Dr. Oz Podcast - Blinded Herself on Meth She Says Life Is More Beautiful Now | Dr. Oz | S9 | Ep 154

Dec. 3, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast

42:23

Blinded Herself on Meth She Says Life Is More Beautiful Now | Dr. Oz | S9 | Ep 154 | Full Episode

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	She was high on crystal meth and hallucinating when she gouged out her own eyes.
	How are we able to endure the pain and will yourself through removing your own eyes?
	I thought that's what I had to do.
	An exclusive interview with 20-year-old Kaylee Muthart.
	Plus, instant airplane and grab-and-go coffee.
	The truth behind what's really in your cup.
	And here's a hint.
	It's not all coffee.
	up next today's show contains content meant for mature audiences Some of our discussion may be inappropriate for teens and young children.
	Today, an exclusive interview with 20-year-old Kaylee Muthart.
	She was high on crystal meth and hallucinating when she gouged out her own eyes outside a local church.
	Now completely blind and sober.
	She sits down for her very first television interview to tell us why she thinks life is more beautiful now.
	But Kaylee isn't the first drug-induced tragedy to make headlines around the globe.
	Take a look.
	Designer drugs, synthetic substances, bath salts.
	These dangerous hallucinogenic chemicals are on their rise in cities across America.
	Often deadly, these drugs can produce extreme and volatile reactions in users, ranging from staying awake for 96 hours straight to running through town naked to cannibalistic tendencies and self-mutilation.
	And in a recent story out of South Carolina, churchgoers stumbled upon 20-year-old Kaylee Muthart, gouging her own eyes out while hallucinating on meth lace with designer drugs.
	Thankfully, Kaylee was rushed to the hospital before sustaining any more damage.
	But it took three police officers and two EMTs to subdue her.
	And DACAS couldn't save her eyes, which she tore from her sockets.
	Today, she is blind, but alive, and ready to share her story.
	Before we talk to Kaylee, her mother Katie, who has lived every minute of this tragedy, joins us.
	Can you start us off by, again, thank you for being here.
	I know this is difficult.
	Help us understand your daughter.
	What is she like behind the headlines?
	She grew up outgoing, social, talkative, beta club, National Honor Society, worked for her own car, worked two jobs.
	Just your average girl, no trouble ever.
	No trouble ever.
	Ever, no?
	Where were you when you heard that she had gotten into trouble?
	What did they tell you had happened to her?
	That she was in a psychosis and she'd taken both of her eyes out.
	And they thought that something else was in it because typically somebody just on methamphetamine wouldn't do that.
	How did you respond when you heard that she'd taken her own eyes out?
	I just, I collapsed and sat down and they had to give me a wheelchair.
	I just, I was numb.
	I mean, I couldn't even believe what I was hearing.
	Had Kayleigh ever used drugs before?
	Well, when she left home, I found out she was using marijuana and drinking somewhat a little bit, but nothing, you know, there was nothing I could do about it.
	She knew I didn't want her to, but like six months prior to this happening, by talking to her, I could tell she had some kind of mental.
	Something mental happened to her, I could tell.
	And then I heard less and less from her and then, like a week before this happened, she video chatted with my son and she was in a psychosis.
	She was yeah, she thought something was inside of her and she was trying to get it out.
	And me and my son said we have to help her.
	So where'd you turn for help?
	I called every phone number I could call.
	I finally found a place in Greenville that would take her.
	As long as she was on the phone and I talked to her about it and she said i'll go in a week mom, and i'm like okay, and I waited a day or so and I thought no, i'm not gonna do it.
	So I went to the court and they said if I could get proof that she was a danger to herself, that they would pick her up and have her committed, and that's what I was getting ready to do before this happened.
	I'm so sorry.
	I'm gonna ask your daughter to come out okay, is that okay?
	All right up next.
	Kaylee's here and is exclusively opening up in her very first television interview.
	Hi everyone, Tyra banks on motherhood.
	I did think it wasn't gonna happen, and so he is my miracle baby and the true story behind her nose.
	Job, all nuance that's coming up tomorrow.
	20 year old Kaylee Muthart made headlines for clawing out her own eyes while high on metamphetamines.
	It has been speculated that the meth she took was laced with a substance known on the streets as bath salts, which are psychostimulants.
	That means they can trigger the intense visions and paranoia that so many of us fear.
	Kaylee wrote us this letter describing the hallucinations she experienced when it happened.
	On the morning of tuesday, february 6th.
	I was still high for meth.
	I'd shot up the night before and I was hallucinating.
	I thought the friend that I got in high with had gone to lie down at a local church and wanted me to come meet him.
	I wandered there along a railroad track and, even though it was morning, everything looked dark, apart from a lamppost where I thought a white bird was perched.
	My thoughts were confused and I thought my friend might have meant he went to lay down with God.
	The world continued to get darker and the sky felt like it was closing in then I remember thinking someone had to sacrifice something important to save the world.
	I thought everyone would die if I didn't tear out my eyes immediately I fell on my knees and started pounding the ground, screaming out, God, why me, why do I have to do this?
	Then I pushed my pointer and middle finger into each eye and the next thing I know, my world really did go dark.
	Kaylee joins us now.
	Kaylee, how were you able to endure the pain and will yourself through removing your own eyes?
	I thought that's what I had to do.
	I thought that if I didn't, that everyone in the world would go to hell, and that's why hallucinations take you so far away from who you are.
	Did you feel pain?
	Do you recall the event at all?
	Yeah, it was.
	It was really painful.
	Meth it does take away some of the pain, for example, like when I play the guitar.
	When played the guitar on meth, it didn't hurt my fingers as bad.
	I still play.
	It's just the pain itself isn't isn't as much on the forefront.
	Yeah, it's still there.
	You can feel it, but the adrenaline itself kind of, once you reach that certain threshold with pain, it kind of like there's no more pain.
	Kaylee, you said something that caught the entire world's attention.
	You said that life is more beautiful now, that you can see that beauty, although you're blind, more than you could before you all went through this.
	Yes.
	That is very shocking to hear.
	Because I'd rather be who I am today with the mindset I have now.
	Even before drugs, I was still lost.
	If I would have found, if I would have found God, if I would have found loving myself before drugs, I would be the person I am today blind.
	I just, drugs got a hold of me before I got a hold of myself.
	And the world is a beautiful place regardless.
	It's all about how you look at it.
	It's all about taking that step.
	It's all about taking that step.
	One step in a thousand mile journey, it takes 10 steps, 100 steps.
	But how did you get to 10 or 100?
	You had to take that first step.
	And it's just up to you which step you take forward or backwards.
	And I just took a lot backwards, but I just found myself where I am today because I call it the easy way out because I was given, hey, Kaylee, you think you're going to save the world?
	And look, Kaylee, you're blind.
	That wasn't real.
	You didn't save the world.
	There's people out there who have found a way to, this is why I say everyone has their strengths and their own ways.
	They found a way to stop doing drugs.
	They didn't have to go blind first.
	I call what I went through the easy way out because they're still struggling.
	And I'm not struggling because God gave me a blatant.
	Kaylee, you didn't save the world.
	Now look what you can do with it.
	And they're still out there.
	So when you say that you could see the beauty of the world better now without your eyes, you literally mean that.
	I swear to God I mean it.
	With everything in me.
	I would love to see again.
	And if that's possible, that would be the most beautiful thing.
	It's crazy to ever, like when I got on the airplane right here, my ears started popping and I could barely hear.
	And I was just appreciated deaf people even more.
	Like you never understand something you have until you lose it.
	And I just don't want anybody else to lose something again.
	And nobody listens when they're on myth because I was on the streets.
	I was sleeping outside.
	I went through it.
	Like I can understand it.
	I might be dressed up here and I'm still, I've been out there, haven't showered, didn't have a way to, had to be cold.
	And you just, you miss out on so much because of drugs because you feel empty inside.
	You're trying to find something to fill that void and the only thing that can fill that void, in my personal opinion, is God Himself.
	So mom, your mom is very emotional next to you.
	As I'm trying to keep it in, because if I cry, she cries.
	It's like sympathetic.
	Like, you know, you smile, I smile.
	Are you okay, mom?
	Okay.
	What she's saying applies to you too.
	I know you feel the pain.
	Oh, yeah, I feel a lot of pain.
	But, I mean, I haven't got to the point of really realizing that her eyes are gone because I've been really too busy.
	So my time will come, you know.
	I know it will.
	And one of the reasons that I feel so passionate about having you on is because there are a lot of people who are going to hear and see this interview who aren't going to do things to themselves similar to what Kaylee did to herself.
	I hope not.
	That's our hope, just to help.
	Help.
	Kaylee, can I ask you about your eyes specifically?
	Do you keep your eyelids closed all the time?
	I can show you if you want.
	If you don't mind, I'm not.
	I don't.
	I still have muscle movement.
	And it's more so on the left and the right, to my understanding.
	And when, if you think about it, the eye socket, the eyes rest down here.
	I could be wrong, but they rest down here.
	Like if you feel them, when I've been feeling other people's faces, and it should be right here.
	When I open them like this, this is a normal eyelid opening, but it's very, very minuscule.
	If you go like this, it closes and opens more so like a normal eye.
	So I'd say the movement's still okay.
	I feel like I can see more.
	It's not completely dark.
	It's like shimmers.
	Like people in karate that are blindfolded on, I guess.
	That's the best thing I could relate it to.
	It's just shimmers.
	Yeah, I palpitate the area around your eye.
	No, I don't care.
	It doesn't hurt.
	It's not swollen.
	And the eyelids move pretty comfortably.
	My stepbrother asked me, he said, Kaylee, I was eating all the potato skins I couldn't carry.
	He said, Kaylee, you like the skins on the potatoes?
	I said, yeah, it keeps my eyes healthy.
	And he thought it was the funniest thing.
	He said, what do you mean?
	That's messed up.
	It keeps the tissue healthy still itself, I guess.
	It does.
	I could be wrong.
	So you see the sensation of light, but obviously no details.
	I'd say the sensation of sound more so.
	I mean, you hear it, and by hearing it, you try to find out where it is.
	And it's like when you focus in or hone in on yourself, you can really find that object, I guess.
	Or you're using your other senses to make up.
	I get it.
	I want to speak to you about beauty, though.
	You may not see beauty.
	Beauty's in your eyes.
	Beauty's in your heart.
	Beauty's in everyone.
	We all start out this big.
	That little baby runs around, laughs, enjoys life to the fullest.
	And you grow up and you go through things.
	That doesn't change how beautiful you are.
	There's no reason.
	It's just this world is broken.
	God said, let there be light and it was good.
	He said, let there be animals and it was good.
	He said, let there be men, and it was very good.
	He had a plan for us.
	But sin each day breaks it down.
	And we pull ourselves back, like I said, forward or backward on that journey.
	It's just a matter of which way you go.
	You just got to believe in yourself.
	The only person that's going to help you make it through is you.
	Well, I see a lot of beauty in you.
	I feel a lot of beauty in you.
	And it sounds like you're ready to see the beauty in the world and be a force for good.
	Because I want people, I want folks out there to appreciate your beauty.
	I recognize that you be part of that story.
	And I want you to be a beacon of light sharing that with people around the planet.
	I'm so thankful for you because I'm able to do that.
	Thank you very much.
	I mean it.
	Thank you.
	I don't say it lightly.
	I appreciate it.
	What you're doing is not just, some people might be out there see it just as a TV show.
	I see it as someone who cares, someone who's here, someone who loves, someone who wants the difference.
	Because I see it every day because that's what I try to do.
	Well, God bless you.
	God bless you.
	Up next, the medical road ahead of Kaylee.
	What doctors can do to help her?
	We'll be right back with them.
	From the buttery spreads a lot of you use and the brand new butter trending on social media, As a dietician, I recommend avocado butter as a healthy alternative.
	Is there a better butter?
	All nuance.
	That's coming up on Monday.
	We're back with Kaylee Muthark and her mom, Katie.
	Kaylee has been adjusting to her new life without eyes after she gouged them out while high unmet.
	Now this is a story that has dripped our nation, which is in the throes of an addiction epidemic.
	And I want to bring in Kaylee's ophthalmologist, Dr. Kip Dolphin, to help us exactly understand what happened to her eyes.
	So Dr. Dolphin, explain the damage that happened to Kaylee's eyes.
	I just looked in the sockets and I didn't really understand what I was seeing.
	It's fairly fortunate that Kaylee was almost surgically precise in removing the eyes.
	She left a good quantity of conjunctiva, which is the mucous membrane necessary to reconstruct the socket and allow us to build a platform to put these artificial eyes onto.
	But Kaylee's never going to see again.
	Unfortunately, she will never see again in that the apparatus that collects visual information has been removed.
	The brain, which the eyes are attached to, and the visual center is still there, so she will be able to manufacture vision on her own, sort of say, visual hallucinations.
	Could you explain with the model how you reconstruct the socket, the areas inside?
	So when she removed her eye, she tore these raised, elevated tissues off the muscles, the extraofule muscles.
	There are six.
	There is the optic nerve.
	There are myriad blood vessels running to and from the eye.
	So it is not an inconsiderable amount of force.
	And yet she's on a drug that allows her the coordination to do that with surgical precision with a rapidity that I can't match in the operating room.
	And still, it blunts the amount of pain and allows her to then remove the other eye.
	So these are eyeballs made by an artist.
	I always thought eyeballs were round.
	These are on concave structures.
	So how do these fit in there?
	How do you actually check?
	So operation number one is to replace the volume of the eyeball so that they can rest on top of a platform and move in conversational tone.
	When we talk, you see these little darting movements back and forth, and you saw that when you separated Kaylee's eyelid, that we want the artificial eye to move back and forth so that when someone is engaging her, they won't feel nervous and say, wow, that eye is dead in the socket.
	It will actually have that.
	So job one is to take the sphere, which is round 20 millimeters, place it in behind the mucous membrane, pull that mucous membrane over the artificial sphere, attach the muscles to that sphere, give it six weeks to heal, and then she goes to an anoplastologist or an ocularist to make new artificial eyes, which will match almost perfectly the photos from her previous eyes.
	So Kaylee, that's your medical future.
	What's your life future for you?
	You'll have eyes that will move, even though you can't see through them.
	The people looking at you will think you are.
	I mean, my future is to.
	I used to, like I was a kid, I saw Free Willie, and I couldn't help it.
	Ever since then, I wanted to be a marine biologist, and I still will be.
	Hey, they say that blind people can kind of relay sound with not echolocation.
	What's it called?
	Well, it seems like echolocation, but can I tell you something?
	If you want to be a marine biologist, you've got the perfect doctor with Dr. Dolphin.
	Yeah, that's what I say.
	Thanks for being brave and sharing your story.
	And we'll be right back.
	Thank you.
	Tyra Banks on motherhood.
	I did think it wasn't going to happen, and so he is my miracle baby.
	And the true story behind her nose job.
	All nuance.
	That's coming up tomorrow.
	Today, a startling Dr. Oz food investigation and a new installment of our Dirty series, exposing the dirty truth about your cup of coffee.
	And we begin, yeah, you're all surprised, but just wait.
	We're going to begin with an investigation into a coffee controversy brewing online and in the headlines about whether coffee on airplanes is dirty.
	The question has been raised by news outlets, customers, even the union that represents flight attendants.
	And it recently sparked a fierce social media debate when former bachelorette Caitlin Bristow posted the question over whether coffee on airplanes is safe to drink.
	So former bachelorette Caitlin Bristow is joining us now via Skype.
	Caitlin, how are you?
	I'm good, how are you?
	So what made the question about whether the coffee on airplanes was okay went in your mind anyway?
	What raised the possibility that it wasn't safe?
	So I have a girlfriend who is a flight attendant and this is something I never would have thought about because I travel all the time and I need my coffee as everybody does and she had said that it was dirty and so I questioned it now and I took it to Twitter.
	So you posted on Twitter.
	I actually was surprised by some of the responses but please explain anybody the reactions you got from your followers about this and what were they saying to you?
	Well, you know, if you have a problem and you want somebody's opinion, you take it to the internet.
	So I went to Twitter and I got very many mixed reactions but they were all strong.
	And for the no's, I got one lady, she's a flight attendant for two years and she said, it's a hard no, there's chemical film on top of the coffee.
	One pilot actually reached out and said that the planes all fly south of the border.
	They fill up on water and then they just carry it around and around.
	For the yeses, I got a lady who said she was a flight attendant for 19 years and that it's totally okay to drink.
	Another person just said they do it in desperate times as a flight attendant.
	So I definitely rethink drinking coffee now in planes.
	Well Caitlin, ask you shall receive, because you pointed out this issue and so many people were worried about dirty coffee in airplanes that we decided to launch a full Dr. Ross investigation.
	So thank you for the heads up, appreciate your honesty.
	So when we started our investigation in a dirty coffee on airplanes went straight to the source, a former flight attendant who has worked for numerous airlines over 10 years.
	You're not coast.
	That yes, said travel show.
	Bobby Laurie, thank you for being here.
	Thank you so much for having me.
	So break it down for us.
	Let's just start with how the coffee is actually made on the airplane.
	All right, let's actually get started with how the water gets to the airplane to begin with.
	All right, so this is a potable water truck.
	Okay, a municipal water facility will load up this truck with water and then this truck will end up going to the airport and then, through a series of water, exactly through a series of hoses, they're going to transfer the water from the truck into the airplane.
	Now, this airplane can go through the water in one day two, three or four days.
	They're only going to fill it up when the water levels get low.
	Now the airplane could be in any, it could be anywhere when they're filling it up with water.
	So it's also important to think, when was the last time the truck was cleaned?
	When was the last time the hoses were cleaned?
	When They do put more water on the plane, they don't drain the water out.
	That's still there.
	They're just putting more water on top of that, and then that is the water that ends up going into the back galley and then into the coffee pots, and then also into some other areas like here.
	This is like a little service area that flight attendants use to rinse out the carafts and other supplies that they have.
	The same water comes through the back galley as well.
	I'm just looking at these, these are the coffee containers, right?
	Yes, those are the coffee containers.
	How do they actually clean these out?
	Okay, that's uh I'm gonna rock your mind here.
	Okay, they don't actually clean them.
	So, here's a typical, no, they don't.
	I know it's kind of gross.
	This is a typical coffee machine on an airplane, okay?
	They're made to be removed, but they're only removed in the event they're broken.
	What actually is removed is right here.
	This is the tray that the coffee bags go into, okay?
	And then, of course, the coffee pot that the coffee goes into, that the coffee's brewed into.
	Those are removed and cleaned.
	But what I want to point out to you is right here, and also right here, this is a hot water spigot.
	Oh, yeah, I see.
	This is where that is where the hot water comes out for your tea on board.
	And if you notice, it's attached to the coffee maker.
	So, that's never cleaned.
	It's never removed.
	So, I'm going to room tea for you as well, unfortunately.
	Something else I really need to point out, though, the bags that the coffee are loaded in are very thin and they burst often.
	So, if you're at home and your coffee maker has a malfunction in the coffee bursts, where do you clean it?
	The kitchen sink.
	On an airplane, what do you have?
	Oh.
	The bathroom.
	Oh, no.
	Okay, it's not a pretty sight.
	And something that a lot of folks don't do is they don't read warning signs.
	That warning sign closest to you says no drinking water.
	It sure does.
	So a lot of folks will brush their teeth in the bathroom.
	Why, I don't know.
	And will wash things in there, but you're also washing your hands in the same sink.
	And then, of course, at the end of the day, the coffee ends up on the cart and you're ordering it from your flight attendant.
	This looks good here.
	Yeah, it looks good there.
	So, all right, the water can be told in a place you don't know, but once it gets into the plate, even though it sits there for a couple days, that doesn't bother me as much because I would think hopefully it'll be okay.
	And much of what you're saying, I suspect people are checking into.
	The water that's going into the coffee, is that the only main risk that you're concerned about?
	No, it's not, because I'm also worried about those trucks that are bringing the water to the aircraft.
	Let me ask you maybe the ultimate question here.
	You personally, as someone who knows this, who's served on planes for a decade, do you drink the coffee on airlines?
	I mean, you can't lie to Dr. Oz.
	No, no, you don't.
	I don't drink the coffee on the airplane.
	If you noticed, you never see flight attendants walking through the airport or through the terminal with an airline-branded cup.
	They always have a coffee shop cup.
	It's free, but it's not worth it.
	In addition to flight attendants, CWA pushed for the EPA to regulate drinking water on planes over 15 years ago, and they've continued to push.
	So I appreciate you being here.
	I do appreciate your honesty.
	I know it's hard sometimes.
	You might get some flack from your coffee.
	I know.
	It's okay.
	I've got Dr. Jen Cotter with me, and she's going to help us get to the bottom of whether drinking coffee in the sky could pose a potential health problems.
	So we've been talking about the coffee, but we just heard from Bobby, it's maybe the water that could be the issue here.
	So how has that actually been studied?
	Right, so you mentioned a couple of things.
	You mentioned the EPA, and it's been studied over the last 15 years.
	The Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 took a number of samples and found that actually all of their airlines were out of compliance in terms of their drinking water standards and how clean or what you will call it the drinking water was.
	Subsequently, they tested 327 aircraft.
	That was after that.
	15% of them had total coliform.
	And that's considered to be actually a high percentage in terms of bacteria.
	15% had coliform.
	1.5.
	15%, absolutely.
	And there are other reports.
	Business Insider has reported EPA studies that said one in eight aircraft were out of compliance when it comes to drinking water safety.
	And finally, Bobby mentioned the water service vehicles.
	There was a study in 2015 that actually said and led the conclusion that it's the water service vehicles that actually have high levels of bacteria.
	So this is something that we've been looking at.
	I always learned that you boil water to sterilize it.
	And this water should be boiled in order to make the coffees.
	Why isn't that enough to get rid of this coliform bacteria?
	Well, so when we talk about boiling and sort of keeping water safe, we know that you have to have your water at a rolling boil for at least a minute.
	That's the one thing that we need to keep in mind.
	And that probably is playing a role there, absolutely.
	Yeah, but they're not boiling it long enough.
	If at all.
	You know, sometimes coffee is not even boiled at all.
	You got to think about that.
	And in terms of the risks, what we're talking about with the risk, people say, well, what could this cause?
	What could this do?
	When we talk about total coliform, we talk about E. coli and fecal coliforms.
	Honestly, for most people with a healthy immune system, they're probably not going to get sick or these are probably not going to cause illness.
	But E. coli, there are some strains that can cause diarrheal illnesses and others.
	I think one of the bigger things is that the presence of these bacteria might indicate that there are other pathogenic bacteria presence.
	And honestly, some researchers say that yes, healthy immune system, you're probably okay.
	But what about those with the weakened immune system or the little babies?
	Those people might be better off with bottled water, folks say, and I can't say that I disagree.
	So one of the biggest criticisms of the coffee water in airplanes is that it's in a tank and it's held in a place that doesn't often get cleaned, right?
	Because the plane isn't sanitized long enough.
	That's an argument that's made.
	But I want to push back a little bit on this.
	I mean, there's some homework on water in planes.
	We learned that the EPA requires disinfecting of the water system on each airplane four times a year.
	You know, that's more than some of you guys clean your bathrooms.
	So that's not bad.
	And they also require testing of the water for the coliform bacteria that you just mentioned, Mission, Dr. Coddle.
	So theoretically, that should be okay.
	So I did one step further.
	Come on down to our big monitor here.
	We had our med unit pour through the EPA results for this past year, 2017.
	And what they found, I think it might end this coffee panic.
	It was really rare that the galley water in the plane tested positive for coliform bacteria.
	You had presented information for a couple years ago.
	Only 1% of the thousands of tests, just 1% had coliform.
	And when it came to the E. coli, which is the more dangerous kind, they found it only in 0.05%.
	You know what that means?
	Out of the 4,000 planes that were tested, two of them, two of the planes, had this E. coli.
	And even then, I wasn't sure it would make you sick.
	So I got curious.
	I was flying recently and I tested my own airplane coffee.
	There I am, coffee in hands.
	I'm bagging it up.
	No one can see me doing this, by the way.
	And Dr. Codle, I don't know the results yet, but I bottled this, I hit it there, and I brought it home.
	Yeah.
	We tested it.
	Yeah, we actually tested it.
	You did a great job of bottling it up.
	It actually came out that there was zero coliform and no E. coli.
	I like it.
	Yes.
	I like it.
	My plane coffee was clean.
	I like the idea of, you know, being a bit skeptical, but you got to verify the thoughts.
	So look, we looked at a big sample from the EPA, my own tiny little sample, literally tiny because it's one cup for me.
	And it seems like airplane coffee might be okay.
	Maybe the panic is running out of steam, pardon the pun.
	The data shows things seemed to improve, and finding contaminated water is pretty rare these days.
	So I think we should get a lot of folks, if there were really problems with contamination, a lot more people than we're seeing will get sick.
	So I think airplane coffee is cleared for drinking.
	So come on now, cleared for drinking.
	Pull it down, save your money drinking on the plane.
	When we come back, we investigate instant coffee.
	This is going to blow your mind.
	From the buttery spreads a lot of you use to the new alternatives like ghee, is there a better butter?
	That's coming up on Monday.
	Instant coffee is the caffeine fix growing globally at an exponential rate.
	But today we're investigating the truth behind what's really in your cup.
	And here's a hint: it's not all coffee.
	I'm here with Dr. Bob Arnott, who's not just a doctor, but he's also dedicated much of his time to the study of coffee.
	He's conducted over 100 studies on coffee, and now he's got his own coffee brand, a real expert.
	But before we get started with the health issues, just explain how do they make instant coffee?
	Give us the history.
	So what's so interesting about that is they take a regular green bean, they roast it just like you would any other coffee, and then they grind it, they put it in water, and actually brew it as if you were going to drink it.
	So it's a pre-prepared coffee.
	Then they use a very sophisticated process to drive all the water out, either spraying it from a tower into like, you know, 400-degree heat or a very sophisticated freeze-drying process.
	And then you end up either with, you know, these coarser sort of granules here or these very, very fine ones here.
	These are both instant coffee.
	They're both instant coffees.
	And of course you can dissolve them in water so you don't need any equipment, no brewing equipment.
	That's a little bitter.
	Now this one is a very inexpensive instant coffee.
	Flavor is a big problem.
	Yeah, it's good.
	This one's a high-end one.
	There's a revolution in instant coffee.
	The really high-end ones are great coffees.
	The low-end ones, as you found, stay away.
	So let me put your MD degree to work here.
	What are the health issues around coffee, instant coffee in particular?
	Well, as you know, in coffee, it's the polyphenols that really make them healthy.
	Wonderful studies on that.
	We've looked at instant coffee and we're surprised at how many polyphenols they have in them because the spray and freeze-drying process seems to concentrate it.
	So you're getting 80% of the overall value of a very, very high-end coffee.
	So not bad.
	So help me with this.
	I know in California there's a new law, I think it's a new law, saying that there's some carcinogenic elements found in some of these coffees.
	In fact, I see stores that are putting little warning signs.
	What's that about?
	For our coffee too, we have to label it.
	It has acrylamides in it, may cause cancer.
	Acrylamides.
	Acrylamides.
	So this develops like when you fry French fries, your potatoes.
	It's a byproduct there.
	And this is what we call, it's an interesting term, a developing carcinogen.
	Shown in animal studies with very high levels to cause cancer.
	They haven't really nailed it in humans yet.
	We really don't know that.
	But state of California, very, very strict on this.
	So they're quite careful in terms of.
	I would think you'd have more acrylamides than french fries.
	Here's the interesting thing.
	Instant coffees, if you take a dry instant coffee like that, they're going to have 361.
	That's the number.
	Big, big number.
	Like a French fry.
	But when you brew it, it goes from 361 down to about 6.
	Probably not a problem.
	And remember that coffee is associated in all the big studies with a decrease in cancer.
	So I'm not particularly worried.
	But buy a coffee with low acrylamides if you can.
	All right, so let's not get into what's actually in your coffee.
	This is one thing I'm always curious about because you buy it in the bottle, it's been packaged by somebody.
	So is it just made up of ground-up coffee beans?
	And I made a little demonstration for everyone to see what might be in some of these coffees.
	So we've transformed coffee with very sophisticated analytical chemistry.
	Down in Brazil, they took these analytical instruments, very fancy names, and lo and behold, they found it wasn't all coffee.
	There was black beans, barley, rye, corn, cocoa seeds, rice.
	Reason for that is there's less and less coffee being produced in Brazil and other parts around the world.
	It's very expensive, so you can fill it up since you're paying per pound.
	If I could put some rye in there or barley that's very cheap, I make more money on it.
	So what are the health concerns besides the fact you're being cheated?
	So there's actually a professor Nickstorff who studied this down in Brazil, and what she says is, look, it's probably not a problem because there's very little, but if you have allergies to wheat or you have it to, where do we have our soybeans here?
	Soybeans here.
	Soybeans here.
	You may have an allergic reaction.
	Not proven, but that's a reason if you have these two allergies, buy a high-end coffee that's not going to have this.
	How do you know if the instant coffee that you're getting is high-end or low-end?
	Give us a simple way of figuring that out, because that seems to be okay if it's high-end.
	So look for the Arabica bean instead of the Robusta two beans.
	The Arabic is the expensive artisanal one.
	That's number one.
	Look for the higher price point, probably $6 an ounce as opposed to $1 an ounce.
	Look for a great origin like Columbia.
	They make wonderful beans.
	And finally, buy it from a great artisanal store.
	Support your local artisanal stores or an artistinal website.
	They're going to have good high-end coffees that taste great.
	So as you know, I'm really cost-conscious on the show.
	And we're telling you to spend $6 instead of $1.
	But here's the good news.
	Instant coffee goes so far, such an ultimate dollar stretcher that is, I think, worth the investment.
	So explain to us why you think it's a better value for a dollar.
	We take a look at the numbers here.
	It's pretty unbelievable.
	Let's do the math here.
	So if I go out to a grocery store, you usually buy a 12-ounce bag.
	So you get about 13 cups on it, Dave, depending on how...
	This is regular drip coffee.
	Regular drip coffee.
	Okay.
	You buy in a bag.
	Now look at this for instant coffee, the same amount of coffee, and look what happens.
	Over 105 cups.
	Part of the reason for this, just to make sense of it, is Instant Coffee, you take two grams or put it in a cup, and you put the coffee in the water and mix it around.
	No brewing equipment.
	No brewing equipment.
	If you're going to brew it, you take 25 grams just to drip it through because you're not getting it all into the floor down below.
	So for convenience and for price, I actually understand why folks would invest in better quality instant coffee if they knew enough.
	Now that you know it, I'll appreciate that it's going to stretch a lot further.
	Invest a time and extra for a great tasting and a much healthier version for you.
	Dr. Arnold.
	Hey, thank you very much, Dr. Ross.
	Don't forget to pick up a coffee, Dr. Arnold's Brooke, the Coffee Lover's Diet.
	Pretty cover.
	Up next, the new grab and go coffee that claims to make you skinnier, but does it?
	Hi, everyone.
	Tyra Banks on Motherhood and the true story behind her nose job, all nuise.
	That's coming up tomorrow.
	The coffee investigation continues with the new grab-and-go coffee trend being touted as an energy, weight loss, and brain health solution.
	All three at once.
	I'm talking about these pre-packaged oil coffees, Dr. Jane Coddle's bag.
	She's going to help us separate the hype from the health with this new diet coffee trend.
	I'll give the hype.
	You're going to give the health.
	But first, help us understand what kinds of fats are they adding to our coffee.
	Sure.
	So what we're talking about is this MCT oil.
	MCT stands for medium chain triglyceride oil.
	And it's very popular with people who are fans of the keto diet as well as other things.
	It's an oil that's derived from either coconuts or palm kernels.
	And the thing about it is it's digested relatively quickly in our bodies.
	So a lot of people feel that it gives them extra focus and stamina.
	Some people have actually even said that it gives them more long-lasting energy throughout the day.
	And you know, you might have heard of the butter and coffee type of trends.
	Well, this is sort of like butter and coffee, but one step beyond.
	It's like a takeoff of that.
	And that's what we see with these products.
	These are kind of like the pre-made, pre-developed ones.
	The butter coffee, y'all remember, we talked about it when they first came out.
	Everyone's like, butter and coffee.
	Yeah, that's what I.
	I actually like the taste.
	But I understand the theory behind MCT oil.
	I want to examine it.
	It's like part of the coconut oil.
	That's why coconut oil got so popular in coffee.
	So our investigation is to separate the hype from the health.
	The first one, here's the hype.
	They say it has a thermogenic effect to speed up your metabolism.
	That's the hype.
	What is the health, Jen?
	Okay, so there have been some small studies that have been done, and those small studies, many of them have shown favorable results.
	So a lot of people are really excited about this, and it might be the case in some situations.
	The thing about, is it good?
	Do you like it, really?
	The thing about it is that, you know, remember, we talked about these being digested very easily.
	They're sent to the liver for metabolism, and then they're not necessarily stored in the body as fat.
	And researchers of these studies are very excited about these results.
	They're very promising, but they still say, I don't know, it's not ready for prime time yet.
	And any product that's making these claims might just be jumping the gun.
	Yeah, so that's why it's hard for you to audit.
	But the next one's not.
	The next hype we investigate is whether MCT oil, when mixed with coffee, will make you feel fuller for longer.
	And I have Renatha here, our go-to tester.
	And you check this out this week.
	So again, unlike metabolism, which is hard to assess, this is just a matter of whether you felt fuller for longer.
	So what do you think about that?
	Oh, I swear by the MCT oil in my coffee.
	Yes, absolutely.
	I swear by it.
	So it makes you feel full.
	It makes me feel fuller.
	It satiates me until lunchtime or until I get my next meal.
	So absolutely.
	We got testimony.
	It's done.
	Yeah.
	And I trust your judgment is done.
	So what is the health?
	So, I mean, the health is that there are many studies that are done on whether it's satisfying or not.
	And some people do say that adding like a healthy oil like MCT oil with a fiber like an apple keeps you fuller longer, keeps that hand out of the cookie jar.
	But there are some people who say, however, that fats are just empty calories and just a way to get flavor and don't keep us full longer.
	What I say, and Renatha, okay, okay, I know.
	Don't be hating on that.
	Okay, because it makes you feel full.
	And I do think that everybody has a different experience with this.
	As a doctor, what I say is that, you know, coffee with or without the MCT oil is I still want people to have a little bit more than that for breakfast because I want to make sure that we're getting all of our nutrients.
	So how is that?
	All right.
	Thank you.
	I mean, it does, I mean, you feel fuller.
	I feel fuller.
	And also, Dr. Oz gets stuff moving, too.
	Yes, also benefits.
	That's another benefit that it has.
	You know what I mean?
	Yeah, I've sort of likened the coffee with a little bit of fat, a little bit of fat, which is the operative word.
	All right, the hype, next, the last bit of hype, is that they say MCT coffee will help you burn off fat.
	Now, this is a big claim.
	What is the health here?
	This is a big claim.
	And honestly, you know, we talked about how they're digested, right?
	We think they're digested very quickly, processed through the liver, metabolized, and then they're not necessarily stored as fats.
	This particular oil, the studies are mixed.
	There are some studies that say that, yes, this oil will help you lose weight.
	There are some studies that say the exact opposite.
	Truth be told is researchers are skeptical.
	Honestly, I am too.
	Let me get my bottom line here.
	We got some subjective evidence.
	I see some of the studies out here.
	Here's my thought, guys.
	Bottom line, it's promising the fine little studies, but it has taken off like wildfire.
	What I worry about with these pre-pack is pre-loaded grab-and-go coffees is they end up becoming processed foods.
	So look at the ingredients.
	You know what to look for.
	Make sure they're not loaded with extra chemicals and preservatives that you don't need.
	If you don't know all those words, figure out something else to do with your morning.
	We'll be right back.
	From the buttery spreads a lot of you use to the new alternatives like gee, is there a better butter?
	That's coming up on Monday.
	Next time on True Crime Tuesday, the secret diary of a serial killer doctor.
	For years, Dr. Michael Swango fooled his patients, his peers, and his community and is believed to have murdered more than 35 patients.
	He left behind a trail of bodies and a journal of his deepest, darkest thoughts that no one could have ever imagined.
	Doctor of Death, the poison doctor.
	Michael Swango is believed to have murdered as many as 35 patients during his time as a physician.
	He went undetected for years, but a trail of death followed him everywhere he went.
	Despite complaints, Swango was never caught.
	En route to get another hospital job, Michael Swango was finally arrested during a layover in Chicago.
	During the trial, prosecutors provided chilling evidence.
	The deranged doctor's personal diary.
	A family member of one of his victims will be speaking out exclusively about this shocking case, and an expert will uncover a recent prison letter from Swango.

▲