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July 28, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:42
Best Pork Cuts & Crispy Bacon Hack | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 132 | Full Episode
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Pork.
Tender.
And misunderstood.
Most people have no appreciation of how valuable this could be in their diet.
We have odds-a-proof cuts of pork.
It had a cleanness to it that I enjoy a lot.
And the ultimate bacon buyers guide.
I didn't know about this.
It's unbelievable.
But her memory would erase in less than 10 minutes.
She's living the real-life version of 51st Dates.
All I've got to focus on is right now.
Coming up next.
Oh, oh, oh.
Y'all ready for season 10?
Yeah!
I love you, Daka!
Ah, we are Oh, the taste and smell of pork and bacon.
You see how excited the audience is over this?
The crispiness, the juiciness, the oh, well, we can't forget about that delicious flavor.
It's all there.
Bundled up.
But could there actually be a conspiracy going on to get you and your family to eat more bacon?
And what are the healthy cuts of pork you should be buying for your family?
Today, our biggest bacon and pork investigation ever, and I mean ever.
We're going to start with Jen for my audience.
She says she is enjoying the bacon boom.
How serious is your love of bacon and pork and all things piggly?
Well, I think it all started because recently I started a low-carb, high-fat diet.
So, of course, everybody loves bacon.
And I can get it anywhere, everywhere I go.
In the store, I swear I keep waiting for the make a vending machine with bacon in it.
And literally, my breakfast, lunch, dinner, I'm always craving it.
I think I'm literally my turn into a pig.
I've been eating it so much.
All right, so you speak for so many of the audience.
We'll get some answers for you because I have some concerns as well, some good things about pork and bacon.
So I invited food investigator and author of the Dorito Effect, Mark Shasker, an investigative reporter, Mara Scamacampo, to help get to the meat of the matter.
But first, some have noticed that fast food companies are adding more bacon to the menus.
Have you all noticed that?
Right?
As Jen was pointing out, you can have vending machines practically at this point.
Why do you think bacon is being pushed so hard, Mara?
Well, you know, pork prices are the lowest they've been in decades.
And so these fast food companies have definitely taken notice.
They are loading their menus with bacon items, and we are literally eating it up.
There's also these reports of this partnership between the pork industry and fast food companies, where the restaurants will add bacon to their menus to help offset sales slumps.
So this bacon boom may be a little more orchestrated than people are aware of.
And for that to work, you'd have to assume that pork is cheaper.
And in fact, it has become cheaper.
I just don't understand why, Mark.
So there's a perfect storm of events happening to keep pork prices low.
For starters, corn and soybeans, which are the main constituents of pig feed, well, those prices are low.
That means the pork is cheap.
The American pork industry is massively scaled.
The farms are huge.
We feed pigs antibiotics.
That makes them grow faster, brings the price down.
And to top it all off, there's a trade war with China.
Now, China historically is an enormous customer for U.S. pork.
They buy it in the hundreds of thousands of tons.
Well, with China buying less pork, that means there's a lot more of it around here for us to eat.
So the prices may not be a problem.
You mentioned one thing with antibiotics.
Well, a lot of people think if they go to a fancy butcher shop or if the packaging looks nice, that means there won't be any of that antibiotics.
That is not the way to do it.
The truth is, I would say, if you don't see otherwise on the packaging, assume the pigs have been fed antibiotics.
Now, a lot of people say to me, why is that?
Why are farmers out to just dump all these antibiotics?
What's going on?
Well, here's the thing.
When you feed pigs antibiotics, they grow faster.
You can put more pigs in the barn.
That brings the price down.
Farmers get paid by the pound.
So the farmers that aren't using antibiotics, they might actually lose money.
So the logic of the market dictates that if it's allowed, they pretty much have to do it.
All right.
So Mara says the color is critical.
Yeah, you want to look for meat that is light red to cherry red.
You also want to look for your fat.
You want to make sure that the meat is never like this, never white or pale.
You want to save the white for the fat.
You want to make sure that that fat is nice and white and creamy with no dark spots.
Really tasty pork is going to have that fat interspersed and marbled in with that lean meat.
This is not often what it looks like.
So get picky now that you know what you're supposed to look for.
All right, next issue, mark, labels.
And there are lots of labels and some of them are pretty commonly found.
So walk us through the most common ones and then you got a little surprise for us, I understand.
Okay, so this is one we know, certified organic.
This comes from pigs that have never eaten feed that's been treated with synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides.
And if you see that certified organic, it means no antibiotics.
So you can trust that.
Now most people think, oh, and that one too, natural pork, right?
Pigs are outside, the sun is shining, the birds are singing.
That word, when it comes to pork, that word natural, it tells you nothing about how the pigs were raised.
It only tells you there's nothing added to the pork after they were processed.
So no preservatives or anything like that.
So natural is not telling a whole lot.
But here's the thing.
If you do like that idea of pigs outside, the birds sing, the sun shining, what you are interested in then is pastured pork.
This is the rarest, I would say.
Really hard to find.
Go look for it at your farmer's market.
But if you're into flavor, that will blow you away.
That is my number one pork.
And you have one last little surprise over there, which I didn't even know existed.
Yeah, so there's a label you might see called no ractopamine, and people say, what does that mean?
Well, ractopamine is a drug.
It's fed to turkeys, beef cattle, and pigs.
And what it does is it promotes lean muscle growth, limits fat deposition.
Basically, you get more meat for a lower price.
There are consequences, however.
The animals that are treated with ractopamine can be quite agitated, and it can make the meat tough.
So if you don't want pork treated with ractopamine, look for this label or look for the certified organic label.
Those pigs also will not be treated with ractopamine.
All right, so we want to learn more about this.
We spoke to the pork gal, so he said in part, more than 300 studies have affirmed ractopamine as safe, and there's been no confirmed human health issues to eating the beef from animals that were fed ractopamine.
So that's their response, and I understand that there's probably some validity to that, but I share your thoughts.
If you don't want to get that, there are options here.
Reward people who are purposely avoiding the antibiotics, avoiding ractopamine if you think that's important.
Now that we know what to look for when shopping for pork and bacon products, Mark And Mara scoured the supermarkets and talked with butchers, actual butchers, about the best cuts to buy.
I didn't know any of this stuff.
I don't think you do either.
Stay with us.
It's up to action.
It's been 30 years since Ted Bundy's execution, but his bloodline lives on.
He and his wife were able to have a daughter while Ted was on death row.
Who is Ted Bundy's daughter?
Imagine knowing that you're carrying these genes, that you could potentially become a psychopath yourself.
And where is she now?
She changed her name.
You're trying to pretend it never happened.
Plus, she survived Ted Bundy.
I remember him asking me how I'd like to die.
And he put his hands on my throat and started squeezing.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Thank you.
Here we're talking about the bacon and pork boom, telling you what to look for when buying the other white meat.
Now I have a guy to tell you exactly what cuts to buy for your family.
Mark and Mario back.
Let's start with the most important factor for many of you, tastes.
Mark, you're the flavor guy.
What is the tastiest cut of pork?
The tastiest cut is the pork butt.
The pork butt?
The pork butt.
Now it's not what you think.
It's not the butt.
It is the butt.
It comes from the upper shoulder.
It is marbled.
It is fatty.
You can't cook it like a pork shop.
You've got to cook it low and slow, but it is succulent and delicious.
Why would they not do that?
I would call it the pork butt if it's not from the butt.
To make it the butt of jokes, perhaps?
Did you all see that?
So let's call it the, it's above the shoulder.
It's above the shoulder.
Yes.
Crazy naming.
Okay, Chef Allie Rosa didn't question the name, but she sent us this clip to show us how easy and delicious it is to make pork butt.
The first thing I actually like to do is cut up the pork butt because then you have more surface for browning.
Now we're going to start cooking.
Now we're going to salt the pork butt.
You want to make sure that every side has a little bit of salt because you do not want to be missing out on the flavor here.
Once your onions have softened a little bit, now is the time to add the pork butt.
So now you're going to let your pork butt brown maybe for about five minutes, turning it over halfway through.
But the goal here is to really get that brown color on the bottom and on the sides of the pork butt.
Once the pork butt is seared, it's time to add the rest of your ingredients.
And we're going to add two cups of chopped herbs.
I've used oregno, parsley, cilantro, some chives, but really this is a great excuse to use whatever is in your Crisper drawer.
Then we're going to mix everything in together.
Now we're going to put the top on.
All right, so we have some pork butt right here.
We all have a taste.
Mara's been tasting it.
And actually Mark Shastra's mouth is so full he can't speak for a while.
So describe the flavor, Maura.
This is really, really tender.
It has just enough fat so it's nice and juicy.
And the beautiful thing is it's going to take on the flavor of whatever you're cooking and marinating it with.
It's just delicious.
I bet I could even get my kids to eat this.
You know, I'll tell you, I didn't actually think it was pork when I first started eating it.
I wouldn't have quite known.
It could have been lamb, but it had a cleanness to it that I enjoyed a lot, Mark.
It's just so soft and tender and juicy.
I love it.
Right, so we know what flavor they, what's part of the pig dean.
Okay, just going over here.
Next to our buyer's guide, it's this whole issue of price.
Now, listen, folks have to be careful about money.
You're an amazing reporter, but you're a mom also.
And in order to be mom, do it the right way.
You got to pay attention to money.
Absolutely.
So the two worlds collide when it comes to being a gourmand, having the pig butt over there and getting the best cut.
What did you find working?
Yeah, we all got to watch our family budget, right?
The pork shoulder is a really affordable cut.
You can buy bone in or boneless.
It's really rich in fat and connective tissue.
This is really flavor on a budget because it's going to be pretty much just as tasty as that pork butt that we just had, but for much less price.
All right, so it's very close.
You see the picture, everybody, but it's below it, and because of that, it ends up being a very good price.
The pork butt's a lot more expensive than this.
I checked into it.
These are all pretty affordable prices for most folks.
But if it's important to you, it's shower's way to go.
Okay, last up, the overall healthiest cut of pork, which I know you two don't talk about very much, but I care about this.
So Mark, random numbers.
Your thoughts, the healthiest cut is?
Well, if you're looking for leanness, it is the pork tenderloin.
A three-ounce serving, has three grams of fat.
It has 120 calories.
This is as lean as boneless, skinless breast of chicken, but unlike boneless, skinless breast of chicken, it actually has flavor.
That's why I love this.
That's right.
That is the problem with boneless, skinless chicken.
It doesn't have any.
It's like tofu, which normally I'd like if you put something tasty around it, but by itself doesn't have anything.
Just to put a head-to-head comparison, here's that generally speaking bland piece of poultry, and here's our tenderloin pig.
Three grams of fat, 120 calories in the three-ounce serving.
I think this is a home run.
Most people have no appreciation of how valuable this could be in their diet.
Am I saying it right?
I'm just shocked to see these numbers.
It's the same nutritionally.
And kids actually like this because I fed it to our kids.
All right, when we come back, Barth write three bacon cooking methods and is reporting back on which resulted in the tastiest, crispiest type of pork.
Talking about bacon.
Wake up with an Oz approved waffle and pancake.
This is one of the best foods we have ever discovered on the show.
And Stebman Grimm reveals lessons on leadership in life with Oprah, all new Oz.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
And that's again, Mars Daniel Confo is back with our Bacon Lover's Cooking Guide to get the crispiest, tastiest bacon ever.
I know how much you love bacon.
Oh, yes.
This is, you know, she's been asking for this assignment forever.
So I wanted to challenge Mara to take this challenge to make the best takings tasting bacon, trying different cooking methods.
No matter what you like, you have to try something different.
Did you have fun?
Yeah, I had a ton of fun.
I make bacon for my family all the time.
I wanted to test some new ways to make it.
Look at her smile.
Look at this.
He's so happy about this design.
Come over.
I have to have a little competition.
You know, it keeps the blood flowing.
So I've got three audience members who are very harsh critics.
And they're going to judge the bacon preparations that you've made.
Before we get to that, my judges, why do you love bacon so much?
The taste.
Nothing like it.
It's delicious.
I said, Jen's a taste person.
I said, you're...
Jessica?
The flavor, the crispness.
It's just, it's amazing.
I mean, you can't go wrong with bacon.
Jatong, what do you think?
I like the fat.
I like the flavor.
I really like the fat.
Everyone likes bacon for the same reason, because it tastes good.
A little crispy, a little fat, got the right amount of everything.
Okay, come on.
You're in luck, as Mara documented, her bacon cooking testing on Instagram.
You're going to taste while we watch.
First up, bacon made on a stovetop and cast iron skillet.
This is what I know.
This is my tried and true.
It's bacon in the good old-fashioned cast iron.
And I actually add a touch of bacon grease to my bacon.
Bacon on bacon.
Love it.
Look at that bacon grease pop.
So, Mara, how did the cast iron skillet bacon turn out?
You know, this is what I know, so I'm a little bit biased.
It does have its downsides.
There's the splatter, which gets everywhere.
You do have to watch it.
You have to flip it.
The pan gets hot spots.
It might not cook evenly.
But this is the tried and true.
Look at this.
It's bacon at its best.
It is bacon at its best.
What does the audience think?
Bacon testers, your verdict on the cast iron cooked bacon.
Jess, Jen, you go first.
Cast iron.
I love the cast iron because I feel like it sears in the flavor and almost gives it around the edge, like caramelized a little bit.
All right.
Delicious.
Jessica?
It's fatty.
I love it.
It's, there's nothing like it.
You're just like fat.
If I said fat over there, the lard in a bucket would be eating it.
So, Tom, what do you think?
It gave it a sweet taste to it.
I liked it.
Yes.
Isn't that interesting?
It had a very light, sweet taste to it.
I really like that.
It caramelizes a little bit in the skin.
Absolutely.
It actually does make it a little bit sweet.
Yeah.
I like that.
Well stated.
All right.
Next up, bacon cooked in the oven.
All right.
So, I'm just going to set this to 375.
And then I'm going to do three pieces of bacon.
So, this cooked much faster than I expected it to.
And look at these pieces.
They look perfect.
It looks so easy.
This was surprisingly easy.
I put it in the oven and I just forgot about it.
I didn't have to flip it.
I didn't have to turn it.
And if you put foil down, you don't even have to clean up afterwards.
This was a winner.
I don't know.
I didn't know about it.
This is unbelievable.
Well, actually, I want to comment on the taste yet.
Jen, take it away.
I believe in the oven baked, it's a little bit lighter, more crispy, and it has a more smoked flavor to it, which I think is really good.
Let me guess, Jessica.
You like the fat.
I like the...
No.
No.
You're wrong.
It's candied.
And it's just, you know, it's sweet.
It's got that, like, crunch to it.
And I love it.
And Jatana, how does it compare to the iron skillet, the cast iron skillet?
It has more of a fatty flavor to it.
I enjoy it.
She took my words as far as the smoky.
But I have to use that again.
Sweet and smoky.
It's a sweet and smoky taste.
I was a little surprised.
You know, it's not as crispy, but it has a crispy taste to it.
It does.
Delicious.
All right.
Last option.
You ever think you'd make...
Actually, I never thought I'd ever make it in bacon.
After this, I'm thinking about it.
But let me get to the last option.
This is the method of cooking bacon in water on a stovetop.
I never thought this is possible.
I've heard about it from expert chefs.
Take a look.
I have the bacon on high heat, and I'm going to cover it with water.
Now that all the water has cooked out, I'm going to try to crisp them up.
It's pretty much cooking like regular bacon.
It's an honest opinion.
You didn't seem so excited about this method.
You know, I was a little bit skeptical.
I tried to approach it with an open mind, but it turns out I was right to be skeptical.
This took way longer.
I didn't think the bacon came out that great, and it was harder to clean the pan afterwards.
It looked like a disaster on that video.
All right.
Yeah.
Just on you go first.
What do you think?
It tastes rubbery.
Rubbery.
Yeah.
I don't care.
I love you.
Honest.
Rubbery.
I know my bacon.
Okay.
Don't put on my bacon.
Okay.
Don't fool with me.
It tastes rubbery.
Yeah.
I didn't care for it.
All right.
Jessica.
It's dull.
I don't like it.
I don't like it at all.
It's just not like the other two.
Jen, do you agree with the panel?
No.
I'm a little surprised because I really like the cast iron in the oven bake, but this, it's not as crispy, but it really brings out the pork flavor.
It's what tastes different than the other two.
Mara, which one would you, what's your conclusion of this experiment?
I got to tell you, this converted me.
I was a cast iron girl all the way, but cooking in the oven was so easy and fast.
And it tastes good.
And it tastes good.
The oven wins.
We'll be right back, everybody.
Rethink oven.
Rethink your bacon.
You can also do so much more.
Coming up in Oz exclusive, a sit-down interview with a young woman whose brain resets every night and wipes out her memories.
I know how she and her family are coping with their new reality.
You won't want to miss this.
Our brains consist of 100 billion cells that help us retain and create memories.
The happy times.
The sad ones.
The monumental moments that we can all think back and remember.
That's a complex, beautiful part of our biology.
But what if you woke up every day to a blank slate with no recollection of what happened months, weeks, or even the day before?
Kind of like that movie, 50 First Dates.
That's what the headlines call the case of 16-year-old Caitlin Little, whose brain resets every night when she goes to sleep.
But this isn't a movie.
For Caitlin and her family, this is real life.
Take a look.
It all started with a freak accident.
14-year-old Caitlin Little was at cross-country practice.
Some other kids were goofing around.
heads collided later when her mom came to pick her up caitlyn went to the car and asked her mom how to open the door they knew then that this was serious the date october 12th 2017.
that was a year and a half ago but to caitlin it was just yesterday literally every morning caitlin's father wakes her up telling her the date and basic facts today is april 10th 2019.
you got hit in the head while you're doing cross-country practice at southeast and then the next day he has to do it again and again and again that's because caitlin has a condition that causes her brain to reset every night wiping out all her memories after the day of the accident and leaving her with severe memory impairment so to cope caitlyn and her family put post-it notes all over the house.
In the refrigerator, telling her what foods to eat.
In the bathroom, reminding her how to brush her teeth.
In her bedroom, reminding her not to wear her sister's clothes.
Because it gets on her nerves.
But after 18 months and little improvement, Caitlin's parents have turned to some experimental therapies, like this hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
It feeds oxygen through there as a little mask, just like a nebulizer.
Some researchers believe it increases oxygen to the brain to promote healing.
And just a few months ago, they brought Caitlin to a specialized chiropractor.
He is doing upper neck adjustments, hoping to get her brain to function the way it used to.
While doctors can't yet pinpoint the exact mechanism causing Caitlin's memory loss in a way we can verify, we wanted her and her family to share their story as they're experiencing it in their own words.
Now, Caitlin bravely made the trip to New York.
She is backstage.
There she is.
And we're going to meet her in just a minute.
But first, I want to talk to Caitlin's parents, Jennifer and Chris, who are joining us now on the sofa.
Thank you for being here and for sharing your family story.
Chris, what's it like for you every day, every morning, to have to re-explain the accident to your daughter, Caitlin?
I've been the one to wake up all the children every day.
Well, my wife does practically everything else to get them ready for school.
So each morning I go in there to wake her up and try to give her just the information she needs to get started.
I let her know roughly what the temperature is going to be, what the weather's going to be, and then I let her know she has a journal on her desk or table next door, and then she has post-est notes that tell her how to find that journal.
I tell her that she should read her journal to get caught up, and if she has any questions, come up and see me about 15-20 minutes, and I'll give her more details that she needs.
I try not to overwhelm her with too much.
Jember, this has been a real journey for you and the family.
Yes.
Take me back to the first moment you thought there might be a problem, the first inkling there was an issue.
That's why I got kind of emotional watching her run.
When we picked her up, I picked her up.
They said, hey, Caitlin had a head injury.
Caitlin has had many injuries as kids do when they're athletic and never, ever has said, I'm in pain.
I picked her up and we always do a rating scale of 1 to 10 for our pain.
And she's like, mom, this is a 9, maybe a 10.
Okay, Caitlin doesn't complain.
So I knew right away we were in trouble, but I didn't know how much trouble at that point.
I was like, well, gosh, you know, you got hit in the head.
We walked to the car and she just stared at it and she's like, what do I do?
I said, well, we're going to go on home.
She's like, no, how do I open the car door?
I don't remember how to do that.
And at that point, I sort of got her in the car and trying to be real calm.
Chris, we have a real issue.
When I get home, you know, be ready.
We need to talk.
We did, followed the school protocol.
We did all the things they suggested we do for a normal concussion.
And in those first two weeks, her memory would erase in less than 10 minutes.
She was resetting every 10 minutes.
That was all she could hold.
And all the doctors were like, oh, it's just a simple case of a concussion.
It will heal itself.
And we started then the journey of waiting for it to heal.
What's the most painful part for you as a mom?
I mean, you were remaining very emotional, even watching the tape.
The tape was hard to watch because I guess in 18 months you kind of set aside all your feelings.
I'd forgotten that girl you guys saw running.
I'd forgotten the personality you could see on that face.
And we're worried.
We're scared that her milestones have stopped, that we are just stuck on 24 hours and that's going to be the rest of our lives.
It's just 24 hours.
What's happened to her school, to her friends?
School has been amazing.
Her principal, her guidance counselor, her teachers, and her intelligence is intact and that's what's hard for people to believe.
She is still very smart and wants to accomplish.
She wants to live the rest of her life and set goals and achieve them.
So her teachers are helping her do that.
The human body has an unbelievable ability to recover in ways we can't even imagine.
And we get better at helping it do that every single day.
Yes.
So I'm going to share with the audience something you already know about what's going on with your daughter.
Yes.
Because so far doctors have not been able to figure out why Caitlin can't retain new memories.
But I want to do something.
I want to show you all a little bit about how memory works in the brain.
Because memories in the brain are stored almost everywhere.
It's not just in one spot, but there's someplace that play a bigger role.
And it might be a burger you happen to love or maybe a baby that you remember your graduation, big moments in your life.
Sometimes it's just the mundane, seemingly mundane issues about being at work or doing your homework or having fun, right?
These are all different memories.
And what we think of as a single memory is actually a collection of pieces of memory stored in different parts of the brain.
And memory problems like amnesia can be caused by an injury or malfunction.
So you bang your head, right?
And all of a sudden, that really complex process where you can remember things no longer is there and you get amnesia.
Now an anter-grade amnesia, and anterrogate amnesia is about the fact that you cannot form new memories as well as you normally could.
They seem a little misformed, right?
They're not quite what they should be.
And so you can remember the information immediately, sort of, but you have problems storing those memories long term.
Anterogate amnesia is what Caitlin has.
Memories before the injury might be spared, but events since the injury may be lost because they were never stored.
So Caitlin was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury post-concussion, and this amnesia she has, we believe, is related to that.
And her family has met numerous doctors and specialists to help to get her memory back.
Now, unfortunately, Caitlin has not recovered as adequately as you just have witnessed talking to her parents.
But I want to check in with neurologist Dr. Aisha Sharzai, who's on the cutting edge of brain science, for some insights.
And she's joining us now via Zoom.
Dr. Sharizai, how common is Caitlin's diagnosis and what's your advice for the family?
Hi, Dr. Ross.
This case is very, very unique and extremely rare.
I mean, you don't get to see enterography amnesia lasting this long.
And just listening to the parents and Caitlin's, sorry, my heart goes out for them.
I know how difficult it is.
You know, our memories are ourselves, it's the stories of ourselves.
And when that is affected, you feel very destabilized.
And it seems like she has seen a lot of great doctors who've done the normal, the standard diagnostic procedures to find out what was going on.
And moving forward, I think the parents have to be very careful and discerning who they contact and who they come across with because there are a lot of people with promises of potential cures that may cost a lot of money and may not be in her best interest.
So they need to be very careful about that.
And you know, the most important thing is for the mom and dad to know that they are the ones who know her best.
They are her best advocates and they have to make sure that they support her and love her.
And like you said, you know, the brain is a very susceptible organ, but it's also very forgiving.
Dr. Sergei, I thank you very, very much.
So guys, one thing's clear to me for sure.
You're a family.
You're closely knit.
You're bonded.
You've got four children.
Caitlin is number two, I think, right, in the list.
So you guys can do almost everything together, which means you can support each other.
No matter what ailment, what's daughter pulled up together.
Siblings are all backstage, right?
They're hanging out with Caitlin.
There they are, supporting her.
Even if she takes their clothes, she can now claim she doesn't remember doing it.
Most families you don't have that excuse.
It is a beautiful thing to see a family come together, even if it's around the tragic event.
And as I look to what you're guys will be doing in the future, that ends up becoming the foundation of it.
So when we come back, I'd like to meet Caitlin if that's okay.
Okay.
And you all will as well.
We're going to hear her message that we can all learn from.
That's next.
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. Rod podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Good morning, sweetheart.
It's March 20th, 2019.
You got hit in the head while you're doing cross-country practice at Southeast.
You haven't been in school for a little while.
Okay?
You've got a journal over on your desk that helps explain things.
For more than 18 months, nearly 600 consecutive days, that is the message Chris Little has used to wake up his daughter Caitlin every morning.
The incident he just told her about left her with a rare form of amnesia that resets her brain while she sleeps.
Caitlin is joining us now with her parents, Jennifer and Chris.
Trevor, thanks for being here.
Help us all understand what it's like to wake up every morning with that same message from your father that you've had a head injury and you probably don't remember what happened yesterday.
As with most anyone I could imagine, it's disbelief.
You say, no way, you're joking.
Stop pulling my leg.
There's no way it could be over a year and a half since October.
I mean, it hadn't even been Halloween yet.
But then I look around, I'm like, things are a lot different.
I mean, a lot has changed.
And you get a weird feeling inside yourself saying something's not right.
What's changed the most that you've noticed?
My family has changed a lot.
Not just physically, but I can see it emotionally too.
My sister has become a lot more confident through this all.
As well as my brother.
He's grown a lot taller, but he's also become more confident?
Mature?
Mature, yes.
Mature.
When you woke up this morning in your New York City hotel room.
Yes.
What did you think you were doing today?
What did I think I was seven?
Did you remember that you were coming here?
No, no, sir, I did not.
I had no idea when I woke up that I was in New York or where I really was.
I did not know I was in a hotel room, which was a big shock.
So you're living your life with these post-age notes, and this is your journal.
And just to note, it says, read me, I am your journal.
And this is, you know, flip me up and read me so that you even have notes to remind you to read it.
But what is it like to have to use these notes to remind yourself of the activities of everyday living?
It's a lot like reading a book.
I mean, since I don't really remember, I can't pull that memory and say, oh yeah, I remember what the clouds looked like, or I remember looking at that dog when we were sitting at the restaurant.
So I can kind of picture what it would be like, but it's not the same as actually remembering anything.
So when you had your injury, and all of us sitting here listening to you, do start to think it's sort of like that movie that I thought was make-believe, 50 First Dates.
Does it bother you to be compared to the woman in that movie?
It doesn't bother me to be compared to her.
I think it helps people understand more.
Because, yeah, she could remember, but she could also point out things that I might not be able to, that are hard to do.
Chris, what do you think, as you watch your daughter now?
She seems like she's obviously very understanding what's going on.
She's very, very smart, and she has a very good grasp on things, and she's handled it way better than probably the rest of us would have.
She has a very Good attitude.
It's been hurting the parents as much as your daughter.
Yes.
She tells me that quite often, that she has it easy.
That she sees that we're the ones that are much more emotional.
Because as she says, she's going to wake up and start over tomorrow, that the emotions don't build for her like they do for us.
Is that right, Caitlin?
I mean, I really just take it right here, right now.
I can't really look forward to what am I going to do tomorrow night for dinner.
I don't know.
Maybe I'll want chicken, maybe tacos sound good.
All I've got to focus on is right now, this is where we are.
So here's what I like to do.
I can't promise a solution or an answer.
This is an incredibly complicated process.
You're going through it.
What I do want you to have is hope.
So we're reaching out to some doctors who have done research in this area just to be able to collect more to help you.
And we'll connect you directly to them.
If that's okay, we'll start with that.
You'll certainly be the world experts on this when you're done.
And hopefully you'll find some paths as well to at least get you to continue to improve more than you have already.
Absolutely.
Sure.
We appreciate it.
And I want to say this all to everybody else.
You have a gift in a way, Caitlin.
What you just said right now is very profound.
You are forced to live in the moment.
Many of us have never lived until we've lost it all.
And at least you're day in and day out.
I benefits for that one day doing what all of us should be doing, which is living that day.
I wish you the best of luck in carrying that out.
Don't lose that hope.
We'll continue to follow Caitlin's journey and find out how you can donate, if you wish to, to the GoFundMe page by coming to draz.com.
We'll be right back.
And up next is the eye-catching zero-calorie iced tea you're going to be sipping all summer long.
We're sharing the best twist to the hibiscus tea tray.
It's the red hot health trend everyone's going to be drinking this summer, hibiscus tea.
This colorful tropical tea is getting a lot of attention all over the internet, and today we're breaking it down.
What do you need to know about hibiscus tea?
Is it worth it?
Here to help figure out this health trend.
It's an expert who hosts the Party in My Plants podcast.
Talia Pollock.
How are you, Talia?
Great.
You're dressed in hibiscus colors.
What a coincidence.
Oh my goodness, Company Mask coordinated.
So this tea is showing up in coffee shops, all over grocery stores, obviously people talking about it on Instagram.
What's it about?
You said, why is it so popular?
Why now?
I mean, clearly, it's eye-catching.
And so it's super fun.
And everyone's looking for great ways to stay hydrated.
And so here's one that has no calories, is super nutritious, and tastes so refreshing iced.
So there's lots of things, lots of reported health benefits for this little tea.
You have to give that a taste.
Let's see what you think.
Everyone likes the taste, but does it really help you physically?
It doesn't really taste like anything.
It doesn't taste like anything.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for the help.
Now, you still hold on to that.
I don't want it anymore.
All right, first, I have ways to make it taste like something.
I'll come back to that in a second.
First, it can help lower blood pressure.
One small tea, rather one small study on this tea, hibiscus tea, showed that it actually lowered blood pressure in people who were at risk or had high blood pressure.
So that's pretty cool if it can help us with the number one killer of all of us.
Next up, it can lower inflammation.
The bright red color of this tea comes from anthocyanins, and it has anti-inflammatory properties, those anthocyanins, so that's why it has a benefit.
Not to mention, it also has antioxidants by itself.
And finally, it's got zero calories, right?
No matter what it tastes like, hibiscus tea is pretty uncalories.
Now, I think it has lots of flavor, but it's light on the waistline, and there's no caffeine either, so you can drink it all day long.
So let's bring Talia back in.
What is the best way to brew this tea to get it to become that refreshing iced tea that so many people are bragging about?
Yeah, so you can do it with the tea bags, or you can do it with the loose-dried tea petals, which I think is so much more fun and hands-on and like earthy.
So you're going to add half a cup of the loose into four cups of water.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
That's what we'll actually do it.
I'm sorry.
So sloppy, Talya.
I'm sorry.
Oh, my goodness.
Okay.
Got a health extra.
I said hands-on, you know, all hands on deck.
So you're going to put that in your fridge.
All right.
And you're cold brewing it.
So you let it sit there overnight, and then in the morning, you strain it out.
And it looks like this.
Voila.
Well, let's see if it actually tastes questionable like our guest was.
I think that's great.
What are you talking about?
It's fine.
Oh, my goodness.
A lady in red.
You've been dressed in hibiscus colors.
It's kind of like cranberry-y.
Little cranberry, little less tart, though.
Yeah.
So you don't have to put stuff in the color.
I love cranberry juice, but people do find it tart, so sometimes they have to add sugar.
This you wouldn't have to add that to.
It's got a calm, soothing, sensual taste to it.
All right, now, Talia's got a couple of hibiscus tea twists to share with everybody.
How are you?
This is Karen.
She likes a little sweeter tea.
So, do you like Arnold Palmer's?
Yes, I do.
Have you had them?
Yes.
You know what they are?
Yes, it's a delicious blend of lemonade and iced tea.
Exactly.
We can make Arbors a hibiscus Palmer.
Take it away, Talia.
Yeah, I mean, everyone knows that the legendary golfer, Arnold Palmer, loved mixing lemonade and iced tea.
Why not do iced hibiscus tea instead?
You still get half the calories of regular lemonade with the added benefits of the hibiscus tea.
So when you pour them, they don't separate, even though we have pictures to show that.
They really should look this color.
Yes.
And then it gives you a little bit more sweetness here.
Let's try this out.
Tya, take that to that discontented audience member over there.
Maybe we could convince her that she actually do better with this hibiscus palmer.
You give it a taste of yourself.
Tiggle your fingers.
Thank you.
Don't ask too many details, Talia.
She's sort of curmudgeonly over there.
Just a thumb up.
Better?
Better.
Better get a bucket.
Fine.
What do you think?
That is delicious.
It's great.
Yeah, it's fantastic.
You actually lighten, it's already light, but it elevates that lightness, so you have a little bit of a fuller mouth.
It's great.
It's really pretty, too.
Very refreshing.
I usually plant hibiscus.
Now I'm going to start drinking.
Oh, cool.
It is literally those leaves dried out.
Yeah.
So it's pretty simple.
I can imagine a regular tea.
All right.
Another super cool idea is the hibiscus tea cocktail.
This is really what you should be waiting for.
You're going to kick it up a notch.
if you're going to make the hibiscus tea all day long, you can make this hibiscus drink all night long.
So share it with us.
I love to party with this honey hibiscus lime spritzer.
So all you do is you're going to brew it hot this time because you're going to add honey to it when it's hot and the honey will dissolve in the hot tea.
But then you want to cool it.
Once it's chill, you just add lime juice, tequila, seltzer, pour it over ice, and cheers and party all night long.
Bet you'll see here.
Very good.
You know what?
This is really something special.
This is a great idea.
We're going to put all these recipes on Dr.aj.com so you can take your summer drinks to the next level.
I'm going to take it back with this lady again and see if I can tequila might get her happier.
We'll be right back in the meantime.
We're going to have a little alcohol of yours.
It's been 30 years since Ted Bundy's execution, but his bloodline lives on.
He and his wife were able to have a daughter while Ted was on death row.
Who is Ted Bundy's daughter?
Imagine knowing that you're carrying these genes, that you could potentially become a psychopath yourself.
And where is she now?
She changed her name.
You're trying to pretend never happened.
Plus, she survived Ted Bundy.
I remember him asking me how I'd like to die.
And he put his hands on my throat and started squeezing.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Thank you.
The search for the next big health idea is on.
I love working on new technology and tools to keep us all healthy.
In fact, this past year, I had the honor of working on two major developments in heart valves.
And one device is called the TAVR device.
Those are all the headlines.
And this device is really cool.
It goes up from the groin, right?
It turns heart surgery into a procedure of the past, potentially.
So instead of cracking open the chest, that little catheter goes in.
See, it expanded right there, that valve stuck in from the groin through a puncture.
It up the aortic valve that was stuck.
And now you've got a new valve placed over a catheter without having to open the chest, without having to stop the heart.
And now, interestingly, I got another idea that just to highlight it for you, it's called a mitric clip.
It looks like this, opens up like that, puts it across the mitral valve.
It snaps shut like that and fixes the mitral valve that might be leaking.
Reduces your chance of heart failure by a lot.
These are huge advances.
Now, both these inventions relied on teams of people working together for a long, long time.
Even if they don't have the same background or live in the same place.
For example, with this clip that I just showed you, I worked with a surgeon from a different part of the world and came up with an idea in the back of an envelope.
So I want to help find the next big health idea.
All kinds of ideas are out there.
We're open to all of them.
Remedies that you've been using in your family for generations or new uses for old ideas.
Or what about disruptive solutions that use technology that could change the world around you?
We have the power, each and every one of us.
So I'm excited to share an incredible opportunity for healthcare innovators and startups.
This year, I'm going to be hosting the first ever Publicist Health Media Disruption Garage at the Health Front in New York City.
It's an event exploring the latest in healthcare innovation.
Now, as part of the Disruption Garage, we are looking for the most disrupting future facial ideas in health.
Four people will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas live, the world's leading innovators for a chance to win services that will help take your idea or business to the next level.
So if you think you have an idea that will change the future of health, go to phmdisruptiongarage.com, just spell that out.com, and then submit yourself.
I hope to see you there.
Remember, everybody, together change is happening.
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