Oprah’s weight struggles may be leading her towards low-carb solution
The entire world seemed to come to a standstill in December 2008 when it was revealed that television talk show host Oprah Winfrey had ballooned back above 200 pounds again after attempting some rather extreme diet and exercise programs over the years with up and down results. Even with her very close associations with so-called health “experts” like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Bob Greene, this weight thing has become somewhat of an albatross around Oprah’s neck that she’s been unable to get under control no matter what she seems to do.
Oprah shared her weight struggle in the January 2009 edition of “O”
The January 2009 issue of O Magazine showed on the front cover a picture of the current 200-pound 54-year old Oprah looking at her 160-pound skinnier self from 2006 and asking the question “How Did I Let This Happen Again?” She lamented the weight gain and scratched her head wondering what in the world is going on when she seemed to be doing all the “right” things to get her obesity under control. Could there be more to this problem than meets the eye?
The February 2009 issue of “O” named the “best” diet among several
Almost on cue, in the February 2009 issue of O Magazine, the front cover showed the headline “The Top 5 Diets: Which One Works Best” which caught the attention of quite a few of my readers who were standing at the checkout of their local grocery stores in recent weeks. Why? Because when you open up the magazine, lo and behold it names LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOW-CARB the BEST diet overall since it produced the most weight loss and weight maintenance of the diets examined.
This was not a new revelation, but rather a regurgitation of three older studies we’ve covered previously.
1. This July 2008 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine from Israeli researchers showed the Atkins low-carb diet produced the most weight loss, increased HDL “good” cholesterol, decreased triglycerides significantly, lowered A1C levels–a key diabetic marker, and decreased C-reaction protein–a sign of inflammation. The other diets in the comparative study included the low-fat diet proposed by the American Heart Association and promoted by people like Dr. Dean Ornish and the Mediterranean diet. This was a significant study as it added another layer of evidential support to the healthy low-carb lifestyle.
2. This March 2007 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from Stanford researchers concluded the Atkins dieters were able to comply with the diet more than the others and experienced many of the same improvements in weight and health as the Israel study participants did.
3. The third study published 2008 in the Journal of Exercise Physiology compared people following a low-fat diet compared with those who simply exercised and found that the low-fat dieters lost more weight, but it was mostly in the form of muscle while the exercisers maintained and even grew muscle mass. They conclude that diet and exercise must go hand in hand.
So, to have this kind of cutting-edge research FEATURED in Oprah’s magazine is a pretty big deal. The column is called “Battle of the Diet Plans” and concludes that a low-carb diet and exercise plan is “a good place to start” for anyone wishing to lose weight and keep it off for good. They added that people need to find the plan that works for them even if it means trying several different ones before discovering what works.
What does this mean for Oprah? Is she FINALLY coming around to the low-carb side of things? Well, if you take a gander at her current meal plans, then they are certainly low-carb in nature. Yes, they’re low-fat, too, but you can’t deny that eggs, salmon, green veggies, chicken, and salad are low-carb foods. Perhaps she’s on a journey of discovering the healthy benefits of high-fat, low-carb right now, though, in light of her yo-yo weight. I’m encouraged by some things happening behind-the-scenes right now in the low-carb world, too.
You’ll recall the release of an extraordinary Canadian documentary film entitled My Big Fat Diet featuring Dr. Jay Wortman by filmmaker Mary Bissell last year. Word has it that producers from the Oprah show inquired earlier this month about getting a review copy of this film to watch. Additionally, Tom Naughton’s FAT HEAD movie is also rumored to be under review by producers of the show for possible consideration as a feature on an upcoming show.
Could it be that we may actually see an entire episode of Oprah dedicated to the subject of livin’ la vida low-carb? I’m not getting my hopes up too much about it since I’ll believe it when I see it for myself, but there would be plenty to discuss between Dr. Wortman and Tom Naughton’s documentaries as well as C.J. Hunt’s In Search Of The Perfect Human Diet release in final post-production now. This could be a landmark moment for low-carb in 2009.
Let the producers know you’d be interested in seeing an upcoming show on low-carb by sharing your request with them. If enough of us share our passionate desire to see the positive message of healthy low-carb living shared prominently on such an influential program as Oprah, then maybe it could happen. Combined with the story in O Magazine about low-carb diets, this could be the time to do it!
have your people call her people…and be on the show!
I’m not big enough to have “people” yet, Ab! Wanna be my people?
–Jimmy
Having low-carb featured on Oprah would be HUGE. It could easily lead to low-carb “coming back” to its levels of prevalence and media attention of 5-or-so years ago, if not going much bigger. Here’s hoping Oprah and the gang get that ball rolling.
It would be MUCH bigger–she could have Wortman, Naughton, and Hunt on there along with Gary Taubes, Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, Dr. Mary C. Vernon, Dr. Jeff Volek, Dr. Eric Westman…a LITANY of REAL low-carb experts for a powerful show. Let the producers know you’d like to see this happen. It might just come to pass!
–Jimmy
Oooh Oooh Oooh!! I’l be your “people” Jimmy : )
I would love to see Oprah embrace low carb living. Can you imagine the type of coverage that would get?
She’s got quite a following of people who really listen to what she says and maybe if she were to go low carb, she’d help effect a really positive change for so many people who are suffering.
Hi jimmy,
Oh yeah, I looked at her menu – “fat-free” salad dressing & only the egg whites etc… This is not the real deal because she is avoiding saturated fat; in fact, she’s deathly afraid of them. I suppose her “healthy guru” pals (Oz & Greene) are helping with kitchen duties and have got their hands all over the ingredients. I’m afraid there is no hope for her as long she still anchors herself to the same old & tired mantra. She’s trying out a reform plan but what she needs to embrace is a revolution – a complete shift of the paradigm, a Copernican-like revolution that turns the pyramid on its head. Jimmy, you did it & yes, we can. Oprah? Not there yet.
Yeh, that really is promising!
If Oprah would have a low carb diet show and present all the facts, it would be splendid. So many people watch Oprah and believe in her that what she says become law.
Then when the country turns to low carb diets and begins to lose weight and shows all the improved health parameters stunning all their health professionals, I wonder what impact this will have on the committee that is designing the new food pyramid since they are all members of the low fat school of thought despite our efforts to influence the composition of the committee.
It would be a wonderful comedy if the food pyramid came out still espousing low fat/high carbs for everyone and the population was losing wiehgt and getting well on the low carb solution. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! Imagine the egg on their faces!
It’s just a dream of course.
Hey, we can all dream about this one, Pam. But I think we’re closer to seeing it happen than ever before, though.
–Jimmy
I contacted the producers. I think the biggest hurdle in all this is people seeing fat as practically evil. This misconception sure got FIRMLY planted in the minds of almost all people in the U.S. at least. I can’t think of any other countries where people fear, instead of love, fat.
Anyway, hope she gets a clue in spite of her experts being wrong.
Dietary fat is the biggest hurdle for public acceptance. This abject fear of saturated fat is ridiculous in light of the research on it. When I attend these obesity conferences where the fat hypothesis in obesity is obliterated, you should see the change happening in the hearts and minds of bariatric physicians who FINALLY get it. Maybe Oprah will follow suit.
–Jimmy
that would be an amazing turn of events, however, as Dr. Eades mentioned somewhere, if she did try out low carb, it could be dangerous. Given her history of tossing out diets like underwear, it’s not unlikely that she would try it out for a few months, do it incorrectly, abandon it, and pronounce it unsafe, too hard to do, ineffective, etc.
All that said, if she ever did a show like you described, I would be sure to watch it all the way thru. And that would be a first!
Yeah, me too! And I despise that show.
–Jimmy
Wow! I thought I was the only one who NEVER watches Oprah!
She’s popular with a lot of impressionable women. But it’s hard not to see through her manipulative tactics. Just look at the embarrassments with the book authors the past couple of years.
–Jimmy
Ten to one says Oprah has never even heard of carbohydrate addiction, much less, hybrid carbohydrate addiction! — She, like the world, doesn’t even know we exist and if she did she would think we were “out there”, fringe, eccentric, wackos, until the light finally came on and the simplicity and the reality of this truth began to set in! — A traditional diet makes so much sense that it’s like a duck takes to water, once one begins to understand.
The fact that we are so little known and little understood is what is astonishing!
Actually, she’s heard of “carbohydrate addiction” because she listened to the Hellers all those years. But she’s never given a truly low-carb diet a fair shake yet.
–Jimmy
“She’s popular with a lot of impressionable women.”
Why the slight? She’s popular with a lot of not-so-impressionable women, too, and many men. I have enormous respect for Oprah, even if I don’t always agree with her. She takes many things seriously that would otherwise be ignored, from women’s and family issues to much broader concerns. For example, how many other talk show hosts have promoted literature as much as she has, dedicated shows to works by writers like Toni Morrison?
Like some many other people in the media, she is a mixture of good and bad – but some people only want to focus on the things that rub them the wrong way. If she is rethinking diet and weight loss after admitting her weight has ballooned despite (because of) the advice given her by leading low fat proponents, that takes some courage and can do a world of good.
Fair enough! But I think on the issue of weight loss, she’s milked that cow for her own money and power influence rather than her own personal weight and health. Maybe that’s changing.
–Jimmy
Incidentally, there is no greater truth than what carbohydrates and sugar have done and are doing to society! — The global ramifications are immeasurable!
Not to compeltely derail your topic here, but if it was all about money, she has a considerable vested interest in the low-fat dogma. Her willingness to question it is at least very interesting.
That actually ADDS to the topic, Tony. Does making you wonder what he MO of this is.
–Jimmy
After the rather mean things you mentioned about Oprah, I would be surprised if she would do a show, she handed you a compliment and you were not nice at all. I am surprised, I thought you looked for good in all people and you were a nicer person than that.
THANKS Pennelope! What did I say about Oprah that wasn’t the truth? And what compliment did she pay to me? I do look for good in people, but I also love them enough to share the truth. Telling someone what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear is just about the worst thing you could do.
–Jimmy
According to your article she named your website the best overall – or did I get that wrong? Obviously I don’t tell people what they want to hear.
You put down her show and ideas while all the while saying that she puts down the diet ideas you proclaim.
I just have followed your website and blog for the last couple of years and have always admired you and what you stood for – although never posted anything until now. I was just shocked at some things you and other said because your community always seems so caring and supportive of everyone. Sorry if I offended.
No offense taken. Oprah’s magazine named the low-carb diet the best of all the diets by looking through the various research that has come out in recent years. I didn’t “put down her show,” but merely commented on the people who watch it regularly. What was wrong with my observation?
THANK YOU for posting and reading at my blog, Pennelope. I appreciate your support of the work I am doing. My job at my blog is to educate, encourage, and inspire while occasionally stirring the pot for genuine discussions on important topics. I’ve done this since I began my blog in April 2005 and will continue to instigate debate and discussion of what matters most. That’s the way to true learning and paradigm shifts in thinking.
–Jimmy
Hi Jimmy, I hope for her sake she comes around to low carb. I wrote an open letter to her on my blog and on her website as well.
Here’s hoping.
Tony