John Oliver is doing a great job over on cable TV and his new show is rocking. I particularly loved his take on that 19th century traveling medicine man on his horse and buggy traveling from town to town bringing you miracle cures and magical beans. You know the man well, his name is Dr. Oz. I've been waiting for that magic pill which will bust up the fat and make me lose weight by just sitting home and watching the World Cup.
Oliver: Name me one case where a man named Oz, claimed mystical powers and led people horribly astray?
Hearing: Q: Do you believe there's a miracle pill out there?
Oz: There's not a pill, long term, lose weight, live you the best life without diet and exercise.
Q: Do you believe there's a magic weight loss diet out there?
Oz: If you're selling something that's magical, no.
Oliver: That would be ridiculous. No one is claiming that there is a magic pill out there. That would be stupid.
Oz: This little bean has scientists saying deep down, a magic weight loss cure for ever body type.
Oliver: He never said there was a magic pill, he said there was a magic bean. That's clearly entirely different.
I imagine if you smoke Meth for a month straight I'm pretty sure you'll lose tons of weight even without taking Dr. Oz's magic beans.
Snake oil. And I say this as someone who takes supplements from time to time and eagerly reads every article about health and well-being I come across. But then I'm getting old and at this stage of life you start to think about that sort of thing a little bit more often. A lot more often, in fact. But the truth is that if you are a person who reads and researches it's not hard to debunk the snake oil all by yourself (with the help of Mr Google.)
If you're inclined to worry about your health or your weight it's a really, really, really good idea to skip the mainstream news media, which is shallow and uninformed on this stuff and do your own research --- with the full understanding that you cannot believe everything you read on the internet. It takes practice, but it can be done. And I suspect that at the end of the day you'll end up back in the same place most of us do with just a few tweaks here and there: cook and eat real food and move your body. And be mindful of changes, 99% of which are normal.
If there's one thing that growing older teaches you, it's that many of the things you thought were permanent aren't. Especially in your physical self. It's quite an evolution ...
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