Television’s popular physician Dr. Mehmet Oz was harshly criticized by a skeptical Senate panel today over his claims that certain weight loss products can be “miracles” and “lightning in a bottle,” forcing Oz to defend himself as a “cheerleader” for people trying to lose weight.
Oz appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that was looking into a “crisis in consumer protection,” and he quickly became a target.
Some of the claims Oz has made on his television show – and the products he has touted – have come under scrutiny before and today committee chairwoman Sen. Claire McCaskill asked Oz, “Why when you have this amazing megaphone and this amazing ability to communicate, why would you cheapen your show by saying things like that?”
Oz has called products like green coffee bean extract, a substance derived from coffee and sold as a weight-loss drug, “miracles in a bottle” and today he defended that use comparing it to changes in the medical field and even the use of prayer.
“When you call a product a miracle and it’s something you can buy and it’s something that gives people false hope, I just don’t know why you need to go there,” she said. “Why would you say something is a miracle in a bottle?”
“We can spend a lot of time, Senator McCaskill, arguing the merits of whether green coffee bean extract is worth trying or not worth trying,” Oz said. “Many of the things we argue that you do with regard to your diet are likewise criticizable… It is remarkably complex, as you know, to figure out what works for most people even in a dietary program.”
Oz, who stars in the ABC television program NY Med, noted he has also been criticized for saying prayer can help sick patients.
“You don’t have to buy prayer,” snapped McCaskill, D-Mo., who has taken to social media to tout her own personal weight loss victories thanks to diet and exercise.
Oz defended statements on his show saying he does not doubt the benefits.
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SOURCE: Shushannah Walshe
ABC News
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