Watching Dr. Oz May Be Hazardous to Your Health

A friend contacted me this week to report that Mehmet Oz used his show to promote dangerous claims about cholesterol and heart disease. His guests were two long-time low-carb promoters, Johnny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra.

  

Both of them make a living by selling questionable supplements and deceptive publications. They have now co-authored a book called The Great Cholesterol Myth, an excerpt of which I include here so you can see the level of ignorance and dishonesty it contains. 

Typical of the low-carb promoters, they confuse the 1970 Seven Countries Study of Ancel Keys with his 1953 lecture and paper and completely mischaracterize both. Predictably, they blame heart disease on sugar and reimagine John Yudkin as a hero of diet-heart. Watch the three segments Dr. Oz handed over to these two and you’ll see he gave a full endorsement of their reckless, poorly researched, and biased claims, including the false assertion that large LDLs cannot contribute to atherosclerosis.

I am only one person but I’ve done a lot. I have provided all the evidence anyone needs to understand the truth about cholesterol. One can no longer claim that the science is too contradictory or confusing. Those with the most influence like Mehmet Oz need to educate themselves, accept reality, and stop harming people. To encourage him to face the science, I need you to become personally engaged. Please contact the producers of the Dr. Oz show at viewerfeedback@zoco.com. Let them know about my project. Direct them to the videos and blog posts that dispel the lies he has chosen to endorse. Insist that they give equal time to genuine experts in heart disease.

As long as there is money to be made by misleading the public about nutrition, there is much work for us to do.