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Nov. 14, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
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The Hidden Truth About Flavored Water and Pre-Diabetes | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 138 | Full Episode
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Flavored water is everywhere.
But is it really diet soda in disguise?
See which ones are loaded with calories.
What surprised you the most?
We break it all down in our Food Truth series.
Plus, the five-minute test to determine if you're pre-diabetic.
Our entire audience is taking a quiz and I want you at home to take it as well.
The action plan to stop diabetes before it starts.
Coming up next, we'll save lives today.
You guys ready to get healthy?
You investigate what's really in your everyday foods.
What is more everyday than water?
Here's a question for the audience.
How many of you just don't like the taste of water?
A lot of folks.
You're not alone.
Believe it or not, about 64 million of you, 64 million, don't like the taste of plain old water.
That's about 20% of the population.
But there's good news here.
More and more of you are putting down those sugary drinks and picking up a bottle of flavored water.
From lemon and orange mango to black cherry, you have flavored water everywhere.
But is it really diet soda in disguise?
As part of our food truth series, we reveal what's really in those flavored waters and why they attract your taste buds.
Then I've got the Oz approved flavored waters that will keep the flavor and the fizz.
And one in three of you sitting in this audience right now and at home, one in three are pre-diabetic and you don't know it.
Today, the five-minute test, it's all takes five minutes that you need to find out the answer.
But first, when is flavored water actually diet soda?
As bottled water sales boom and traditional soda, our sales are slumping.
Beverage companies are marketing water that tastes a lot like soda and getting you hooked.
It's being billed as the single largest change in the American diet.
Health-conscious consumers are turning their backs on diet soda and reaching for alternatives like flavored waters.
You can see evidence of the trend on store shelves and in vending machines.
According to beverage industry analysts, nearly half of all Americans are replacing high sugar drinks with flavored water.
They still want the fizz, they still want the taste, but they're done with empty calories and unhealthy ingredients.
First, they turned to diet soda.
And now more and more of us are choosing flavored waters.
But what's really in the new flavored waters?
And are they as healthy as they seem?
Some of these new offerings are simply water with fruit flavorings.
Others, sometimes referred to as functional waters, are fortified with nutritional additives like vitamins and minerals.
Clever marketing campaigns promote many of these beverages with words like revitalize, hydrate, focus, and smart.
The conclusion you might reach is that flavored waters are actually super waters.
They will help you shed pounds and get healthier by the gulp.
But what's the real deal?
So just who are the flavored water drinkers of the world?
Here are three from my audience.
Shireen buys a case of flavored water every week.
Her favorite flavor, peach mango.
I try to taste her peach mango.
You slap my wrists.
This is mine.
It's yours.
Listen, from a little girl, I was told we are supposed to drink like eight ounces like a day, like eight ounces glasses.
You were told actually eight of those eight ounce glasses.
Right.
So, you know, basically a half gallon of water a day.
That's a lot of water.
Who wants nasty plain water?
So I love the taste.
I love, love, love, love the taste of flavored water.
And I think this is like my favorite, right?
I really have been being spanked over.
I'm not going to take it from you.
But I am interested.
So the color appeals to you, the taste appeals to you.
It's so good.
It's just different.
It tastes delightful.
Pay attention.
Let me back to this.
Kaelin drinks two bottles of flavored water a day.
Your favorite is lemon?
Yes.
And what got you going?
And why'd you start drinking the flavored water to begin with?
I've been drinking diet soda for 10 years and I switched to lemon flavored water.
I absolutely love the flavor.
I feel energized.
I feel refreshed and I don't feel as thirsty.
Would you also fight me for it?
Yeah.
Probably.
So addicted there.
They love this stuff.
Love it.
Emotional, maybe, but we'll get to that too.
Renee here drinks three flavored waters a day.
Her favorite is fruit punch.
It is a very appealing color.
Yes.
So what is it about these that appeals to you so much?
Dr. Oz, they're addictive.
They are very addictive.
And it's a good substitute to regular water because regular water is boring.
And you know, it's plain.
And my son, I get my son, my two-year-old, to drink it too.
So I figure it's a good substitute to plain water.
It's a little more attractive.
Your two-year-old's drinking this now?
Yeah.
So if you give your two-year-old real water, what happens?
He doesn't really drink it.
Doesn't drink it.
All right, so I've heard a couple things.
I'm just to echo what you guys have all said to me.
I've heard they talk about getting an energy boost.
The taste is fantastic, but you also mentioned the word addiction, which I sort of sense from the battle I was having just tasting their water.
It doesn't sound like you're talking about old-fashioned water when they use those words.
So I asked investigative reporter, one of my core team members, Elizabeth Leamy, to find out what's actually in this flavored water.
It seems like there are more and more kinds of flavored water to choose from every day, and they seem to be more healthy than diet soda.
Clearly, business is booming.
But what's really in them?
And are they really as healthy as they seem?
We know from a first look that some are simply water with fruit flavorings.
Others, sometimes referred to as functional waters, are fortified with nutritional additives like vitamins and minerals.
And there are even a few that actually do sneak in sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Exactly what health-minded consumers are trying to avoid.
So to get to the bottom of this, I assembled a diverse selection of flavored waters and asked the Dr. Ra's med team to ship them along with diet sodas to a lab for testing.
You won't believe the results.
Elizabeth Leamy is here, and we're going to get to the results of our testing in just a moment.
But first, you went shopping for these flavored waters.
You looked all over the place, high and low.
What surprised you the most?
Oh my gosh, the crazy variety of flavors and colors and the language they're using to market these is just as colorful.
I mean, we're talking rugged individualism and sort of upscale language like do-it-yourselfers, flavorizers, customizers, and my favorite, premium seekers.
That's premium seekers.
Yes, yeah.
I know sometimes they have the caps.
They can put the flavor in there.
You can mix and match.
Look at all you got.
Lime and lemons and mangoes.
Look at the colors.
Orange, of course, but kiwi strawberry.
The fruit punch I loved from Renee's earlier.
Hard to believe it's water.
Yeah, this is the whole rainbow.
So when you look at these options, whenever you get a little extra, sometimes it costs a lot more.
So how do the cost compare to regular water?
That was really interesting.
They cost the same or a little bit more than diet soda.
But if you consider that these are waters which you can get out of the tap for free, maybe that's not such a great deal.
All right.
When we come back, our test results are in our flavored waters really diet sodas in disguise.
We'll be right back.
Next, flavored waters versus diet soda.
The calorie count is on.
Elizabeth Levy investigates what's actually in these bottles.
What gives them their taste?
And are they really good for you?
The surprising results.
Next.
Jennifer Garner tells all.
Have there been times when you feel like you just can't connect anymore?
Her secret to looking so good in her 40s.
You're never gonna get it.
And her inspiring new movie.
There is something really beautiful in the story about the purity of faith.
That's coming up tomorrow.
I assembled a diverse selection of flavored waters and asked the Dr. Ra's med team to ship them along with diet sodas to a lab for testing.
You won't believe the results.
Are flavored waters diet sodas in disguise?
I asked investigative journalist Elizabeth Leamy to find out and the results are in.
And we're going to start with calories.
Now remember, we're comparing flavored waters to diet soda.
And diet sodas, of course, they contain zero calories.
You know, that's why they call diets, but they don't actually happy diet.
That's a separate issue.
But they don't have any calories in them.
So what do the flavored waters contain with regard to calories?
Okay, interesting.
So we tested six of them.
Two of them contained zero calories.
But the other four contained between 20 and 120 calories per serving.
And I know most of us here think the entire bottle is the serving, but here's where it gets a little tricky.
The manufacturers say there are two to three servings per bottle.
So actually, if you do the math, you are taking in 60 to 360 calories when you drink a bottle of what you think of as water.
That's a big problem, folks.
360 hidden calories you're not aware of.
That shoots everything down.
Whatever diet plan you're on, frankly, that's probably the best way to gain weight.
All right, how about sugar, which is a big problem?
We'll be learning more and more about the problems that sugar affords in our lives.
Again, diet soda has zero grams of sugar by definition.
Let's remind everybody that it has artificial sweeteners.
That's how they get there.
So we didn't bother to test these waters to see if they had artificial sweeteners, and then we didn't even consider those categories.
But of the ones you tested, how did they fare with regard to sugar?
Okay, yeah, there are lots of them that do contain artificial sweeteners.
But of those we tested, two of them had zero sugar.
The other four did indeed contain sugar.
That's where the calories came from.
And here you go.
The amount of sugar, 4 to 30 grams.
So for a second, you can forget about the comparison to diet soda.
At 30 grams, that's more similar to a regular soda.
So I'll bring our three flavored water drinkers.
And you guys are all nervously laughing over there, I notice.
The entire time.
Eyes wide open.
This is a classic fight or flight response or freeze in your case.
So what do you guys think about these results?
Wow.
Surprising.
Yeah, it's.
This is not good.
Renee, let me go to you a little bit because I'm touched by your story.
I actually like the fact that you're trying to do something better for yourself, but you specifically brought in the fact that your two-year-old, what's his name?
Ryan.
Ryan.
So you give it to Ryan because it tastes better than water and it's better than the other stuff you might give him.
And you say Ryan doesn't like to drink water anymore.
No.
So your beverage, it was the fruit punch, right?
The fruit drink?
Yes.
Yeah.
That was one of the highest when it came to sugar-indicated calories.
So your little boy is learning to think that's what water should taste like.
I know.
I'm not trying to make you feel badly.
I'm just trying to have you see what the truth is because you can change everything like that.
But when you hear that, as a mom, it saddens me because, you know, it's hard enough to figure out to get them to eat healthy and to get him away from the juice.
So I figured it would be a good substitute and it would be good for both me and him.
But now we have to figure something else out.
Yeah, that's the way to think about it.
We got to figure something out.
But I don't want you having the wool pulled over your head.
There's a lot of money being made selling these products.
Some are going to need better.
Some might be not in your best interest.
Caitlin, you're going to think twice about having some of this flavored water in your life?
I'll make my own lemon-flavored water.
Make your own, exactly.
So, how do the flavorings get in here?
Speaking of lemon-flavored and the fruit drinks and all the other concoctions I'm seeing out there.
That's a great question.
Some of these are derived from natural sources.
Others are artificial flavors.
Either way, it's not a big deal health-wise, but as you have often pointed out, and as we're hearing over here, it's better to just eat real food.
I think Caitlin's got the answer over there.
So, give me three questions everyone should be asking before they make their choice of a flavored water if they're going to go that direction.
All right, well, first of all, how is it sweetened?
Are we talking sugar or artificial sweeteners?
And then, second of all, are there hidden sugars in there?
Look for the language.
Things like nectar is a favorite of mine, dextrose, syrup.
These are the tip-offs that there are some sweeteners in there that might be a sugar.
And then, could there be hidden caffeine?
Somebody mentioned being addicted.
Some of them, if they have natural things like a black tea flavor, they don't have to label it as containing caffeine, but it does.
So, that's another thing to look for.
Yeah, Renee mentioned the addiction.
It was the sugar actually that's addicting you, but there is caffeine hidden in these things you wouldn't know.
So, let me, if I can, give you my thoughts on this.
I'm gonna rank flavored water options from my favorite to my least favorite choice.
Here's what I would do at home: first of all, I would flavor it myself.
Thank Caitlin, you're right.
Just put some lemon in it.
You know, that's what I do with mine.
Lemon water is an ancient treatment, it works so well in so many ways.
Gets your digestive fluids going, and it's free, so take advantage of it.
Second tier is sparkling water, which I happen to like.
I like the way it tickles my palate.
You can buy it without any flavoring, or you can make your own.
There are things like Soda Streamer out there, lots of companies making easy, inexpensive tools that can help you do it on your own.
And then you can take sparkling water with a fruit essence.
These have no sweeteners, they're not quite as sharp in their taste, but they'll get you there as well.
I hope that's helpful advice for y'all.
All right, do the right thing.
Up next, it's the latest food trend to hit social media called powdered peanut butter.
But is it worth it?
We're gonna find out next.
Next, just about everyone loves peanut butter, whether paired with jelly or off the spoon.
But can America's favorite spread be any good in a powdered form?
We put it to the test.
Does it measure up to real peanut butter, or are they just plain nuts?
Peanut butter, of course, needs no introduction, but PB's not-so-distant relative has been gaining major buzz on social media.
I'm talking about powdered peanut butter.
Thought it's how many of you have heard of that powdered peanut butter?
Yeah, about 20% or so.
That's what I expected.
So, I was curious about powdered peanut butter.
So, I asked Elizabeth Leemy to do some digging for us to find out if it is for you.
First of all, how do you make powdered peanut butter from the good old-fashioned peanut butter?
Okay, well, it contains peanuts, a little bit of salt, hint of sugar.
Then, they press out almost all of the natural oil in the peanuts, which makes it way lower in fat, and you end up with this powder.
So, the question is: how much of a potential benefit?
That's why people are touting it to come on over.
Okay, go to the truth tube.
I'm gonna tell you all what regular peanut butter has.
If you buy the usual stuff, so the creamy peanut butter would have about 190 calories, which is a problem, and it's got 16 grams of fat and three grams of sugar.
So, I'm just giving you the numbers here.
There's some good things, of course, about where it gets its calories from, but it's 190 calories.
So, what are you talking about with your okay?
So, get a load of this with the powdered peanut butter.
Let's take a look at those numbers.
45 calories, so it really does lower it.
1.5 grams of fat and one gram of sugar, just a little bit.
Yeah, so it's a quarter of the calories or less, a lot less fat.
That's how you get the calories out and tiny bit of sugar, not too much at all.
So, I say I like all natural peanut butter, but this powdered stuff is competitive from this purpose.
Are you intrigued?
I am intrigued.
So, prepare the taste for me if you don't mind.
Okay, well, a confession, everybody.
I love the stuff.
In fact, when I was talking with your producer about the segment, she was saying, Oh, you wouldn't put it on carrots or celery and just eat it, would you?
And I was embarrassed because I do that all the time.
Exactly that.
I do exactly that all the time.
But here's how you make it, okay?
So, a couple tablespoons of water, couple tablespoons of the powdered peanut butter.
It's one-to-one, right?
You basically equal the amounts.
Yep, yep.
So, however much you're making, they say that it's not a great idea to make it more than 48 hours ahead, which I do think is kind of a bummer because personally, I'd make a huge jar and eat it by the jar.
So, since I know the idea of getting your peanuts in a powdered form is enough to make any peanut butter lover wince.
So, I reached out to some of the top nutritionists in their fields and I've asked them to give me their recommendations.
Would they use powdered peanut butter in their patients?
Here they are, 10 of them right there.
And they hemmed it hard a little bit, actually, it was sort of difficult.
But two of them, only two, said yes.
The other eight said so far they're not recommending them.
And the reason they gave for not recommending it is that they sort of like the fat creamy peanut butter option because the fats in peanut butter are the better kinds of fats.
So, as opposed to some other source of calories, this is a better source.
I actually, I'm gonna say, I think this is reasonable.
I think if you can get your flavor of peanut butter into your mouth without all those calories, it's wise.
But frankly, it doesn't really matter unless you love it, right?
The proof is in you.
It's with you guys, peanut butter lovers, all of you, would be willing to do this.
So, I've asked Sarah, Angelique, and Laura to join us for the real taste test.
Now, ladies, I asked you to start tasting.
My goodness, you finished them all already.
There were seven each in front of them.
No, you really wolfed those things down.
So, you've been tasting the whole time.
Did you listen at all while you were tasting, or not really?
Yeah, yes.
You did, all right?
So, describe the taste if you can.
Whoever wants to go first and compare it to the old-fashioned smoothie peanut butter.
I would consider myself a peanut butter expert.
You know, I have it every day, I carry it in my purse, and I personally think that's a great substitute.
You know, I think that it there's a really good balance between the saltiness and the sweetness, and I actually think it's more flavorful than the regular creamy peanut butter.
More flavorful, yes.
Angelique, the texture, I think it's a little flat, I think it's thin, it's watery, and I find the traditional peanut butter to be a little bit more robust, a little bit more dense.
I like the fat sticking to the top of my mouth.
I'm pure, I like it.
Go ahead, Laura.
You know, I'll be honest with you, I have peanut butter every single day, but I didn't really tell much of a difference between the creamy peanut butter and the powdered peanut butter.
So, if the powdered peanut butter is actually healthier for you in many ways, could be, depending on how you use it, I mean, why not?
Why not switch?
I bet our viewers are going to feel just the way you guys did.
But the other thing, of course, is cost.
So, how does it compare?
But you're eating the whole thing down.
Look at this, it's ridiculous.
That's what I'm saying.
Why did I turn my back?
Someone's eating it.
This is a good option.
So, if your mouth is free enough to talk about this, how much does it cost compared to the old-fashioned peanut butter?
This is where it gets sticky.
The cost.
So, for a jar like this, $6, you can find it in any typical grocery store, but it does cost about twice as much as regular peanut butter because they've gone to all that trouble to press out the oil.
So, let me give you my bottom line.
I actually don't mind the regular fat content in store-bought, good old-fashioned peanut butter.
But if you're looking to cut calories, then powdered peanut butter, I think it's a really good option.
So, think about it.
Elizabeth Leaming, as always, keep eating, don't mind me.
We'll be right back.
Next, it's the biggest preventable medical threat to our nation.
And one in three Americans don't even know they've got it.
Can diabetes be stopped before it starts?
A one-minute quiz you can take right now to find out if you're at risk for pre-diabetes.
Jennifer Garner tells all.
Have there been times when you feel like you just can't connect anymore?
Enter inspiring new movie.
There is something really beautiful in the story about the purity of faith.
That's coming up tomorrow.
It's Cedric the Entertainer here.
I partnered up with the American Diabetes Association in 2014 to educate people and encourage them to talk to their doctor.
So if you haven't been diagnosed with diabetes, learn more about your risk.
Take the diabetes risk test, okay?
Dr. Oz will share that information with you.
And you listen to him because he's a doctor and his name is Oz.
Thank you, Cedric.
Today, a Dr. Oz show first.
For the first time ever, four of the most important health organizations in our country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the Ad Council, have all come together to fight the biggest preventable medical threat to our nation, pre-diabetes.
And they are all here in person.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for what you're doing.
Now, what's the reason?
Why are they so passionate about this?
Why is everyone getting together?
Because one in three of you, one-third of you, are pre-diabetic and you don't even know it.
But there's good news here, my friends.
It's reversible.
You can stop diabetes before it starts.
So these great organizations have put together a one-minute quiz.
You can take it home right now, right now, to find out if you are at risk for pre-diabetes.
This is a game changer, and it could be the wake-up call you or someone you love needs.
And it's, well, you'll see it's not what I would have expected.
Get ready.
The quiz starts now.
It takes less than one minute to find out if you may have pre-diabetes.
You can do it here.
But you probably won't.
You're busy.
Kids, work.
Show coming back in 48 seconds.
So let's do this now.
Hold up one finger if you're a man.
Women, zero.
Three more fingers if you're over 60.
Two over 50.
One over 40.
If you're not sure, keep in mind you're sitting on a couch right now.
So one more finger if you're not very active.
One finger if yes, zero if no.
One yes, zero no.
Next, find the body type that looks most like you and hold up that many fingers while I look around awkwardly.
And that's it.
If you're holding up five fingers or more, you probably have pre-diabetes.
Sorry to be so blunt, but hey, you're busy.
Just go to the site.
Together, we're going to break down the pre-diabetes quiz slowly and in a little more detail because these next five minutes could change the course of your health.
Our entire audience is taking a quiz and I want you at home to take it as well.
So just sit back, remember these numbers.
Are you ready?
Question number one.
How old are you?
Younger than 40 years of age, give yourself zero points.
40 to 49, one point.
To 10 years older, two points.
And if you're older than 60, you get three points.
Question number two, are you a man or a woman?
Usually pretty easy to answer.
Man gets a point, women, they don't get any points.
They don't have any risks for that.
Easy enough so far?
You all with me?
All right, we're going to speed up a little here now.
Question number three, have you ever been diagnosed with gestational diabetes?
If you had diabetes when you were pregnant, you get a point.
Question number four, you have a mother, a father, a sister, or a brother with diabetes?
We're looking for a close relative with diabetes.
If the answer is yes, you get a point.
If not, you don't get points.
Question number five, have you ever been diagnosed with high blood pressure?
A lot of you don't know.
If you don't know, you got to give yourself a point because that counts as habitat until you prove it you don't.
So again, one point if you have high blood pressure.
Question number six, are you physically active?
You know who you are.
If you've been sitting on the couch all day long, then the answer is no, you get a point.
If you're running around, then you don't have to be running marathons, just keeping active and moving around, running upstairs, then you don't get any points.
Question number seven, what's your weight status?
Listen, to do it right, there's a weight chart on drive.com with this quiz, and you can actually go there and find exactly how tall you are, what you weigh, and you get your points.
But for now, find yourself on this body chart, right?
Are you sort of skinny, or you're midway in between, whatever your body shape looks like, give you that many points.
So as an example, an average woman is five foot four inches tall.
She's 166 pounds.
That's the average woman in America.
They'd be number one over there.
They get one point.
So you got all your points now, right?
Add up your scores.
Don't make any arithmetic mistakes.
Just get your scores.
And audience, I want you to be honest about this.
This is an important question.
Raise your hand if you scored a five, a five points or higher.
So a fair number of folks.
You all sprinkle through the audience.
And a lot of folks look different from each other.
Some are skinny, some are bigger.
It's sort of interesting.
If you're scoring more than five points, it means you're increased risk for type two diabetes.
People are still figuring out the math.
More hands going up as I say that.
So take it down, get that.
I'm going to go to three women in the audience who we knew from Asking the Head that would rank more than five points.
So I want to show you why I care so much about this.
So you can put your quizzes down for now.
We'll come back to them in a second.
I'm going to walk you over here to explain why I love doing tests on things that are fixable.
Diabetes sneaks up on us, as we've just learned, but it does it by affecting our bodies organs in very different ways.
And if it's untreated, it looks like this.
You can go and put your purple gloves on.
I promise you'd be able to do that.
Yes.
And I want you to move beyond just the numbers I talked about to really understanding why we all care about this.
Why are these powerful health organizations all have dedicated their resources to making sure you know about pre-diabetes?
Now, we all know the pancreas is where diabetes starts, right?
It's this thin little organ.
You go ahead and don't drop the organs, please.
Okay.
So the pancreas makes the insulin.
And when the insulin's not being made in the right amount, or if the body's not reacting to it, the pancreas itself can get damaged.
It starts to make fat inside of itself instead of insulin.
But that's not actually what I'm most worried about.
I'm worried about what that does to your body.
When you got lots of blood sugar coursing through your blood, it's like having broken pieces of glass shard scraping the lining of your body.
So what does it do?
It starts to damage the organs that see a lot of blood.
And that, I'll have to start with the kidneys.
These are the kidneys.
Wow.
Take them, make in the urine, push them to the bladder, you go ahead and cut you.
Now, my specialty is the heart.
Okay.
And the heart and the blood vessels that come out of the heart, this is the aorta, they get damaged again because the arteries are being scraped by the sugar.
And the number one cause that diabetics have for death has to do with the heart.
Because the blood vessels of the heart close up.
And the most surprising for most people about complications of diabetes has to do with this.
You see that little black area there?
Yeah.
It's supposed to look beige.
That black area is a stroke.
Oh.
Oh, my God.
Okay.
And we find all kinds of problems with our brain with regard to diabetes.
And even dementia is linked to diabetes.
Oh, okay.
Some people call dementia diabetes of the brain.
Didn't know that.
So lots of things we don't know today, right?
Right, exactly.
Now, this is a little intimidating.
We don't want this to happen inside.
Right, no.
And the beautiful part about this show is all of this is avoidable.
Okay.
That's why I care about the number of points you have, because I want you to find out today that you're at risk for these things, not after you've had the stroke or the heart attack or the liver issue, the kidney failure, or anything else.
So Dr. Karen Kometek is here from the American Medical Association.
So Dr. Kometek, all these women took this test, and they got scores that are five or greater.
So what's the next step for them?
Yeah, Dr. Oz, first, I really want to thank you three ladies for taking this test and sharing that it's so important to spread the word.
Knowledge is power.
So if you score five or higher, please see your doctor.
And your doctor will probably say, let's get a blood test for you, arrange for you to have a blood test, because it's only through a blood test that we can confirm are you actually in that pre-diabetes range.
And if you are in that range, the good news is that pre-diabetes can be reversed.
And so at that point, you and your doctor can work together and find a plan that works for you.
Okay.
So since you're first in line here, Michelle, can I be your doctor today?
You sure can.
So here's the thing.
You've all agreed to have your blood tests checked.
It's a simple little finger stick.
These can be done in many parts of the country really inexpensively to find out what the real numbers are.
Then we're not guessing anymore.
Right.
So I've asked Charlie from a medical unit to help us out here.
Hey, Troy.
And he's pretty good at this, and I'll hold you down to the next one.
I didn't eat.
I'm hungry.
Got to be fast and sugar.
I know your mind is at.
When we come back, we're going to reveal their results plus the plan you can start today to reverse your risk of type 2 diabetes.
I'm holding her down.
Go at her.
Come on, Charlie.
Next, the ladies learn the outcome of their tests and what their numbers mean.
Plus, four of this country's most important health organizations have joined forces to unveil the program to stop down diabetes before it starts.
Coming up next.
We are bringing a healthy back this season.
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Do I get it right?
Diabetes type 2 is largely preventable and it's really important to be screened because you just never know.
I had no idea and last summer I crept into pre-diabetes myself, but no one looking at me would have thought I was pre-diabetic.
There is a kind of stereotype to what pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes looks like.
So I would say get screened.
As Dr. Oz said on the show today, one in three people have it.
So very important to check it out.
It's just a blood test.
It's important.
Maria Mununo, superstar, thanks you for sharing that.
And if Maria can have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, so could you.
In fact, 86 million Americans have pre-diabetes and the majority of them don't know it until today.
It's the mission of the American Diabetes Association, the Centers for Disease Control, and the American Medical Association to change all that.
I'm joined now by Dr. Felicia Hill-Briggs from the American Diabetes Association, Dr. Ann Albright from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Karen Kometek from the American Medical Association.
Dr. Hilbriggs, why start this project now?
Why launch today?
Well, Dr. Oz, the numbers really tell the story and the urgency.
One in three Americans has pre-diabetes.
The goal of this campaign is to ensure that we can reduce the number of people who go on to develop type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Albright, how did this all happen?
How are we in a situation in America where one in three of us has pre-diabetes?
Yeah, there are lots of reasons why we have so many people with pre-diabetes.
I think you can really look at it as we have portion distortion.
We now really all expect to get big portion sizes.
In fact, we're kind of ticked off if we don't.
We've also systematically really engineered physical activity out of our lifestyles.
So we have to now put forth effort to get it back in.
And then many of the places where we spend a lot of our time, whether it's schools or our workplace, out in our communities, they don't do a very good job of supporting healthy lifestyles.
So fortunately, again, the good news is we can prevent it.
So we looked at those quiz results before the break and we started getting members of our audience.
In fact, we got members of our staff for the first time asking to get tested.
And we have Michelle, Kathleen, and Renee here.
There's Richie, and Alice is our audience coordinator.
And Richie's our comedian.
I'm not going to share their results, but I'm going to share the results of Michelle, Kathleen, and Renee, who you met before the break.
So Michelle, I'm going to share your numbers.
Is that okay?
Yes.
So your blood sugar level is 93.
Okay, so that means...
Well, we're going to tell you what it means in a second.
Okay.
Okay.
All right, but it's 93.
I always remember that number.
All right.
Kathleen, your number was 61.
61.
61.
I'm going to keep that in mind.
We'll go through these in a second.
And then Renee, your number is actually 149.
Yeah.
Not good.
So Dr. Hilbriggs, answer their big question.
How do they interpret the meaning of these numbers?
Yes.
So we see that the normal range for blood sugar levels is 99 or less.
In pre-diabetes, blood sugar levels are higher than normal, not as high as diabetes.
But pre-diabetes is 100 to 125.
And then the range for diabetes already having type 2 diabetes is 126 or more.
Now, Renee, I actually learned that in the break that you actually have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Correct, yes.
Is it empowering to at least know what's going on so you can get ahead of it?
Yes, it is.
I know that when I do get a chance to exercise, I know that that number can come down significantly.
So that is a goal of mine to get out and exercise.
I hope this puts a little heat on that goal because it should.
Most definitely.
Dr. Albert, what can folks do right now to determine their risk?
Why is it so important to know it?
It is very important for people to know their risk.
The sooner someone who gets the diagnosis of pre-diabetes gets it and takes action, the greater likelihood they will have of actually preventing type 2 diabetes.
So it really is the time to get involved, know your score, and get involved in the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
So I don't want anybody out there teetering on the edge of type 2 diabetes, so I'm going to ask Dr. Hilbriggs to give us a sneak peek of the diabetes prevention program that has been proven to lower your risk.
Step one is to eat breakfast every day.
What's the message here?
Yes.
So eating breakfast every day.
Very important.
The reason is you've been fasting all night.
When you awaken, you need nutrients to fuel you for the day.
And you don't want to get yourself in a situation where you're really depriving yourself.
And so you're so hungry, you overeat when you do have an opportunity to eat.
What do you have for breakfast personally?
So I do follow a healthy eating plan.
And so the things I like to eat are oatmeal with cinnamon.
I am a nut person.
I love raw almonds in order to get my protein in in a low-fat way.
Yogurt, low-fat yogurts.
All of these are types of things I eat that are healthy and that are healthy and try to keep within those recommendations of low-fat while also giving you high nutrients to give you the fuel you're looking for.
Now Renee brought up the fact that exercise is hard for her.
Yet step two of this big plan is to walk 10,000 steps a day.
That's tough for a lot of people.
It certainly is.
And I have to tell you, all of us have worked with thousands and thousands of patients over the years, both in research and in forums such as this.
That is what people say is hardest for them, getting that physical activity in.
And so we really recommend that you start where you are today.
You want to start small and build up to that 30 minutes a day, five times a week.
For 10,000 steps, think about the practical things that you can do on a daily basis.
Let's say you have a desk job and all day you're sitting there.
We recommend that every 90 minutes you stand up from your desk and move around.
Moving around may be taking a walk around the floor in your office building, going up and down the stairs in your office building.
But maybe it means simply standing and marching in place.
You can march in place while you're watching TV, even while you're talking on the telephone.
What do you think, Renee?
I think I'll do it.
I'm not matching run a marathon now.
All you gotta do is get up while you're watching the show.
Yes.
While you're watching this show, in fact, if you go to home right now, get up and start moving those legs back and forth.
When we come back, we've got the final two steps of the plant.
can't afford to miss.
Coming up next, it's as simple as dividing up what you put on your plate.
We have the last two important steps designed to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Pay attention to portion size.
We've got that portion distortion going on.
What you need to know about this deadly disease.
Jennifer Garner tells all.
Have there been times when you feel like you just can't connect anymore?
And her inspiring new movie.
There is something really beautiful in this story about the purity of faith.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We are back with Dr. Anne Albright from the Centers for Disease Control and the program designed to lower type 2 diabetes risk for 86 million Americans.
The next step is to help reverse your type 2 diabetes risk by creating your own plate.
Why is this so important?
Well, food is such a big part of us, isn't it?
I mean, we all love to eat, really.
And food is a key ingredient.
It matters how many calories you get in.
The more you get in, the more you're going to have to burn off.
So food is important, key ingredient, and watching what you eat is important to maintaining or losing that weight.
Show us this little trick you have.
You create your plate by actually doing a little bit of math for us.
So explain how to divide it up.
Sure.
The best way and the easy way to do this is to think about your plate.
Basically, cut the plate in half, and then one of those half you're going to cut in half again.
So on this bigger half, what you want to do is load it up, and here we'll use with green leafy vegetables.
So this is where I always start.
I always start with the salad, and you can make it good.
It doesn't have to be, oh, boring.
You don't want it to be boring.
You're not going to do it.
Exactly.
This should be fun.
Look for bright colors.
So you really want to load this part, the half of the plate up.
So this half of the plate is really vegetables.
And you can also add a little bit of fruit in there too.
Fruit's good in this part of the plate.
Now you're looking at a quarter of the plate here.
This is where we want to go to things that are grains and starchy vegetables.
These are all non-starchy.
So yeah, you can put some of them.
I'm going to do it the way you do it.
Okay, that's right.
But that delicate finesse.
And then you can put, again, here's a potato or two.
Now, you can see we have a lot of food on the table here.
As I said, go for it with the veggies and the fruit.
When you're looking at these, you again want to pay attention to portion size.
We've got that portion distortion going on.
The last part of your plate is going to be lean protein sources.
So here you go with a great choice, great choice.
Fish, lean fish, chicken, those are great sources.
If you're a vegetarian, you can pick protein, other low-fat protein sources, so lentils and beans and those kinds of things.
You wouldn't want to load all this on your plate.
Not all at once.
Exactly.
Actually, divide it in quarters.
Two of those quarters become fruits and veggies, mostly veggies, a quarter of grains and other starchy stuff, and then some protein.
You got it.
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