Corespondent John Oliver left the Daily Show for his own show on HBO called Last Week Tonight. On the episode from June 22nd, Oliver went after Dr. Oz who had appeared before Congress the previous week. Dr. Oz has made a ton of money teaching people to be healthy. He wrote You - The Owners Manuel and has a daily television show. On that show he often promotes products to help you lose weight. More recently, Oz hawked Green Coffee Extract to shed pounds describing the product a a magic cure. Under oath, Oz admitted that there is no such thing as a magic cure, despite his use of the phrase over and over again.
The real problem is nutritional supplements that suggest they offer cures for numerous maladies. Dr. Oz got caught filling time with hype and taking money from a $32-billion business. FDA has very little control over nutritional supplements despite their label as "food". Some products are no better than placebos and some cause health problems rather than cure them. When the FDA sought to establish control over the market, the supplement lobby responded to squashed such laws by scaring the public and buying congressmen.
John Oliver details the long story of fake cures and FDA oversight in this excellent commentary. It goes a little off the rails at the end, but he is a comedian. Enjoy.
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