Doctor Mehmet Oz has had a particularly tough last few months. The famous TV personality has come under fire plenty of times for touting the benefits of alternative medicine on his daytime TV show, most recently by the British Medical Journal and researchers at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. A few weeks ago, Dr. Oz was staunchly defending his beliefs, but now the TV personality is doing a little backtracking, stating he has made mistakes in the past, especially when it comes to things he has formerly lauded like weight loss supplements.
Here’s what Dr. Oz told Elisabeth Hasselbeck during a Fox and Friends interview on Monday:
I wish I’d never used the laudatory terms I used for weight loss supplements. That was the big mistake I think all of us acknowledge. I stopped doing that a long time ago, over a year ago… The research was often fraudulent.
Oz goes on to talk about how some of the weight loss supplements he praised are now using his name to advertise, probably nodding to the green tea bean scandal that had The Doctor Oz Show under hot water for some time.(In the past, he's had to appear before Congress and apologize for touting fraudulent products, as well.) Hasselbeck actually gives Oz the opportunity to take back a lot of the things he has said about “miracle” supplements on his early morning series. While Dr. Oz is still sticking to his guns about the benefits of most alternative medicines, it's easy to see why he has no problem throwing weight loss supplements under the boss.
Even though he is now backtracking on weight loss supplements, a lot of the sentiments he shared with Hasselbeck this morning are similar to the ones he has been touting since the complaints came out a few weeks ago. Oz just said recently that supplements and alternative approaches are often helpful when combined with modern medicine and vice versa, rather than simply being used on their own.
It’s vital that I drive the following point home: My exploration of alternative medicine has never been intended to take the place of conventional medicine, but rather as additive.
In the interview, he also notes how The Dr. Oz Show has recently been helping a lot of fans of the series to lose weight the healthy way. He’s a slippery PR ninja, that one, but at least he’s willing to admit that he’s wrong about something that that has gotten him into incredibly hot water. Now, if only he could take back some of the unfounded claims he’s made on his popular TV show.
You can check out the full interview with Dr. Oz, below.
