The problem with Oz is not that he is "dressing things up differently" in order for people to get healthier. The issue is that a good portion of what he says is simply baseless, and a not insignificant portion of what he recommends is actually contrary to medical recommendation. It just so happens that he is usually selling something along with these baseless or contrary recs. So no, it's not simply that he's trying to find engaging ways to get people to eat better and exercise, it's that he is knowingly lying to them to sell a product. And he is using his credential as a doctoral provider to bolster those lies.
I am not aware of him ever having sold anything other than books, which have fairly standard advice regarding health.
His name and image are used to sell supplements fraudulently, but he has fought to be disassociated with them. It's not actually him selling them.
He has promoted supplements with exaggerated claims or claims where there is only very minimal evidence and then scammers have sold those supplements with his name/image, but he has not actually made any supplements.
"The Doctors" TV show is worse where the dermatologist sells his skincare products. The Doctors also promoted something I won't discuss because it's so controversial I'd be accused of derailing the thread, but they presented a study on their show once I happened to be familiar with and completely misinterpreted it. Dr. Phil also used to sell weight loss bars.
What I have seen from Dr. Oz (and it was a long time ago that I saw his show) was that he would do pseudoscience stuff like body types for example and what would be best for each body type to eat. The bottomline was that all the people he brought on stage were fat, and any improvement in their diet regardless of which body type diet it was would have helped. That's the type of scammy stuff I saw.
The supplement industry was already having a field day before he came along. He did help legitimize some of their claims, but he didn't personally profit from selling supplements.
Some of the pseudoscience I've seen in actual medicine that gets approved by the FDA is just as bad. Like Vayarin for ADD for example. I know people don't like me to talk about personal experiences so I won't go into details, but you can find a lot of supplements being sold in doctor's offices that are given a level of prestige because they are only available directly through that doctor's office, even though they're GRAS products.
I don't know how I ended up defending Dr. Oz. I guess I just see him as a scapegoat for an entire industry based on inefficiencies and corruption that needs an overhaul. He's not great, but he's not anything different than what I would expect. Like I think to myself, how many Nuedexta prescriptions are legit. Why are doctors opening up vitamin IV infusion centers, etc (which is a thing that just happened connected to my primary care practice—which is understaffed). It makes me think of how Jenny McCarthy became the poster child for people to hate over vaccinations. If the outrage were proportionate, it would have gone to the doctor she believed in. It would go to the number of children dying from child abuse which at the time far exceeded the number dying from measles, etc. I think these people just become punching bags.
I don't like Dr. Oz. I just dislike a lot of other things more.
