacks.
Okay, so one thing is to look at the ingredient list, because they're not all the same.
The ingredients that come at the beginning of the list, there's more of them.
So look for the good things.
If it's a broccoli pasta, look for broccoli at the beginning of the ingredient list.
If it's at the very end, that means there's not much, and if you don't see it at all, be worried about that.
So Suella, I need your verdict here.
Your friend, me, Professor Schatzker next to us, seems to think you're probably better served to eat your microwave meals a little differently.
What do you think?
I don't think I'll do it every day now.
I think I'll do it like maybe twice, maybe three times a week.
Slowly process on my addiction on it.
But thank you for that.
Shasta, you're having an impact!
Nicely done.
Thank you for saying that.
We'll be right back.
Thank you.
Shocking updates on the House of Horrors.
Why did parents torture their own children?
Louise Turpin's sister reveals their intimate prison conversations.
Any expression of remorse.
An Oz true crime investigation.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
We're back with our investigation into public fat shaming.
Would you know what to do if it happened to you?
What about if it came from the one person you trust the most, your own doctor?
According to one study, about half of women, half, Say they've been shamed by a physician, with weight being one of the top reasons.
Latoya says she was fat shamed by her doctor, who ignored her pain symptoms.
And after feeling ill, Rebecca says her doctor told her to lose weight, but turns out her health issues were not a result of her size.
It was actually cancer.
So Rebecca, let's talk about your case.
It's pretty serious.
So you go to the doctor, you're not feeling well.
How did the physicians respond to the observations you were making about your own body?
Yeah, so a lot of times it was very much a dismissal.
It was kind of a dismissal of symptoms over and over and over again.
Well, basically, if you just lost a little bit of weight, you'd be fine.
If you just lost a bit of weight, you could breathe better.
We don't really know what's going on, but if you just lost a bit of weight, everything would be okay.
So after three years, three years, everybody, of looking around, you finally got a diagnosis.
What was really happening inside your body?
I had a tumor.
In my left main stem bronchus in my lung, and it had kind of killed the bottom half of my lung, and they had to take the whole left lung out.
In part because it took three years, I think, to figure out what was going on.
Yeah.
What was it like when you finally realized you actually had a life-threatening problem that was causing this and not an issue with your weight, which you never thought was the problem to begin with?
It was the first time that, like, I had finally gotten a diagnosis, and I had spent so much time trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and then somebody finally told me that something was wrong, and it was just so freeing to realize that there was something that was actually there, that, like, no, I'm not just fat.
Something is wrong in this body.
So I wish you were the only person who felt the way you have stated you felt, because it turns out that obese patients are 65% more likely than others to have significant undiagnosed medical conditions.
We write it off.
Say it's something else.
And sometimes it is the weight that's a problem, but oftentimes it's not.
Are you feeling okay now?
Yeah, I've been cancer-free since 2012.
Good for you.
Good for you.
Thank you.
Latoya, let's talk about your story.
Also an example of doctors overlooking a drill diagnosis.
What happened?
Well, in my case, I've been in pain for the past two decades.
Since I started my menstruation when I was about 10 or 11, all I can remember is feeling this crippling, paralyzing pain every time my menses would come about.
When I went to the doctor initially, it was, you know, well, how about we give you some birth control?
When I started gaining, like, I'm going to say I started gaining weight, particularly after I had my son, it was automatically shifted to It has to be your weight.
So your doctors actually finally found the real diagnosis.
Right.
What was going on?
My real diagnosis is that I was diagnosed with endometriosis.
And that wasn't found until I miscarried several times.
Like over, I've stopped counting after four times.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And it's something that so many people brush off as it's nothing.
You know, I find that's the issue in a lot of things in reproductive health.
The reason I'm passionate about this topic of fat shaming is because it can embarrass people and people can do bad things themselves because they're ashamed by it.
But we also miss the real diagnosis, which is a much more obvious way that we hurt people.
And I should share, LaToya is about to run her 17th marathon in three weeks.
So you didn't get held back, neither of you did.
What is your message to doctors who are too easily writing off symptoms to their patients being overweight?
Actually listen to your patients.
Be patient with your patients.
Don't just brush it off or just look at them and then try to give them a diagnosis.
Actually do the work.
Look into it.
Do blood tests, which I've had, which proved that I didn't have some of these things that they thought that I had.
Actually listen to us.
Because when you don't listen to us, then we have a distrust.
We have a worry and a real fear that nobody's going to take us serious.
It makes people not want to actually come to you.
We essentially go to you to trust you.
Just listen to us and know that this is not all in our heads.
We know our bodies more than anybody else.
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
We'll be right back.
Up next, fat shaming caught on tape.
The videos you have to see to believe.
Find out what got one woman kicked off a flight.
That was a small taste of what got that passenger kicked off a recent flight.
She called her seatmates big pigs, among other things.
Today we're exposing fat shaming caught on tape.
Strangers bullying and verbally abusing others because of their weight.
It's a malicious and disturbing online trend.
Unrestrained and hurtful comments shared in posts are leaving people outraged and shocked.
Hurt feelings?
Some show no mercy.
Looking at these videos, you have to ask yourself, what drives people to such hatred?
Norma, the woman who recorded that viral video of her seat made publicly fat-shaming her, joins me now.
First off, thank you for coming to the show.
Oh, thank you for having me, Dr. Oz.
Let's go back to what happened when you first got to your seat.
Getting comfortable, seated at the window seat, realizing that this woman that was coming into the middle seat was having a bad day.
She wasn't a happy person.
Verbally saying negative things and making it a little uncomfortable.
And how did it make you feel when you appreciated what she was really getting at?
Uncomfortable.
Angry.
Angrier.
And matter.
That's why I started doing the outburst.
You know, with her outburst, I decided to go ahead and do the video.
And she kept going, even with you recording?
Yes.
And she knew I was recording.
So what prompted you to want to post it?
Because it does put you at risk, too.
You know, the whole thing is so embarrassing.
Of course, for her, because she's doing all this stuff.
I guess because as a nurse and I have a platform.
That I thought that bullying and body shaming is an unacceptable behavior for children and even more so for adults.
So I felt the need to actually show this happening to me.
Good for you.
Yeah.
A lot of people would have just pretended it never happened and then it gets tolerated.
You travel a lot.
Have you ever been publicly, an attempt made to publicly shame you like this?
Fifteen years on the road and this was truly a first.
I'm on the road almost every week, and this was a first.
And you probably, you must have at some point been disbelieving this would have been happening.
I did.
There was a delay.
But when somebody attacks you and you're in the public, you can get up and walk away.
You're in a plane.
There's no place to walk to.
You're in a confined space.
In fact, maybe that's the reason, but the airline ultimately kicked her off.
What was the reason they gave for doing that?
Well, they're saying that there were so many people that were complaining beside myself.
When I got off the plane, there were people behind me when we got off the plane in Newark that told me that her behavior after I stopped videotaping was she was still ranting back there.
So the airline had to take her off the plane for the safety of all of the passengers.
We reached out to the airline.
It was United Airlines.
So here's what they had to say about the incident.
United flight attendants care about the safety and well-being of all of our customers, which is why they acted quickly to find a different seat for the disruptive customer.
When it became clear that this passenger's behavior was likely to be problematic on this flight, she was provided alternative travel arrangements.
First thing the next morning.
So, she spent the night wherever you were coming from.
Looking back on that tape, why do you think that woman was so angry?
I don't think I'll ever know.
Why she behaved that way and why she thought that was acceptable behavior.
Well, your brave desire to share that experience resulted in a video that attracted 600,000 views within a few weeks.
If you could talk to that woman, there's a pretty good chance you might be watching this broadcast.
What would you tell her?
She needs to be healed.
She needs to look inside and determine why she behaved that way.
What is hurting inside herself that makes her think it's okay to hurt other people?
Hurt people hurt people.
Yes, hurt people hurt people.
And she needs to understand why she did what she did.
I am on the path of forgiving her because as a woman of God, that is my job, to forgive and move forward.
This is a teachable moment.
Which is why I agreed to come on, because this is a teachable moment.
I would like to take a quick moment just to apologize to the United Flight Attendants, because they did an amazing job.
But for my language that I used in the video, to tell them I'm sorry for using that language at them when I was referring to the other woman.
I don't think you have to apologize for that.
God bless you.
Coming up, where's the line between fat-shaming and concern?
What should you do if you feel like your doctor is fat-shaming you?
Stick around.
Shocking updates on the House of Horrors.
Why did parents torture their own children?
Louise Turpin's sister reveals their intimate prison conversations.
Any expression of remorse.
An Oz true crime investigation.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, I was fat-shamed a few years ago.
I went to the doctor after a car accident, and he was supposed to do some work on my back.
And while I was there, he told me that I, at the time, I was almost 100 pounds heavier than I am now.
And he told me I should just go ahead and have bariatric surgery done because I was never going to be able to lose the weight naturally, and I was just going to be back in a few years asking for his help.
I was gaining weight like crazy and I would go to my doctors for help and all they ever said was to work out harder, eat better.
They said that I had fat genes, they said I would always have a weight problem.
They disregarded all of my other symptoms and said I was crazy.
And this went on for about eight years and I finally did my own research.
I had brain surgery.
I had the tumor removed.
Since then I've lost 40 pounds.
We're back with our investigation into fat shaming.
Could you be fat shamed by your own doctor?
Where's the line between concern about weight and fat shaming?
Dr. Jennifer Cottle joins us now.
We are hearing more and more stories of patients saying they are fat shamed by their doctor.
Why is there an increase?
First of all, it breaks my heart.
This absolutely breaks my heart as a family doctor to think of, to hear.
And I'll be honest with you.
You know, we're doctors.
I'm not entirely surprised.
And I don't actually think this is new.
I think we're hearing about it more now because people are willing to talk about it.
We're willing to record it.
We're willing to have conversations.
And things like social media has really opened up the platform to really share our stories and compare experiences.
So give us some advice.
Give the average person watching some advice as a physician.
How do you know if your doctor is just...
Into the shaming.
Into the shaming area.
Yeah, you know, this is what I always say.
I say, trust your gut.
If it doesn't feel right, if you don't feel right, if you feel shamed or humiliated or criticized or embarrassed, you know what?
Believe yourself.
Believe exactly how you feel.
And a doctor wanting to do the right thing does not excuse making a patient feel any of those ways.
That's never okay.
And I say as a doctor, and we're both doctors, but I'll say if you have a doctor that makes you feel that way or you're not comfortable, I'm giving you permission right now to find a new one.
Let's give you some numbers on this.
Studies have found, hallelujah, that overweight women are less likely than average to get preventative care like pelvic exams and breast exams and mammograms.
There's no excuse for this.
But people treat What is the right way for a physician to address a patient's weight, do you think?
Well, I think there are a few things.
And first of all, as physicians, we've got to be talking about this, okay?
These are discriminatory practices.
It's wrong.
We have to talk about it and be very cognizant of this.
But as physicians, we need to talk with our patients.
That's not talk at, but talk to.
We need to ask our patients questions.
What's your journey?
How do you feel about your weight?
You know, tell me what you've been doing, what you've tried, what your story is.
Asking questions is key.
And something that we've also talked about is this idea of never dismissing a patient's symptoms just because of their weight.
We shouldn't dismiss patient symptoms because of anything, anything.
We should always be doing our due diligence.
So this idea of saying, oh, it's your weight just offhand, never okay, in my opinion.
And the last thing is, and this is something a little bit different.
I think in the doctor's office, I'm a family doctor.
Do I take someone's Yes, exactly.
People are weighed in public places, either in the hallway or in waiting rooms or things like that.
And my thing is, all of this should be private, right?
This is our personal protected information.
It's no one else's business.
So there are things as doctors that we can do better to make this a more comfortable and appropriate situation.
Yeah, you've got to feel comfortable insisting that, for example, you're weighed in private.
Because I don't want you to not go to a doctor because you're worried about it.
Weight's uncomfortable.
I know that's true for a lot of us, but it's a necessary topic.
So make sure you're talking about the doctor.
Don't act with width.
Folks, as you care about it.
I want to bring in Norma, the nurse who we met earlier, who was on the plane and being bullied for us.
Come on up, Norma.
Norma, what's the best way do you think a patient should be able to address their doctor if they're worried about weight issues?
Letting the doctor know this is new to me.
This is an unusual feeling.
I've been feeling like this for two weeks or two months, putting a time frame to it.
And if the doctor is still not active, Always get a second opinion.
Always get a second opinion.
Thank you very much.
Let's call as always.
We'll be right back.
I love getting to talk with you on my show every single day.
But when the cameras stop rolling, the conversation is not over.
I still have a lot that I want to talk about.
So download the Dr. Oz podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, I'm excited to announce the launch of my all-new Oz Guide, their new quarterly single-topic mini-zines, little magazines, cute little things, that will tackle some of your biggest health problems.
Our very first issue will be on the newsstands and at supermarket checkout counters later this month.
It's an Oz-approved plan featuring the healthiest fats around, which are MUFAs.
Of course, you know, MUFAs...
They're plant-based fats, so the easiest way to remember them is to look for healthy fats that aren't from animal sources, such as avocados come bouncing down.
Or you know what also counts?
Nuts and seeds.
They can really fill you up.
And one of my favorites?
Olives.
Black and green stuff.
So there was a study done.
Through the American Diabetic Association, they've found that a diet rich in MUFAs works to actually reduce belly fat.
It's a big deal.
But we don't want to want, you know, we don't want these foods getting boring.
You know, right?
That's the problem.
I know, I know you're thinking that.
So, I've been hearing reports of nuts and seeds fatigue.
Oh, shy away from this problem.
And then there's avocado apathy.
Nobody wants that.
Making headlines.
And then, of course, olive monotony.
One of the worst problems to run into.
So, I have challenged three Bite Club members to come up with new Mufalicious recipes in my first ever Mufa Awards.
This is a very serious competition.
Thank you.
We've spared no expenses, you can tell.
I hope you're impressed by that.
The MUFA Awards inaugural launch here, the dishes were judged by a team of tasters who are harsh people, tend to be sour and dour in nature.
So I'll present the reports to you.
Prior to the show, they tasted all these foods.
The winner will take home our coveted golden avocado.
So I'm excited to hear what they make.
Jenny came up with a new way to use nuts and seeds.
What did you make?
So, I made a burger.
I combined macadamia nuts, almonds, cashews, and pecans with a lot of seeds.
Pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, and quinoa, mushrooms, olives, and there you go.
You know, it could have been dry, but it's not.
Very fulfilling.
Tastes meaty without the meat.
And rich and mufas, as you described.
Nicely done.
Thank you.
All right, next up.
Roberta came up with a next-level way to use avocados.
What did you do?
You have a sweet tooth, don't you?
I do.
Secret agent chocolate pudding.
Very clever.
Diabolical.
You know why?
Why?
Because our avocado is the secret agent.
Now, this goes great with wine.
Sorry, I just had to throw the wine in there.
If you brought some wine, it could have influenced the judges.
Probably.
It's so decadent, so delicious.
You wouldn't even know that there's avocados in there.
It's very thick.
And it does fill your mouth, and it's very chocolatey.
Nice combo.
This is a very strong competitor event, but yours was too.
But before we judge, thank you very much, Roberta.
You're welcome.
We have Paula.
Paula, what do you have?
You have an olive-looking item here.
So we have tahini-filled hummus.
And these are actually gluten-free crackers that are made from all those seeds that just fell from the sky over there.
You love green olives.
I do.
delicious and a lot of people eat Everyone eats hummus, right?
I love hummus.
So I lighten the hummus up a little bit by adding some cauliflower.
You did!
Yeah, it lowers the calorie count.
You can't tell the difference.
No.
And then also, this is a daikon radish.
This is a carrot.
46 calories, 10 calories.
If you need a vehicle to get the hummus in your mouth, try daikon.
Give me that daikon.
I like this idea.
You put a lot of garlic in this.
I'm very proud of you.
I did.
It's delicious, isn't it?
So flat belly hummus.
All of these you will lose weight with if you eat them the right way.
But I have the unfortunate and difficult task of revealing the winner.
Are we ready for this?
No hard feelings?
All right.
So I've deliberated with the judges and the first ever.
Mufa Award.
And the person taking home the golden avocado today is...
Oh, my goodness!
Paula wins!
Go away!
You like me!
You really like me!
I like all three of you, actually, because although you won this, and that was fantastic, I've got to say, don't worry, because we're going to be publishing both of your recipes in the mini-book cuisine.
I can't wait to see it.
The Oz Guide to a Fat Belly.
It's available on newsstands and at the supermarket checkout counters later this month.
Check it out.
Share it with your friends.
And remember, everybody, together the change is happening.
Our journey is just beginning.
I'll see you next time.
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