 Dr. Oz, is that with a new book, Food Can Fix It. Dr. Oz, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for coming and joining me in the studio. Yeah, this is great to be here. So tell us, how can food be a healing mechanism? When I was a young boy, my mom would give me advice, like most folks get advice from their parents, and I would think, oh, you know, she just said that because her mother said that. Over the last few years, science has advanced to the degree that we can actually start to prove that food can fix it. And I'm not talking about, you know, fixing a gunshot to your chest. Modern medicine is great at that. Infection is fantastic. You know, go teach your antibiotics. But many of the chronic issues that plague our society, and frankly, the main reason we're having a problem with the healthcare bill in America is because we can't afford to pay for chronic illnesses. The first line therapy should be food. In fact, even for things like weight loss, I always say, yeah, exercise, that's good for keeping your weight down. But if you want to lose weight, you have to eat differently. And the best way to think about it is to break it down into the acronym FIXIS. F-I-X-E-S. Each of those stands for a key food group. Each of those is an example of how you can begin to attack a specific ailment by combining those in the right way. And the scientific underpinnings of that have got incredibly powerful. From Alzheimer's to heart disease, to cancer therapy, immune issues, aches and pains, just malaise depression. Almost all the major problems we face as Americans have a food element to their fix. Not just food, but food is a big, big part because when you walk into a grocery store, just think carefully, you're walking into a pharmacy. That's how powerful those foods are. Well, it's funny you say that because there's this whole effort, as you mentioned, to repeal and replace Obamacare. And a lot of times we hear that the solution lies in Washington or among the insurance companies. But the consumer should be taking more responsibility. It's the most patriotic thing you can do is to realize that the true battle for health will not be one in Congress. It's going to be one in your bedroom, in your kitchen, in your living room. The places we spend our time, the habits that we have, predispose us to ailments. And here's the thing, if you don't want to live longer, which I hope you want to, but if you don't want to live longer, that's okay. But at least they're better. Enjoy today because you ate the right foods earlier and then you can eat the right foods later. And that's how the good life starts to exist. You begin to realize that people who feel good eating the foods they're enjoying, they not only live longer, but they enjoy every minute of it more and they become disciples. And they spread the gospel, so to speak. The wisdom that so much of America's based on is that food is just a calorie count. It's not, it's been sacred and always will be. Frankly, the happiest times you spend are often around food. There's nothing healthier than laughing around the dinner table, even if the food's not that good. So start off realizing that it's important and then realize you can nudge it a little bit. Push a little bit away from some of the meats and foods that we know can add a lot of calories but also come along with some side effects, especially if you've got a pre-existing promising heart disease. Stay away from some of the simple sugars, we know that causes weight gain. And much of this you sort of heard here and there, I try to pull it together in the same way that's based on hard science and then take it out of the laboratory and put it in your kitchen. So if you can actually act on this insight in your kitchen with recipes that are delectable. And again, I'm not the taste tester here but I've tested these things with millions of our viewers and great readers of the magazine. People give us feedback. If it doesn't work, they tell me. That's what I'm spreading with you. Stuff that I know works that'll taste so good. You won't believe it said it's healthy for you. Well, and these tips, these recipes, I mean they can be implemented within hours of reading the book. Yeah, I really want folks to spend one weekend day, just one weekend day planning it out. Just do it once. Just, I have a 21 day plan. I made it because I know people want plans that are easy to follow. I have a shopping list. Just go buy the stuff, not expensive. In fact, don't overspend. Many of the tips are, as an example, you can buy canned oysters or canned salmon. And I think the nutrient value of those is unbelievable. Frozen produce, the nutrient value because they're harvested and frozen at the time when they were ripe is 90% of regular fresh produce. So yeah, if you can afford organic and really high-end stuff, go get that. But if you can't, for the average Americans, financial issue, I'm trying to take away that obstacle because in this country you can afford to eat healthy. And the few times we can't, as a nation, feed the people that we should be able to fix that as a country. Those that place the food deserts, the folks who really need support for food, those people we can help. But the vast majority of the population ought to be able to afford it on their own. I believe we can. Now aside from grocery costs, obviously prescription drugs, people are struggling to pay for those. There are reports that Amazon could be getting into the pharmacy business. They have a track record of lowering prices for consumers. Would you be for a little bit of Amazon disruption here? Yeah, I think Amazon has gone into a lot of sectors that aren't as efficient as it could be and forced efficiency. You probably know about Sharecare, which is the company I started with Oprah when the show launched. It provides all of the digital support. So it's the best place to keep all your medical records in one spot. But Jeff Arnold, who started WebMD, started Sharecare. And this is a major focus of that company as well. There are opportunities where people who talk to a big audience, people like me, places like Amazon, because they have different touch points can get in there and say, guys, push back a little bit. Ask a question here, one or two, about whether you need to be at a medication at all. That's why I do think you ought to use food as your first therapy, but if it doesn't work, you gotta go to the meds. And then here's the big part. There needs to be transparency. Everyone ought to know what the drugs cost. I'm a heart surgeon. I still practice medicine. When I prescribe a medication for you, I have no idea what it's gonna cost to go. There's no transparency. Right. In fact, I'm not alone. I don't know if a doctor who knows the pricing. Why is that? Because until today, we didn't have the answers in our phone, because I need to be able to triangulate who you are, what insurance you have, and what farmers you're going to. Well, now the technology exists. You can go to the big pharma companies and the big folks who sell pharma suitacles to the big drug stores. And those drug stores themselves, welcoming CVS, they have that technology now. And I see that coming out in the next few months. Think of how great that'll be for me to be able to say to you, you know what, I've got this pill you can take once a day that's $100, or you can take a similar version twice a day, it's $5. Which one do you want? Do you think the industry wants to move in that direction, though? Because it seems like it would solely benefit consumers, not necessarily the drug companies. I think they're well-meaning people in every sector of the healthcare field. And there are others who, like human nature, say hey listen, we're doing real well right now, why would they change things up? I get that. And that's okay. It's not, no one's going to sabotage their business just because they think there's an opportunity to chip in here and there. But I think as a nation, we should be moving towards a more efficient way of offering a lot of things in healthcare. It's not just pharmaceuticals. And those opportunities are embraced by people in those sectors. They just want to know what the rules are so they can win at that game. Most of us in America, I think, are pretty good at competing. Just either get out of the way and let the game happen. Or if you're going to change the rules, explain to everybody and let people go out and get it. And once that happens, I think we'll see big opportunities. In fact, this wide important bill that's up in Congress right now, I think it's really innovative. They're saying, government, hey we're going to give you a couple hundred bucks if you as a Medicaid or Medicare recipient or someone who the government's paying for can fix your major numbers that define your health, your blood sugar, your blood pressure, your blood cholesterol, your waist size, all the key numbers, whether you're smoking or not. Well, my goodness, if I can get 200 bucks back from the government for making sure my numbers are okay and I can save the US government and aggregate $200 billion, that's a pretty good deal for all of us, taxpayers and the people. I think the best healthcare is usually the cheapest healthcare. The worst healthcare is often the one that costs us the most. This has probably been Turkish and I'm of Turkish origin. It takes a fool can throw a penny down a well. It takes a hundred wise men to get it back up again. And often in medicine, we'll tolerate suboptimal care, especially for people who are under-insured. And then we figure we'll pick up the pieces later on. It costs a lot of money to pick the pieces up. It's like a ship pulling in the harp port without a good captain. When it hits the dock and spews oil over the bay, it's a lot more expensive to clean up than if I just got a good captain to take the shipping and gave them the right map. Dr. Oz, I want to talk a little bit about your brand real quick. You have a TV show, books, web properties. What's your most powerful platform in your view? The show is my love, my passion. It's what I dream doing. It's what I have the most fun as I'm doing it. And all these take some work. And there's a lot of behind the scenes effort made by more than 100 people who are working hard to bring us all alive for us. But when I'm on the set, talking to somebody that I really adore, I just had to die a part down a few minutes ago. I mean, he's the queen of rock and roll of country music. She just thinks that make her tick, I want to understand and share with the audience. And you had President Trump on last year. I had President Trump on last year. I've had folks in the politics and music and folks in acting and famous doctors, who I actually admire them a lot because they're pretty good at what my day job is. And I love having them all have a few minutes to share their wisdom with America. And if you can bring it alive, make it cool and a little pizzazz to it, people resonate to it. I think it's the reason we're on ninth season and it's going strong. Thank you for your time, doctor. I really appreciate it. God bless you. Take care. Thank you.