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Oct. 3, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
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Fast Food Rotisserie & Grilled Chicken Health Risks | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 2 | Full Episode
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I'll have the rotisserie chicken with a side of corn today on the Dr. Osha, our biggest fast food investigation yet.
Grilled and rotisserie fast food chicken.
Seems like the healthier choice.
These things gives us headaches, palpitations.
It's just secret sauce they're adding.
Are you making the right choice or is it a trap?
Today we're gonna find out.
Let's get to those results.
Plus, could the latest fast food fresh meat fat actually be more dangerous?
coming up next Y'all ready for season 10?
Yeah!
I love you back on.
I love you back on.
We believe when it comes to what you eat, you deserve complete transparency.
And that's why we're committed to bringing you the truth about your food.
And today, we're talking about grilled and rotisserie chicken.
Not the kind from the grocery store, the kind you get from your favorite fast food restaurant.
They're selling them there and a lot of them being sold there.
Now are they a healthy whole food shortcut or just another processed food in disguise?
Our investigative reporter Marsh Giabapomco reports.
Take a look.
Rotisserie chicken.
It's quick, delicious, and already ready, making this precooked bird the perfect dinner for your busy family.
And as a quick, lean protein chicken is often a staple of your healthy eating plan.
In fact, you all love rotisserie chicken so much that the show's investigation into grocery store and big box store chickens was the most viewed and searched video on Dr. Oz.com to date.
But what about the rotisserie roasted and grilled chicken at fast food restaurants?
Is it really a healthier choice?
Do birds of a feather flock together?
Or do these fast food chickens have hidden ingredients that could be sabotaging your diet?
We crisscross the country looking at fast food chicken and comparing it.
Dissecting the ingredients so you can decide if it's worth taking home or taking out of your diet.
I'll have the rotisserie chicken with a side of corn.
I'll have the chicken, please.
I'll have the rotisserie chicken with two sides.
It's the Dr. Oz show's biggest fast food chicken investigation yet.
And today we're sharing the results.
And she's joining us in person, as well as food investigator Danny Boom with the results.
First things first.
Why is looking in the fast food chicken so important today?
Well, you know, when we talk to customers, we always hear the same thing.
People love rotisserie chickens because they're healthy and they're convenient.
And as a working mom, I get it.
I feel the same way about them.
And you hear a lot of articles, nutritionist recommendations saying this is a great diet hack.
In fact, this show did a study into the $5 big box chickens and found it's a great option.
But are the fast food chickens just as good?
It's really important to give people that information.
Because say you're uh a woman who's trying to change your habits, you want to lose some weight, right?
We've all been there.
You're three weeks into your diet, you're craving some fast food, you say, I'm not gonna do the pizza, I'm not gonna do the burgers, I'm gonna do the chicken.
Are you making the right choice or is it a trap?
Today we're gonna find out.
There are probably a hundred million people a week who go to fast food places.
So I I talk about them a lot.
They're trying to do good.
Is this really a move in the right direction, or are they just getting on to the fat?
Okay, Danny's break it down for us.
Tell us about fast food rotisserie chicken.
Okay, so the first thing is you know that fast food chicken is generally unhealthy for us because it's generally fried.
Okay.
So the healthier option is these type of three here.
So we we start from the right side.
That's your general rotisserie chicken that you're gonna get from the supermarket, okay?
You're gonna go down there, it's a whole chicken.
It's a whole chicken, it's done on a spit, so all the fat drains off.
And it's great because you get the whole chicken, and then you can break it down yourself at home.
Okay.
Are the fast food places making these whole chickens also?
Not generally.
What the fast food companies do is they actually break the whole chicken down because obviously it's more profit for them.
Okay, so in the supermarket, they're gonna go for the whole chicken for more value for you and you and you, okay?
But when it actually comes to the fast food guys, they're saying, well, we're gonna give you a couple of their options here.
We've got fire grilled chicken, and then we have fire plate chicken.
Okay, so that to me is like, well, what does that mean?
Well, apparently it tastes all the same because that's the first thing.
It looks the same.
It looks the same in the color, we've broke it down, but does it have the same ingredients?
Is it the same thing?
Because a supermarket chicken is completely different to somebody that's gonna be mass-produced over and over again.
In America, we go through 25 million chickens a day.
Oh my goodness.
Wow, Right?
A day.
So when we get to it, the rotisserie chicken is yes, is our healthier option for a quick hack.
But basically, when we come to the fast food size, what is in this chicken?
It may look the same, but does it taste the same?
And they come to you in buckets and they're you know, they pick it a little.
I get why it's a tiny bit more expansive because they can give you exactly what you want, and it does a convenience factor.
And yes, people want to drive by and pick it up quickly, and they're on a diet, and I don't want to discourage you from doing that.
So we did a big investigation.
Let's get to those results.
Come on over.
So, first off, Mar, you and the medical unit poured over the data from fast food restaurants.
And they do share their data.
So we're doing the homework for you, but you can double check us if you want.
What did you look for?
Yeah, so we looked at four things.
The first thing was sodium, salt, really important for a lot of people in their diet.
They're watching their salt.
Second thing, saturated fat.
This again is very important because too much can put you at risk of certain diseases.
And this is not the healthy fat that everyone wants, things that come from like olive oil.
Carbohydrates, again, especially if you're trying to watch your weight, that's always important.
And calories, we all care about those numbers, so we took a look at those as well.
All right, so what we had to compare it to something.
So we compared fast food rotisserie uh and grilled chicken to a control group.
Now, for the control group, we just picked a pretty traditional Costco bird, right?
It's a supermarket bird.
What's a good example of a healthy supermarket style option?
So Mark, thank you very much.
I'll meet you over in a second.
We're gonna go over the final results.
But first, we wanted to look at the hidden ingredients.
So, what are the hidden ingredients that you found?
Good and bad, good results.
So that is our chicken.
And I'm just gonna pull this now to show you your hidden ingredients.
The first thing that we find is some good ingredients, okay?
We find things that you'd actually have in your own pantry at home.
So we've got onion powder, chicken broth, coconut oil, carrots, salt, and turmeric.
All these things, pretty good, right?
This isn't this is it in fast food chicken.
That's fast food chicken.
But the thing is, again, we don't, there's no label, okay?
So we don't know exactly what's in our chicken, okay?
But to find this is a lovely surprise, but I would like a little bit more transparency.
Okay.
So when we look at that, I'm feeling good.
But then I pull it across here, and then I find this.
Okay?
These are the things that make me a little worried.
MSG gives you the flavor of umami, but it also comes with a few little things.
We we have this call it Chinese restaurant syndrome.
It gives us headaches, pulpitations.
Okay.
I don't want that in my food.
I'd like to know it's in there.
Give me a label, okay?
We've got also yeast extract, um, silicone dioxide, wheat flour, all of those are actually you know, generally pushing you towards an allergen point in your body.
But we don't even know if these are in all the chickens because we couldn't tell.
You can't.
And it's not the chicken's fault.
It's the secret sauce they're adding or some other processing elements.
Exactly.
Right.
So that's okay.
We can you know that's how you be in the certain.
You pick the ones that you that work for you.
So none of these that I'm seeing right here would dissuade me from having a fast food rotisserie chicken so far.
They shouldn't be, no.
Okay.
All right, next up.
Let's see if the skin makes a difference.
Thank you.
So this is a big issue because you know, going skinless is what a lot of folks think they're doing to stay healthy.
Doesn't make a difference.
Yeah, you know, that's the first thing I always do is peel off the skin.
I think it's helping.
It actually does help.
So it reduces three things.
It reduces sodium, it reduces calories, and it reduces your fat.
But here's the thing if you're then going to load up on barbecue sauce and ketchup to put some flavor back into that chicken, that's not a good choice.
You're better off keeping the skin on unless you have what I got here, Dr. Oz for you.
Bam!
I got hot sauce in my bag because I'm like Beyonce!
Well, let's get a company.
She brings the hot stuff.
Taste is important.
All right, so you understand some of the pitfalls, but let's get to those four criteria if you're up for it.
All right, come on.
The final verdict.
How did fast food rotisserie chicken compare to the supermarket version?
All right, we're gonna go through one by one and see which bird is the healthiest.
First up, sodium, what you find.
Sodium, the supermarket bird won this lower sodium in the supermarket bird.
So that's your better option there.
A little purer option.
Yes.
Okay.
Number two, saturated fat.
Again, we're not talking about fried chicken.
You're all the same page here.
Fried chicken doesn't, that's not part of my diet.
I won't be recommending that.
Right.
But the rotisserie fast food versus supermarket, who won?
Again, the supermarket chicken came out on top, lower saturated fat.
And again, saturated fat puts you at risk for other health issues.
So this is an important one.
Yeah, what about the carb category?
So many folks try to keep their carbs low, especially if they're eating paleo or uh, you know, one of the low sugar versions.
Right.
So in this case, actually the fast food bird came out on top.
It did, and that's because there were some flavorings in the supermarket chicken that had sugar in them.
So that raised the carbohydrate count.
I actually thought it was gonna be a clean sweep.
I really did.
I did too.
I was surprised by that.
But that's why we're here, right?
How about calories?
Calories, again, the supermarket bird came out on top, lower calories.
So in three of the four of the supermarket bird is a better option.
So if I look at this whole thing, the overall winner does seem to be the supermarket bird.
And then the supermarket style rotisserie chicken is a great option, we've been talking about you all love it.
But in fairness, let me speak to you all about this a little bit.
You know, they're all winners, right?
Because guess what?
Rotissory chickens are overall healthier options than anything else, but most of the time you're gonna find in a fast food place.
And you know what?
They're tasty.
Right?
So you should feel good about eating them.
Forgotten this floorage on them, they're a good crutch for you.
Up next though, we're taking up a little bit.
How can you make a week's worth of meals with one rotisserie chicken?
It's actually pretty easy to do.
You won't want to miss this.
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And Wendy Williams' mission to get it off the streets.
The other personal experience, very personal, all noise.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Thank you.
Food investigator and Chef Danny Boom is back to show us how you can hack your rotisserie chicken, literally hack it, to get a week's worth of healthy meals out of one bird.
Audience, you think you can do it?
What do you think?
Yeah.
I love that confidence.
They like that.
I like to say, yes.
That's what it's about.
We can do this, people.
We should do this.
First off, Monday, Danny says, start with one chicken breast to make chicken, if I'd rather buffalo chicken zucchini bowl.
So you get the whole chicken here.
Have the whole chicken.
Just take one breast.
Okay.
Now I'm gonna take the breast off here, okay?
And what I like to do is to say is I'm gonna take the breast, and you're gonna do it the traditional way.
You're gonna take two forks and you're gonna basically separate them.
Now I work in a commercial sense, so we're just gonna use the natural flesh.
You literally blend your chicken breast?
I blend it all the way through.
I mean, seriously, Doc, when I'm in my kitchen.
Let me see this.
I have to do a lot of these.
So what we do is we take and we stab, basically push down and it breaks up the kitchen.
Oh my goodness.
And that quick.
Why am I wasting my time with this thing?
Because you know what?
You're a perfectionist and you're a surgeon, and that's why you're doing it.
Okay.
All right.
So we got our mashed up chicken here.
We're gonna take our mashed up chicken.
We've got some here.
We're gonna add a little hot sauce.
Okay.
It's a lot of hot sauce.
Well, you like hot sauce, right?
Uh, not that much.
Okay, well, don't worry.
You're gonna eat a whole thing.
We're gonna take a spoon, we mix it all together.
Throw celery in our later.
Okay, we're gonna put the celery on the top.
Okay.
Put a little bit in if you like.
Good.
Okay.
Love your job.
We're gonna mix it all together, and then we're gonna put it into a scooped-out zucchini half.
Okay, there we go.
Little bit of this, a little bit of magic on top, and then we have this fantastic buffalo chicken zucchini boat.
Oh, it's good.
It's a great little like afternoon delight, nice bit of bread.
It's fast.
All right, really fast.
Tuesday.
Tuesday.
Every day's got a different use.
Tuesday is about making chicken breasts into chicken tacos.
Right?
And everybody loves tacos, right?
These look so beautiful.
Okay.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna take some hard shell tacos.
We're gonna just put the great the chicken in there, and then I'm gonna put a tad of salcer on top.
Really simple, very fresh flavors.
Don't forget to buy some lemons and limes to really zest it up.
So Tuesday's done with two breasts.
Before they dry it out, you gotta go in.
Now, my favorite part is actually the drumsticks.
Okay.
But he's got a special making a chicken lentil pasta salad jar, and we've got two of our bike club members here set up in a pasta salad station and to actually build little uh uh versions of this in jars.
Yes.
If you're on Pinterest right now, mason jars are the thing.
Um, everybody's mason jarring out.
But the best part about all of this.
The best part here is my why I like using mason jars because I become Tom Cruise.
Okay.
I become shake it, babies.
That's what you want to do.
Put the dressing on, shake it up, and then everything is all there.
Good idea?
Great idea.
Okay.
It's so easy.
All right, so we got our drumstick there.
Thursday, we got the thighs and the wings left, right?
So he's gonna make an Asian grain bowl and a chicken noodle soup.
You can make a lot of things actually.
It sounds a lot more difficult than it is, Jenny.
When you hear the name of a dish, you go, oh, I don't know if I could do that.
Really, it's this simple.
All we're gonna do is gonna take some brown rice, a little avocado.
See, so these are these.
Yeah, we'll be the thigh.
These are the thighs.
Okay, so you're pretty much using the whole bird now.
The whole bird.
And we've just done it section by section.
Okay?
With the Asian grain bowl, all it is is something we do we basically can either do two ways.
You can do it the fresh way, which is you boil your rice up, you add your fresh ingredients, and then you can heat up the uh the chicken in some stock and then pour it over and sort of like make a uh a ramen bowl.
Oh, the other thing, excuse me, well done.
Uh look at the dice.
I'm a surgeon.
He is in the look at that.
Oh beautifully done.
You could actually come work for me with nostrils like that.
Okay.
And then what we got is you can either do it coke and just saute in the pan and other hot dish.
It's beautiful.
Now, we got one problem.
It's Friday.
All right.
Right?
We have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but on Friday, we basically only have the carcass left.
Right.
Right.
So what do you do with the rest of this?
And again, I'm one of those folks, I don't know how the audience in here feels about this, but I don't like to waste anything.
No.
So help me out.
Now, if you've got the carcass and you don't want to use it straight away, what you can do is actually freeze it in a in a basically a zippy bag.
Okay, put it in the freezer, and then come back to it another day.
Then what you would do is you've got some stock.
You make a stock with carrots and celery and red onions.
And what you would do is you're gonna take the actual carcass and we're gonna drop the whole thing into the water as it's boiling, okay?
So you can either keep the broth to cook with lighter, or you can actually cook the whole thing and eat it actually as a soup.
It's just so good.
Right on, yeah.
And soups are great if you're on a diet as well, because they go through your body more slowly, so that could keep you satiated for longer.
This is a five dollar solution, folks.
Five dollars of chicken, it got you the whole week worth of stuff.
And even a chef's doing it.
That's weird a day.
You have outdone yourself.
Thank you, sir.
You impress the audience.
Everyone at home, head to Dr. Oz.com to download their tussery chicken one sheet with all these tips and get all these tasty recipes.
Then start using them.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, if you love a juicy burger, you might be excited about the new fast food trend to switch from frozen beef to fresh.
But is it actually more dangerous?
We're investigating.
Cleaner, fresher foods, not just a trend, it's a movement.
And it's one that all of you are watching, you need them to change.
So I love that.
And fast food chains, they're listening.
Some of the biggest aims making the shift from frozen patties, like like hockey pucks, to these fresh meat ones.
Oh.
Is this a step in the right direction?
Sounds good.
But could fresh meat actually be dangerous?
Think about this.
Take a look.
When it comes to meat, fresh is better, right?
Consumers say so.
Millennials say so.
And fast food is response.
McDonald's made headlines when they recently announced they were flipping from frozen to fresh beef in all quarter pounder and signature crafted recipe burgers.
And the change is rolling out nationally as we speak.
Meanwhile, other fast food brands are also offering fresh, never frozen options.
But does the move to fresh meat really benefit consumers?
After all, frozen food is less prone to contamination, thus reducing the risk of foodborne illness.
Today we investigate the fast food, fresh meat trend.
Is it actually more dangerous?
Alright, joining me, the consumer spending expert here at the Herzag, who's been tracking this industry ship.
What's driving the big move towards fresh patties?
So one word, millennials.
You remember back in the day it was all about cheap and fast.
So here's a fun fact only 20% of American millennials have ever tasted a Big Mac.
Only one in five?
One in five.
Do you guys believe that?
I mean, even I've tasted a big Mac.
Exactly.
So McDonald's realized this.
They realized they needed a boost of their image.
So what they did is they ended up spending more than 60 million dollars to update their supply chain.
So those quarter pounder frozen patties are now fresh.
Let's just do a little dive into this thing.
The first thing we're gonna do is can you really taste the difference between fresh and frozen?
Because if it doesn't taste good, then you know people aren't gonna eat it anyway.
So, Georgina, what makes a good burger in your opinion?
These are two burger affectionados by the really experts.
Good burger to me is juicy, um, flavorful.
Is that right?
And how do you Kelly go?
How do you compare?
What do you think is gonna happen?
Because you have two samples here, one fresh, one frozen.
I'll tell you which is which.
You think it'll be able to tell the difference?
Oh, absolutely.
No issue.
No issue.
Very confident.
All right, Now you guys have been munching on these babies.
Oh, yeah.
Are you confident that you know which one is the fresh one?
I think so.
We're kind of talking.
We think so.
You do.
All right.
Give it away.
Give me an adjective for the burgers on the on the right side, the A-burgers.
Definitely flavorful.
Um, definitely hardy, and I can taste like the quality in it.
Right.
And the ones on the left, the bees?
Dry, like hockey pucks.
Like hockey pucks.
Yeah, like flavorless.
The way they look when they're frozen.
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Guess what?
Well, you're guessing I guess that the fresh is the A's.
I I believe so.
I think so.
Ethan, are they right?
Uh yes, they are.
Well, it's not written here, but I know it's true.
Okay.
You got you got it right.
Fresh meat wins.
And not surprisingly, that's not the issue for me.
I actually knew they would taste better.
Just I think everyone probably expected that.
The question is, are they safe?
And this thick is wrong, because there's some concerns.
Even raised by franchise owners themselves.
What are you hearing?
Right.
So there was a study that came out by Numora that said franchisee owners are concerned with fresh meat in their chain.
So basically, they thought that working and cooking with fresh meat would open up their chain to potential food-borne illnesses.
And there was this quote I'm gonna paraphrase from the from the study that said basically if there's one uncaring employee uh that could that made a little bit of a mistake that could completely ruin and change everything about their supply chain and their and their uh their stores.
So in the back of everyone's mind is a thought, well, we've had outbreaks of foodborne illnesses in popular restaurant chains over the years.
So could it happen again?
Actually, if you don't mind, come on back.
Walk us through a little time uh warp here.
Okay, so Jack in the box.
Right.
You remember in in the 90s, there was this is one of the biggest outbreaks of E. coli.
So 178 people were affected.
Three children died from this, unfortunately, from this outbreak.
And so that was from fresh meat.
Uh they were cooking with fresh meat.
And so if we walk down here uh in 2000, you remember in Sizzler uh had this contamination of actual fresh watermelon from uh from the meat.
So 64 people were affected.
Someone touched the meat that touched the watermelon.
Exactly.
So there was a cross-contamination there, and one child died from that.
So again, the meat gets cooked, it gets sterilized basically, but no one cooks watermelon.
Right, exactly.
So you you when you're cooking, you potentially can cross-contaminate.
So that's also a concern as well.
And now I know Chipotle had problems with lettuce, but this is not about that.
No, this is so you remember at Chipotle, this was actually salmonella and E. coli, and 114 people were affected over 11 states.
Now, Chipotle didn't say specifically it was because of the fresh meat.
However, we know that that's what they serve.
All right, so these are good change.
You know, people are trying to do their best, and it's important to note these contaminations don't happen all the time inside the restaurant.
They can happen anywhere in the supply chain.
So you're a good restaurant, you know, franchise owner trying to do your best, so your employees are great, but some person who was shipping it to you didn't do it right, and that causes a problem.
It's all thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right, so to address the potential danger of fresh over frozen burgers, I decided to call in a foremost expert in food safety industry insider, Donnie Yu from Premier Food Safety.
Now he works directly with the biggest names in fast food to ensure safety standards are being met.
I want him to show us why fresh meat is more likely to have bacteria in it than frozen.
Okay, in some cases, uh so the this uh this is ground meats right here.
They do start out with some bacteria.
So this uh green glitter represents the bacteria, so we're gonna go ahead and uh freeze this hamburger patty.
Okay, so this is gonna be a frozen patty, basically.
Yes.
All right, so you put it in there.
All right, so we're gonna freeze this hamburger patty.
You pull it out.
Okay, about uh three days later, you do see the same number of bacteria.
Okay, because freezing actually stops bacteria from growing and it it pretty much puts it asleep in a dormant state.
All right, so that's you know, it's it's not perfect, but it's a lot less bacteria.
Now, let's say the exact same patty.
This time, instead of putting in the freezer, you're gonna put it in the fridge.
Yes.
So we'll take that.
All right, so you got this uh fresh hamburger meat.
We're gonna put it in the refrigeration.
And what happens in the fridge to the bacteria?
Whoa, look, um, so look, you could see the bacteria is actually uh multiplied.
Actually, put them to each other.
Quite a bit here.
Can you all see a difference between these two?
Now these are not real bacteria, but little color sparklers on here.
But the the f the refrigerated patty still allows bacteria to grow.
Correct.
So refrigeration slows down the growth of bacteria, it doesn't stop it as uh freezing does.
All right, so I see there's a difference, but how likely is this to make you sick if it's cooked appropriately?
Um it's not very likely that you're gonna get sick.
Restaurants are required to follow a strict guideline, and one of those steps is called a critical limit, it's to ensure that the hamburgers are being cooked correctly to 155 degrees for 15 seconds to destroy the uh harmful bacteria.
Reassured.
Reassured, yes.
And then also the restaurants are being inspected by the local health department, which to ensure that they're compliant.
Well, we're talking earlier about the fact that we're putting our health in the hands of restaurant workers.
Who many are great, but we don't know if every single one is perfect.
So what happens if the meat's not perfectly managed in the restaurant?
Does that worry you at all?
Yes, that's a great question.
Um it is a huge health violation when an employee leaves the hamburger patty out or any type of uh high protein foods with moisture, bacteria is going to double every 20 minutes.
Every 20 minutes?
Every 20 minutes it doubles the number.
Oh my goodness, I never knew it was rapidly reproducing.
All right, so we reached out to the National Restaurant Association and asked them how they intend to make sure these fresh meat that they're serving is actually safe.
And here's what they said in part.
There are a number of precautions that must be taken when handling both fresh and frozen foods, including maintaining proper temperature controls, ensuring the product is cooked to the correct temperature, and wash the hands before and after handling.
We're gonna make the full statement available on Dr. Oz dot com.
Here's the thing for me.
While there is some risk that comes with food prep, taste-wise, fresh usually wins out.
And it's a good development, I think in that, because these fast food brands are responding to wanting less processed foods, because you're demanding it.
So I commend this positive change.
So when we come back, the insider's secrets to getting the freshest and safest fast food every time.
You have more control than you think.
Stay with us.
Here's your daily share, I know, I know.
We want the safest, the freshest, the most delicious food, even if it's just from a grab and go spot.
So today, Industry Insider from Premier Food Safety, Donna Yu, is here showing you how to hack a fast food made to get the best.
The first thing is to customize your burger to ensure it is grilled to order.
So why does it make a difference?
That's right.
You want to customize your water as you see here.
Let's uh go ahead and take the uh the onions out, let's take the pickles out.
Okay, therefore the they're gonna make you a fresh hamburger uh from the start.
Okay, so customizing your burger is great.
And you also want to make sure that the person that's grilling your hamburger is not the same person that's going to be building your hamburger because this person can touch the raw meat, the raw juices can be transmitted from your hands onto your ready-to-eat foods, which will be your fresh veggies that are going in your burger.
And uh, tell us a little story here.
So this woman here is diligently doing her job, she's just flipping the burgers.
I don't care fact what she touches, because everything she's touching is getting cooked.
But if this poor lady is doing the same task, flipping burgers, and then this hand touches this hand, which we do that, right?
And then by that by this hand touching the lettuce and the tomatoes, you've gotten bacteria from a burger that's gonna get cooked and sterilized effectively, transferred the lettuce that will never get cooked.
And this is the kind of stuff that worries me a little bit, because you can't control this all the time.
But you as a customer know that.
That's right.
And then um employees must be trained correctly uh to prevent cross-contamination.
Uh and then uh one way we can achieve that is by using tongs or gloves.
For example, you take a tongue to grab a raw hamburger meat to put it on the grill, and then uh the proper use of gloves.
And something that a lot of people forget is just simple hand washing.
These two surfaces right here transmit the most bacteria, so we have to wash your hands.
But again, we we can't control everything that a restaurant employee is doing, which is why I think for a lot of us, it makes it important to look for these kinds of uh items that we can control.
Because I don't know if it's easy washing your hands or not, but I know she's doing both together, which is difficult.
Can I go back to the customization?
I can customize it any way I run, right?
I can add something, remove something, but I just want to force them to realize that I'm a little different from all the other cookie cutter orders.
So my burger hasn't been sitting around.
Why is that such a big deal?
Okay.
Um that's a good Point.
Uh you walk into a fast food restaurant and sometimes you see a hamburger that's sitting under a heat lamp or a heat tray, and that's actually a good thing.
It's to prevent bacteria from growing.
It's a take it out of the danger zone.
The problem is when you leave it there too long, the quality just goes downhill.
Okay, so the longer you have it under the heat lamp, it's it's like eating cardboard.
It's just uh it's not necessarily you'll get sick, but it's just uh it doesn't taste good.
So be a pre-modonna, you know, be the squeaky wheel, and if you see this also, with your customized burger being made, point it out to folks, you know, remind them.
All right, next time you say the burger ought to be brown all around.
Explain what this means.
Alright, so brown all around.
Uh so let's go ahead and remove the bun from the hamburgers here.
So I remove mine, you remove yours.
Okay.
So uh just by looking at it from the outside and just from the surface, it looks like it's cooked uh pretty good.
So it is brown all oil.
So I'm gonna go ahead and open up my hamburger patty, and it's actually cooked all the way through, which is great.
Ooh.
And then, whoa, look at yours.
Yours is kind of like red and it's uh it could be a little bit bloody right there.
Yes.
Okay.
Which in theory is not a bad idea, but why is that a problem?
Well, for a lot of the uh national fast food chains, uh they they are actually required to uh cook it all the way through.
They don't give you the option of having it um medium rare or rare.
It's uh it's to prevent the potential um risk of food-borne illness.
So I can't get a medium rare burger at a big restaurant.
Um it depends on uh uh what the quality of meat that uh to begin with, but a lot of the national fast food chains uh have a policy where you have to cook it all the way through.
So let's ask you, isn't it possible to get my burger to the right temperature, even if the inside is not fully cooked?
Um that is a possibility.
If you start out with uh fresh hamburger patties, you cook it to 155 degrees for 15 seconds.
You do see some of that pink quality.
But when you're dealing with frozen patties, it should be cooked all the way through.
And again, i if you take a bite of that burger and there's a little bit of blood or red, I take it right back.
Uh so your family doesn't get sick.
Well, by the time I've taken a bite, it's a little too late.
You think from now on, everyone in America ought to be breaking the burger a little bit just to take a peek first before they bite?
I think that's a great idea, especially if you're about to give that to your kid.
Uh you want to go ahead and open up a little bit.
If you see the little bit of that red or the blood, uh that that's a huge red flag.
Um, you you want to take it back.
No, don't do that.
You're gonna get diarrhea if you do that.
Yeah.
All right, so help me.
So Donnie, you took uh uh meat with meat lesson, crack it, look, make sure, and then ah, ate away.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
We'll be right back.
Can aluminum foil cause Alzheimer's?
There's a slew of online stories making you afraid of one of your favorite kitchen tools.
So today we are investigating.
You're making dinner tonight or wrap it up leftovers.
Chances are you're gonna use a piece of this.
And it's hard to think of this thin little sheet of foil being able to stir up, it's a huge debate.
But a new wave of online articles is raising the question does using aluminum foil with food cause Alzheimer's.
So today we're gonna unwrap the truth about your aluminum foil from the links with the breadth, with the brain, the health, or even to whether or not it could affect the food you're eating.
So we got two sisters here, Jennifer and Jessica.
They fight over everything, and I mean everything in the kitchen.
So who makes the best lasagna?
So what kind of food wrap to use?
So definitely start with you.
But by the way, who whose design tastes better?
Mine.
It's mine.
You've got to love this.
I pity your father.
So Jefferson says she'll never give up the silver stuff.
You say it's your secret ingredient.
Why do you love aluminum so much?
Do you mind if I taste by the way?
Oh, please do.
You'll love it.
It's my secret ingredient because it's easy to use, it keeps all the flavors inside one little part, the temperature is great, and I can take it to a friend's house, leave it, keep the pan.
I don't mind.
Throw it away, I don't mind, okay?
And I have a secret for you.
When it's in the oven, 10 minutes before it's over, rip that foil off, let the cheese ooze and goose, and you'll have a perfect layer of brown bubbly cheese.
Oh, it's hard to beat that now.
Jessica, your lasagna I noticed is in a glass tray.
Yes, it is.
And you don't ever let aluminum get close to it.
I'm gonna taste while you speak.
Please do.
Well, Dr. Ice, we grew up in the same household.
I used to use the aluminum, but I smartened up.
I read there are a lot of chemicals in this aluminum that can cause health risk.
I'm not gonna do that.
I don't mind washing my dish, taking it home with me, hunting it down, and taking it home.
Gotta love these guys.
First of all, I don't know who taught you to make this stuff, but it is fantastic.
Thank you.
They're both superb, as are both of you.
I love the internet, but when it comes to getting an answer, it's hard to do it off the web.
So I actually turned to hard facts.
And to help us investigate aluminum foil, we've invited Dr. Lisha Sarzai to join us.
He's an accomplished neurologist, the professional chef, which is author of the Alzheimer's solution.
So you say aluminum's association with health, especially Alzheimer's, is not a new observation.
Oh, not at all.
As a matter of fact, the first time it actually came to attention was after the death of a silent movie star.
And so this has been going on over and over again.
And so it's a perfect subject for clickbait.
And every time somebody reads aluminum foil is associated with Alzheimer's disease, it causes chaos and confusion, and people are really, you know, confused about this whole subject.
So I'm really glad that we're talking about it to separate fact from fiction today.
Alright, so it's not uncommon to find little bits of aluminum, right, in our body.
Absolutely.
Walk us through how you take it into your body without even realizing it.
Right.
So aluminum is everywhere.
It's probably one of the most ubiquitous metals around us.
It's found in your water, it's found in our medication and antacids.
It's also found in packaged foods.
So, you know, it's everywhere.
And the reason why we're actually talking about it is that back in, you know, in the 1960s and 70s, some research showed that aluminum actually accumulates in the brains of patients who were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
There was aluminum in their brains.
There was aluminum in the brain, and it was concentrated in these amyloid plaques.
So they found that aluminum actually accumulates in these amyloid plaques.
But since then we have better tools, better techniques, and the rigorous science has shown that you know that's not basically it.
They haven't really come to that conclusion anymore.
We're our bodies are capable of getting rid of aluminum.
Um just go it goes right through us, so it's not really associated with Alzheimer's disease.
So it's a bit of a chicken or an egg, right?
Correct.
It seems like in this case, the plaques were there first, the aluminum and other heavy metals maybe loved on at the at the end.
Absolutely.
It didn't cause the problem.
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
So here's a question.
How does aluminum affect the food we eat?
If it's not actually causing Alzheimer's, I want to figure out can it affect the taste of the food or maybe the quality of it?
So that please welcome Julia Collin Davidson from America's Test Kitchen.
So I got something here.
I know you're interested in leaching.
You don't grab those other hole.
Thank you.
Save my hands.
So you're you actually have had a long interest in leaching.
I have.
So aluminum leaching is when the aluminum breaks down into graves and it leaches into the food you eat.
And this can happen anytime food touches aluminum, whether it's aluminum foil, a disposable aluminum pan, or aluminum cookware.
But just to be clear, leaching means that a little bit of the aluminum is getting into the food.
That's it.
You're eating it.
Studies have shown this.
Mm-hmm.
If I understand correctly, I decided this I didn't even think was possible.
The aluminum can react with other metals.
Yes.
So if you have, I don't know, cast iron pan, not aluminum, but a cast iron pan, then you put aluminum foil on top of it, what happens?
It's crazy.
And I think probably people have noticed this at home.
If you take a metal pan and you cover it with aluminum foil and you let it sit overnight, you'll start to see holes in the actual piece of aluminum.
And that's not the food reacting with the aluminum.
That's the pan.
And unfortunately, that's it.
That's a real picture from our test kitchen of uh aluminum that was covering uh it was uh cast iron pan, and you can see the holes in that.
And so that is the aluminum degrading, and then again, leaching into the food.
Dr. Surzai, come back in here for a second.
You're a chef and a neurologist.
So even if the aluminum makes it into our food, which therefore gets into our bodies, What does that mean to us?
So our body has the capacity to get rid of these normal levels of aluminum right through.
As a matter of fact, the World Health Organization actually published a report saying that, you know, we are able to get rid of it.
And you know, the amount of aluminum that is needed to cause brain diseases and Alzheimer's disease is extremely large.
And we're never exposed to that amount of aluminum in our daily lives.
Let me read this because they the International Aluminum Institute has said very specifically, scientific findings from from a rather recent findings from scientific research today that have shown that exposure to aluminum in consumer products does not cause Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia or neurologic diseases.
We're gonna put all the materials that the aluminum industry provided on Dr. Oz.com.
Also, the Alzheimer's Association's its own website states that few believe everyday sources of aluminum pose Any threat, and researchers are looking elsewhere for a cause to Alzheimer's.
So if you love your foil, use it.
But don't get wrapped up in all that alarmist clickbait in the meantime.
We come back.
It's foil versus parchment paper and the new all-natural wrap in a head-to-head competition.
Ooh.
Stay here.
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*Applauds*
We're back trying out aluminum foil alternatives with America's Test Kitchens, Julia Collin Davidson and Chef slash doctor, Dr. Aisha Sherzai.
All right, you tested out parchment paper.
Oh, yeah.
Which my mother-in-law loves.
Oh, does she?
She ever came on the show, she'd tell you, but she won't.
I love parchment paper personally.
I mean, in the test kitchen, we love our foil.
We don't not use it.
But parchment paper, if you want to try to start losing foil from your cooking regimen, parchment paper is the way to go.
Now, a lot of people think that it's not going to do as good of job of cookies or browning or sweet potato fries.
Those are kind of the big things that people usually line their pans with with foil.
Here we have sweet potato fries, which I know are your favorites.
This is my weakness, really.
All right, so here you have.
These were baked on foil.
These were baked on parchment.
And you kind of think that the aluminum foil has reflective quality, would that would make them more crisp?
But no, it doesn't.
Actually, yeah, the parchment paper is so thin that the heat really does transfer into the vegetables.
Here, you know, if you're roasting some asparagus, equally browned all the way around.
Cookies.
The brownings exactly.
How is that possible?
Yeah, no, parchment paper.
I actually prefer it for cookies because it's non-stick, whereas on part on foil, you know, very often it can stick.
The one thing to note about parchment is you really shouldn't use it at temperatures over 425 degrees in the oven.
But none of these were there over that.
No, they're very rarely do you cook something that hot stuff.
I'm taking this home to my wife.
She's proud of me.
Uh instead of flowers?
Instead of I'll put them in the flowers.
There you go.
Next up, Dr. Surzai tested the all-new natural food wrap.
It's called a cedar wrap, right?
And you block it up.
Can I see one?
That's right.
So these are these are incredible.
Um, they're they're made off of cedar, obviously.
Um they're a good alternative for aluminum foil or even you know, anything else.
And they're biodegradable.
I'm a plant-based chef, and I cook tempeh and tofu in this, and it gives it a really nice smoky aroma.
And you know, we've we actually have some vegetables here with salmon, and for people who um like that smokiness, it just smells like that.
What happened to my salmon?
What?
Dr. Sherzai, I'm so disappointed.
Are you kidding me?
I've been looking forward to that salmon the whole show.
I try I try to try to bake my you know, my corn, my sweet potatoes, but yeah, obviously, as a transition, the salmon actually tastes really good too.
Um, this is a great replacement for aluminum.
And you know, like I said, it's very easy to prepare it.
Now we're talking.
Uh looks good.
And these cedar planks are they're easily available, and you just have to soak them for about you know five to ten minutes in water to make them usable.
Um, as opposed to cedar planks that are thicker and they take more space.
You have to fire for it.
Yeah, it actually catches fire.
You have to soak it for about two hours to sometimes a day.
Who has the time to do that?
These are excellent uh replacements.
All these dishes are fantastic, nice, smart, safe ways of making food.
Thank you for both being here.
I appreciate it.
Don't forget to check out Dr. Sherzai's book.
It's called The Alzheimer's Solution, and that Julia Collin Davidson's book is called The Essentials Cookbook.
Check them both out.
We'll be right back.
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Breaking news.
Are you confused by the latest headlines on daily aspirin?
New research in our most prestigious journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, is questioning the use of aspirin in healthy people over age 70.
It's a pretty big about face on what was recommended in the past.
Now, as a heart surgeon, I know that we give aspirin to people who have had a heart attack or stroke in order to prevent another one.
I give it to every patient I operate on who has coronary disease.
As a result, we gave it to people who didn't have a heart attack, because we thought it might help them as well.
But this research shows the risks could outweigh the benefits.
the roughly 20,000 people in the study saw no benefits, I'll say again, no benefits from daily use.
They didn't have less dementia either, they didn't have less disability, less deaths, they didn't have any of that.
But they did have a 38% increased risk of bleeding and a slight increase from death, especially from cancer.
Now, what surprised me the most was that people on aspirin had an increased risk of those cancer problems.
Now, while most other studies have actually suggested that aspirin can prevent cancer in the first place, it confused me.
So I actually called the lead researcher about this.
He's based in Melbourne, Australia.
And he believes that aspirin may accelerate the growth of cancer in people who already have it brewing in their bodies.
So let's break this down.
Who should be taking daily aspirin?
If you've had a heart attack or a stroke, you're gonna have to be on aspirin usually.
If you are between the ages of 50 and 69 and have an increased risk in the next 10 years, we still think you ought to probably take the aspirin because this paper didn't address those folks, and there are other papers that say it makes sense.
You want to calculate your risk of having a heart attack on our website.
There's a formula there, it's simple calculator.
You need to know your medications and some of your numbers, but it's straightforward.
But I want you to talk to your doctor if you're over the age of 70.
Remember, one third of America of Americans are taking aspirin.
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