DoctorOz: Breaking Food News: Trends and Traps You Need to Know About | S11 | Ep 78 | Full Episode

Breaking food news. Health, science, and flavor all aligning. Trench, meatless pork, and sausage. Is that a thing? And traps. You need to know. What did they do to this product to get it to taste that way? Plus. Lightening up comfort foods that are hearty, that are healthy. Jamie Oliver joins the dish crew for a new take on some old favorites. I'm going to take a nice big portion. Coming up next. Ready for season 11. Food news, trends, and traps you need to know about. I have my trusted food investigators here to dig in and debate what should and shouldn't be on your plate. Chef Roble Ali is a game changer on the food scene, always staying on top of every tasty trend. And our investigative correspondent and YouTube's trend reporter, Mariska Iacompo, is here. She lost 90 pounds, but not her love of a good meal. Proud of you, Bob. And author of Steak and the Dorito Effect, Mark Marshasker is always on top of food news. So we're going to start with the headline making big news these days. Meatless pork and sausage is now a thing. Impossible Foods is announcing this little not a piggy is actually going to market. And Mara went to the Impossible Foods factory recently to find out how the beef was made. She wants to know how the sausage was made. Actually, literally. Tell us about the impossible meatless pork. What do we need to know about it? Okay, so this is the other, other white meat. The meatless meat. When I went to Impossible, they told me that pork was so high on their list of future products because the demand is so high. Pork is the most eaten meat in the world. So this is really what the people have been waiting for. So here's what we know about Impossible's product. They're making pork crumbles. So it's like a ground pork. So this is something that you could use in your tacos, in your dumplings. You can cook it however you want. And it's made from soy protein, sunflower oil, and coconut oil, which means it's completely halal and kosher, which means that now pork can be consumed by a lot more people, but we're going to have to wait a little while before we can get it because it's not in stores yet. The other, other meat. That's the tagline? The other, other white meat. Let's talk about nutrition. Comparing the Impossible pork to regular pork. So protein, a little bit less. Total fat, less. Cholesterol, well, it's 0 milligrams in this other, other white meat compared to 86 milligrams in animal pork. Calories is also less. So where does everyone stand on this meatless move, this takeover that we're seeing around the country, and particularly, you know, what we're seeing in pork? I'm happy that we have more options, basically. More options are better. Like, I'm never going to stop eating meat. Well, never say never, but I don't plan on it. But it's always good to have another option. Like, when I make meatballs, it's beef, but I always cheat and, like, put a little bit of pork sausage in there. It's just banging. It's delicious. So, and now everybody that doesn't eat pork gets a chance to see what they've been missing out on. So it's a win-win. Well, your father's family is Muslim. Yeah, that half of my family is Muslim. So no pork. Yeah, so I'm glad I'm rolling with the other side on the pork thing. It's delicious. But, you know, now I can use some of that impossible ground pork in my meatballs and, you know, not, like, get people in trouble or get myself hurt. Mark, thoughts? I, you know, we hear this word impossible. Maybe they're trying to tell us something. I look at this and I think this is everything that's gone wrong with food. We are manufacturing something from constituents. I think of food as something that comes off the ground or comes off of a farm. So I see this as going in the wrong direction. I think we need to get closer to the real thing. If you love pork the way I love pork, there are options. Pastured pork. So I'm not a believer here. I'm much more of a skeptic. A real debate on the panel, Mara. But I actually have to disagree with Mark, and I heard a lot of people in the audience were agreeing with you, like saying, mm-hmm, sorry, guys, I have to disagree with you too. I think this is a really, really great thing. I think it is great for the environment. Livestock is such a huge contributor to greenhouse gases. It takes so much water. But not all livestock. Not all livestock. True. You raise it in pasture. It's a completely different model. But the other thing is, I don't think that animals want to be part of the food system, so this is better for the animals too. So I just think it's a win-win all around. I think you're both right. You do? Yes, it's a matter of opinion, you know? It's a matter of opinion, so. Well, here's the thing. Now, Impossible Pork is a little bit away from being sold in grocery stores. Burger King is already starting to sell their Impossible Croissantwich. And that's good news. We can try that today. So you can witness it right now. Bring it out here for our foodies. Oh, jeez. Pass it on down. I'll grab one. Now, here's the deal. Although you can't taste these yet, you'll be able to taste them very soon. They're coming out at the end of the month. And you'll be able to make homemade versions pretty quickly as well. So Chef Robbie's already manipulating it. What are you doing? I just want to taste it by itself. I want it by itself. Purist you are. I want nothing in the way. All right, while you're being a purist there, Mark, what do you think? Well, here's the thing. It does taste like pork. Now, we think that's a good thing, right? This is a reason to be worried about it. What did they do to this product to get it to taste that way? Because that's what we've been doing since the 1960s. We hire these chemists, these flavorists, and they take food that we would ordinarily think, I don't really want to eat that. And they make us go, mm, this is delicious. I can't stop eating it. This is probably good for most people. There's not as much fat in there. There's no fat. What makes pork good is the fat. But, I mean, the flavor's there. It's really remarkable. You know what? We got expert palates up here, but we got some real experts in the audience, real people eating real food. What do you guys think? You're all chowing down on this. Thoughts? So at least when it comes to the taste of the product, I got to say, I think we're all agreed. It's a home run. These guys have really hit it out of the park. We got to deal with your issue, which is are we perverting foods or moving away from things that our body recognizes as home territory that we can digest? But if you're one of those folks who's really thinking about leaning green for the planet, Mara, your point, I think this is worth putting in your palate. Try it out. It's worth the taste. All right, now our next food headline. Nothing to do with this. We won't fight as much, I hope. Is almond milk killing all the bees? Mark, all the bees, they're dying. Tell us about this one. Okay, I wouldn't say it's killing all the bees, but this is something interesting to look at. Almond milk is huge, like over a billion dollars in sales last year. People can't get enough of this stuff. Now, how do you make almond milk? You need a lot of almonds. You need a lot of bees to pollinate all those almonds. We've heard about colony collapse disorder. A lot of those bees are dying. They don't just sort of float in and pollinate. They move them around by truck. You add all that stuff together, and you look at this almond milk, and you start to think, is this really a good idea? Here's the thing. I think we have this unnatural obsession with milk, period, with like almond milk, there's oat milk, there's soy milk, there's goat milk, there's cow's milk. Milk is mostly water, so I don't really think we need to be using as much milk as we do, so I think we can just scale back a little bit and see a big improvement. Well, back to the bees, which is the most important thing here. It's not the almond milk. It's what we're doing to the bees. Bees have been pollinating all kinds of nuts and everything on the surface of this planet since God invented them, right? So something changed, right? It ain't almonds. No. It's the pesticides. You're putting stuff on plants that kills bugs. Bees are bugs. You know, at our house, even though I'm allergic to bees, we got beehives, because we live on the Hudson River, and there are just no bees to pollinate the plants, and our plants were being pollinated, so I think if you have the opportunity, you ought to adopt some bees. I would love to. But it is a concern for me, but speaking of bees, recently Kim Kardashian created a buzz over how many kinds of milk she has in her fridge. Here she is. Everyone looked at the inside of the fridge. I looked at the door. There's five types of milk there. Guys, are we too obsessed with dairy milk? I'm definitely looking at the milk in that picture. Sorry? Nothing. No, say it again. Roble. I said I'm definitely looking at the milk in that picture. That's the best-looking thing in that picture right there. I'm going to tell Kim you said that. Are we too obsessed with dairy milk? I mean, dairy milk alternatives. Milk farmers are actually having a difficult time. They're suffering. They're closing doors. Have we moved too far away from cow milk? Yeah, I think that's a great point. And I think we've been actually making a mistake this whole time. Milk comes from mothers. It does not come from nuts. It does not come from oats. So my advice is eat nuts, eat oats. But milk is a mammal thing. You know, we grew up on milk from our mothers. We get it from cows. So milk is very different from these fake milk products. But again, I have to disagree with Mark. Me too. Milk is made from mothers for babies. We are not baby cows. There's been four times our genes have changed that we can process milk beyond adolescence. We evolved to drink milk into adulthood. We're the only species that did that. Not all of us. I mean, I'm not sure about you, but most black folks, we don't do too well with drinking milk. We don't at all. But you can eat cheese, right? Yeah, because you're not consuming as much of it. But ever since, I don't know, like a year ago, we did a show on here about the alternative milks. And I tried that oat milk. It's delicious. I always have it in my fridge now. It's a beverage. It's not a milk. Just call it a beverage. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oat beverage that's white. Now I can eat cereal again. Right? It's delicious. I eat cereal now. All right. Beverage that's white. On that note, when we come back, an exclusive interview. This is important. With the CEO of a major food brand that has faced criticism over the health of his snacks. Making a big announcement on our show. An evil doctor out for revenge. He said he had these fantasies of kidnapping me, injecting me with fentanyl, setting me on fire, and killing me. Plus... I was ready to cry. But he didn't accept it. I had to be in a bra and underwear in front of him in the hotel room. Could Jeffrey Epstein have been stopped? I had heard that the police called him and they believed him over me. All new Oz. That's coming up tomorrow. Bringing you the food trends and traps you need to know. And now news on one of my favorite snack foods, which may have fallen into a trap of its own. The USDA has discovered that whole almonds and cashews, listen carefully, actually have less calories than originally thought. Now just think about that. They actually changed the calorie count on nuts and seeds. This is what the USDA listed as calories for an ounce serving of almonds and cashews before. Right? You got it right there. 160, basically. Okay? And with this new research, this is the amount of calories found in an ounce of almonds and cashews. Right? That's 19% and 16% less calories than we originally thought. You're getting a discount in your body when you eat nuts. You don't always have a whole opportunity for all of us. But we'll have to explain why this profound insight is so true. I'm handing it back over to my food investigators, Mark Meyer and Chef Roble. Joining us now is Daniel Lubezki, who's the CEO of Kind Bars. With some of this breaking news of his own, it's a big deal because Kind Bar faced major scrutiny a few years back when the FDA deemed that his fruit and nut bars were unhealthy, even though they just had nuts basically in them, due to the nuts inside the bars. So how is the new nut news affecting your business? It's great. The FDA reversed itself, which we can discuss also. But we're really, really excited that we took the step of taking the USDA research and putting it on our labels. And it took a while and a little bit of courage knocking on the doors of the government saying, Look, if you've concluded... Because they used to calculate almond calories by burning the food outside our bodies and just seeing how much energy it produced. But they hadn't taken into consideration how our bodies actually digested. And Dr. David Baer from the USDA took the leadership to do that. And then we took the initiative to take the research. Traditionally, food companies just take a database called Genesis and then enter the inputs. And then whatever it tells you that it is, you accept it. But it's 100-year-old data that is inaccurate. And we're very excited that, for example, a Kind dark chocolate nuts and sizzle bar has the same amount of nutrients. But now instead of 200 calories, it's 180 calories. So Mark, this is shocking. And again, the entire obesity epidemic is about 100 extra calories a day. So if you're getting a 20% discount on the food you're eating, because some of the food is digested differently by your body, it makes a difference. Let's go back over what Daniel just said about how we used to calculate the amount of calories in the food. Yeah, so calories are a measurement of energy. So we've got to figure out, well, how do we know how much energy is in a food? So they use something called a bomb calorimeter. Now the word bomb, it's scary, but it's very accurate. They burn it. But it turns out a bomb calorimeter does a way better job of burning one of these than our body does. So what we found out is that our body doesn't burn the food, doesn't process it quite the way these machines do. So the big question for me is, we found something interesting about nuts, but this kind of opens up a whole question. What else are we missing? Let's go back to Kind bar for a second, because I want to applaud you for this. It's not the first time that you've been in deep conversation. Sometimes I've been in conflict with the FDA. A few years ago, the FDA sent his company a letter asking that they remove the word healthy from the label. Please remind everyone, because I always think of Kind bars, and nut bars in general, as good for me. Yet statistically, because of what was in there, the FDA said, no, it's not. You run a big business. Why would you risk everything to take on the FDA over something that a lot of food companies could probably argue for? Well, actually, when it happened, we were advised by people far smarter than us that we should just lick our wounds and not take this bite on. But it just felt that was not right. It just felt that that was not fair to the consumer. It was not the right outcome. And we did a lot of research. And to their credit, when we showed them that this was really incorrect data that was from wrong science from decades earlier, they actually reversed themselves. You know, there was a study on The Lancet a few months ago that highlighted that food, what we eat, is now a leading determinant of death. Wow. More than alcohol abuse, tobacco consumption, and drug abuse. All combined, food is now a greater indicator of death. And the reason for it is not just what we're putting too much of, which is empty calories, but it's also what we're not putting enough of, which is whole nuts, whole grains. So it's important for people to know that they should be excited about eating. On average, people live three years longer in their lives if they're eating three nuts than if they're not, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. Chef Roble, it's actually still a divisive issue. A lot of nutritionists say, wait, don't eat nuts, too many calories in there. And as a chef and as someone who cares about nutrition, thoughts on that debate? I keep it pretty simple, you know. I know that nuts are good for you. And also, I read the labels on everything that I eat. Now, do I eat nuts all the time? No. I drink soda a lot, you know, stuff like that. You do? Yeah, I do. One of my bad things. But, like, I like kind bars. I know what's in there. I'm going to eat the thing. I'm not going to worry myself because I know what's in there and I know everything is healthy and I know where it comes from. So I don't really worry myself too much about stuff like this. I'll eat that whole bowl of nuts and not worry. You know, I think you're right. And the instinct test is an important one. But fundamentally, why this new insight from you is so vital, and I do want to applaud them for doing this, because health and science and flavor are all aligning. And now we're beginning to realize there's a reason why people eat healthy food and get skinny. Because they actually don't digest all the calories. You get in a discount, take advantage of it. You wouldn't take a discount anywhere else, right? You go shopping with discounts. Do the same when it comes to your food. Daniel, God bless you for what you did. I want my panelists, who are fantastic, to spend more time eating nuts. Keep it up. I'm getting on it right now. We'll be right back. Up next, 99 questions about CBD. Can it help you melt away your stress and anxiety? What our coast-to-coast viewer survey revealed. Can CBD help my chronic pain? CBD make me skinny? Can CBD help my arthritis? CBD help my indigestion? CBD help with cancer? Improve my skin problems? Can CBD help me finally get a good night's sleep? It's the health topic that will be hotter than ever in 2020. So, all this month, we're answering 99 questions you're too afraid to ask about CBD. Today, one of the most searched questions on the internet. Can CBD really help with stress and anxiety? We conducted a survey coast-to-coast to help get some answers. And investigative reporter, Marcia Cavacampo, joins us now with some of the answers. Thanks for being here. Thank you. What did you uncover about some of the claims, most common claims about CBD and anxiety? Yeah, anxiety is one of the biggest reasons, arguably, that people are turning to CBD. And it's one of the main ways that companies are promoting it as a way to naturally lift your mood, reduce feelings of anxiety and stress without any of the side effects that people associate with anti-anxiety medication. So, a lot of the buzzwords that you're going to hear when it comes to this are things like calm, relief, and relaxation. I see them. I see these words flowing out. And people complain about the problem of anxiety. They're looking for solutions that make sense. In fact, celebrities, you think they've got the world figured out? It's not true. Everyone's got the same issues. Who are the big names that are embracing CBD? Some of the biggest stars in Hollywood are huge fans of CBD for anti-anxiety use, including Jennifer Aniston, Busy Phillips, Tom Hanks. Kim Kardashian even had a CBD-themed baby shower to deal with some of the anxiety of welcoming a new baby. So, you know, they really just view it as this natural, holistic treatment for anxiety and stress. Walk us through some of the common products. How is it being formulated? Yeah. It seems that there are more products for CBD and anxiety use than almost any other use of CBD. So, let's start with the oral category, things that you would take by mouth. There are gummies. There are teas. There are pills. There are droppers that you put directly in your mouth. There's any way that you want to take it. There's an option for you. And then there's the whole topical segment, things that you would rub directly on you. That includes balms, lotions, gels, and they even have bath bombs. Oh, you're kidding. So, you can throw them in the tub and soak all your stress away. The soaking probably works. I don't know about the balm. So, we surveyed viewers all around the country, and we asked them to share their feelings on CBD when it comes to anxiety and stress. Take a look. Hey, my name is Sam, and over the last few years, I've had anxiety. My schedule has gotten really busy, and it has definitely caused a lot of stress. So, when I was recommended to try CBD oil, I want to give it a shot. It definitely calms me and has definitely helped me get through my anxiety and just, like, ease my day a little bit more. Hi, my name is Jane from Minnesota, and I use CBD to control my anxiety. I use a CBD bath bomb at the end of the day to help with any long, stressful days. And there's nothing quite so relaxing as a CBD bath before bed. Hey, so, I've been dealing with a lot of anxiety. And so, I started taking CBD now for the last two months, but I have yet to see any results. And now, I feel like I'm just throwing my money away. So, as a teenager, I had overwhelmed thoughts all the time, really anxious and full of stress. I tried all different remedies, but nothing seemed to be a good fit for me. I take my CBD at night and also throughout the day when those thoughts come up. But I can tell you I'm just so thankful that I kept an open mind to CBD and THC-free options because now I feel like myself again. I love your insights. Let me bring in psychiatrist, Dr. Drew Ramsey. Some of your patients have been using CBDs, as well as my viewers. What are they telling you? What kind of results are they getting? Well, first of all, they're talking about their mental health, and they're taking an action. So, I like that. We're hearing lots of anecdotes, it working, it not working, helping with anxiety, not helping with anxiety. Bottom line right now is there are a lot of these reports, and what works for you might not work for me, and there's a lot of hype. So, bottom line, we need a lot more research to make good recommendations to patients. We just don't have that right now. What is the latest news in the medical front? I'm sure people are starting to look at this stuff. How could it affect your anxiety and your stress, CBD? You're going to be really surprised about this, Dr. Oz. There are no good human trials on CBD and anxiety, none at all. There is one trial of just 12 patients treated with CBD, a higher dose than most, 600 milligrams, who had social anxiety, and they gave them a public speaking test, so they put them in front of a group, and the folks who got CBD, they said they had less stress. Besides that, there's nothing. There's one chart review, 74 patients, they looked at patients who had gotten CBD, and you'll see out there reports that like 80% got better. Hang on. 48 to 25% of patients got worse, and at three months, two-thirds of patients aren't taking CBD anymore in these trials. So, no good science right now. So, what's the connection potentially between things like serotonin and other feel-good hormones? Well, it's very exciting. We've been wondering, how does CBD work? And so, there's been some recent science and animal models showing that serotonin can get affected by CBD. Now, it's not in the same way that our other antidepressants work, but it's an initial step, and we think that serotonin might be that molecule, of course, that's involved in mood and anxiety. And so, hopefully, there's going to be more research on this. We're going to have a better answer soon. All right. Up next, this audience, this section right over here, I'm walking towards them, say they have a little anxiety, which means they're honest. So, what my stressed-out viewers say they worry about when it comes to CBD. I'm going to go to you all in a second, but why don't you start us off? What's your biggest question? Can you use CBD while driving in traffic? Oh, that could be a concern for everybody, whether you're using it or not. The answer to that and lots more questions when we come back. A new study is linking hair dye and chemical straighteners to cancer. Hair care products have thousands of chemicals in them. Is your hair dye and chemical straightener really safe? Before I got cancer, I dyed my hair religiously. That's coming up Friday. We're back with 99 questions about CBD, and we're focusing on one big question. Will it help melt away anxiety and stress? The front row here is all stressed-out audience members who say they got lots of worries, and they got worries about CBD as well. Psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey is back to give us some expert opinions. Before the break, Charlene asked a question about if it's okay to take CBD before driving, which got everyone nervous. What happens when you drive? I'm in traffic every day, five hours, and it brings a lot of stress and anxiety. What do you have to say to Charlene about taking CBD while she's operating a vehicle? I don't want you to. I really don't want you to, and I'm sorry your commute is so long and so stressful, but CBD isn't going to change that. Think about it. We want you anxious when you're driving. When the traffic gets a little worse, we want everybody on higher alert. The whole way that CBD might work is by making you a little more mellow. We don't want you mellow in traffic, so I don't think it's a good option for you. Okay. Judy, next CBD worry comes from you. Hi. I want to take it to feel less stress, but if I do that, will I test positive for THC while taking the CBD oil? We did a little study last year. We got a bunch of samples from coast to coast, and one of those samples had so much more than was legally allowed that it raises the question about testing. How do you know? You know if you get a good quality product that you should not test positive. However, it's hard to know what that is, and so I caution patients, especially if you have something important coming up, a drug test for your job, that's not a time to try out CBD. Most likely, you won't test positive, but you could. But since you raised that question, it's come up with my team members. So we did a little testing. Come on over here. They were wondering if taking CBD products could be enough to trigger a positive drug test. So my producers, Hillary and Emily, bravely participated in a trial where we gave them CBD, and you took your CBD as part of this experiment, which I appreciate you doing. But in the meantime, could you have compromised your job? I'm more nervous than you are because you're so essential to the team here. Are you guys nervous? They're nervous. Usually, they're chitterboxes here, chatterboxes. All right. So you took your testing? We did. All right. Now, before we opened these, interestingly, you took different doses, right? Hillary took a tea that only had five milligrams of CBDs, and Emily, your dose was 30 milligrams. So we're going to find out whether a low dose or a high dose, or maybe neither, affects you. Are you nervous? Not really. You're so confident, my producers. All right. Here goes. They pass. They always do. Completely negative. No THC. And I got to say, if the products are correctly labeled, it shouldn't be able to test positive. Right? You shouldn't. You shouldn't be taking in any THC if you're taking a pure CBD product. It's a hemp plant. It's not the marijuana. It's such a small amount that's legally allowed that it couldn't change an inappropriately conducted test. So frame these. Thank you. Show them to HR. Next worry comes from Gina, who's also in our audience. Gina, your concern was an important one for me. So can you share with the audience? I want to use CBD for my anxiety. But will it make me paranoid like I am? And what are the other side effects? Dr. Ramsey? Most likely, CBD is not going to make you paranoid. Actually, one of the most positive and interesting trials was in patients with a paranoid psychotic disorder with schizophrenia. A very high dose of CBD was used. Now, that said, we want you to be cautious and thoughtful as you try with this. But usually, CBD shouldn't induce paranoia. Now, if there is a lot of THC in there, it certainly could. THC is that component we think makes people more paranoid. I'm not worried about that. All right. Thank you. I don't think that's going to be the problem. I think the bigger problem is side effects may come about that makes everyone unhappy. If you're taking CBDs long term, what are the issues we should be concerned about? The FDA just issued a report saying we should be concerned about liver damage, that there's some reports of that. About medical interactions, if you're on other medicines, maybe it's going to influence those. We just don't know yet. And then there's some animal data that the male reproductive system might be damaged by CBD. What? It's really early, Dr. Oz. Like, what kind of medical damage to the male system? Well, it's animals, so we don't know how that translates to humans. But the main concern is that developmentally, there could be some problems with people taking CBD with genitalia and those types of things. So the bottom line is, it's really, really early. And so I appreciate your anxiety. And so we want people to be cautious. Are you worried about contaminants at all, since it's so unregulated? Sure. Of course we should worry about contaminants. It's an unregulated industry. That's why, if you do try something, you want to get a certificate of analysis. That's going to tell you what actually is in there. Somebody's license is on the line saying, look, this is a product with this much CBD, and it doesn't have pesticides or metals or other contaminants. Right. So let's address your question more forthrightly. If you're worried about anxiety and you want to take CBD, as a psychiatrist, what do you recommend? I'd say, first of all, you should experiment on yourself in controlled settings. So in practice, when we trial medications or supplements, we want people to try these over time. You want to be at home in a safe place. I want to know, how does it affect you? How does it affect how you walk? How does it affect your mood? How does it affect how you sleep? And ideally, the first time you take it, be with somebody who's not taking it. Right. Start with a low dose. It's really confusing right now. All of the doses you see in the products are 5 to maybe 50 milligrams, maybe 100. In the studies, you're seeing doses between 400 and 1,000. But I tell people, start low, go slow, be consistent, and be specific. What exactly is it you're trying to get better with the CBD? And then be honest. Did it work, or didn't it? I hope that's helpful. I hope so. Thank you very much. So next week, in our series, we're going to take the two buzziest health words out there, which are CBD and gut health, and mash them up. Can CBD clear up your digestive issues? We tried it for five days, and you don't have to. And by the way, if you have a burning CBD question, go to my website and submit your questions. We're interested. Be right back. Coming up, the great Jamie Oliver is here with a dish on Oz foodies in the kitchen. What are you making? We're going to be lightening up comfort foods with loads of veggies. Come veg out with us next. If there's one thing that brings us all together, it's food. So we're calling everyone to the table to dish on everything, from the latest food hacks and trends, to everyday recipes you could make for dinner tonight. It's simple, it's celebratory, and most of all, it's about having a great time in the kitchen. What is going on? I'm trying to help. Let's dish. Welcome back to Dish on Oz. Gail Simmons and Jamaica Pestoire here with lightened up comfort foods, like a fluffy potato top cottage pie, and a comfy pasta dish that will stick to your ribs but not to your waist. But today, it's not just what's on the menu, it's who's on the menu. Gail and Jamaica are here, yeah, but guess who else is? Jamie Oliver! Lovely to see you. Happy New Year. How are you, darling? Now it's a party, now it's a party. You ready to cook? Yes. Come on, then. How are you? Welcome, Jamie. It's always a joy to be back with you guys. It's great to see you. This book is so beautiful. Thank you so much. Ultimate Veg. This is right up my alley. Thank you very much. It's only your 700th book? It's my 21st book. One book a year for the last 21 years. Oh my goodness. Impressive. That's 21 big plus your babies. Yeah, absolutely. Impressive. Congratulations. You're welcome. When most people think of vegetables, they think of salads and side dishes, but this book, Ultimate Veg, is really about making it the star, right? And lightening up comfort foods that are hearty, that are healthy. Tell us how you came to it and why it's important to you. Well, look, first and foremost, I'm a meat eater. I love meat, I love fish, I love food. But without question, if you look at the history of food and where our cultures have all come from, you know, the idea of smashing meat every single day is ridiculous. Most importantly, if you're thinking about your wallet, yourself, and if you're even environmental and thinking about the planet, getting more plants in your life is a brilliant thing. Now, the most important thing is, first and foremost, you want to do something because it's delicious, right? A good, delicious tasting meal. So when I did this book, I wanted to hit breakfast, brunches, lunch, dinners. I wanted to get noodle, rice dishes, I wanted to give comfort and also a couple of things that would really excite you that maybe you haven't seen before. But, you know, a cottage pie. Old-school comfort food that kind of made you feel like you've had a hug. So with the veggies here, how do you access big flavours? So here I've got some pretty standard, well, some standard veggies. Before we get into this dish, can we just pry into your personal life a little bit? Yeah. Jamika, who's especially prying. I'm not so nosy. Pry away. Well, you've talked about comfort food and food that gives you a hug. Well, today it's about comfort food. And nothing is more comfortable than family, right? So Jamie loves to cook with his... You guys, take a look at this. What have you got? We're going to make super quick, cheap, homemade pizza. And I've got two helpers here. I'm doing good. Try not to have an argument. I did ask her to roll the sleeves up. Apparently, that's not very fashion forward. And as soon as it starts to clean the bowl, that's good. Not too much flour. You made it. Let it cool down. I think the main way and reason to cook veggies is for the little kids. You make the planet better for them, but you make us there for them as well. I think one of the biggest... Without question, one of the gifts... One of the gifts we can give our kids is showing them where food comes from. So as parents, we have to kind of, like, just make it fun. So, look, back to this cottage pie. We've got some veg here, right? So we have a celery root, which we call celeriac. We have a rutabaga, which we call swede. And then we have a carrot that we call carrot. But this is the beauty of cultures and change and stuff like that. So what I've done here is I've diced up these veggies, and I've just fried them in a little olive oil. Now, what I also want to do, I've got some leek in there as well, but I want to make the gravy. What's going to be that lovely... Now, the way to do that without meat is dried mushroom. Now, I know it's ugly. I know it sounds boring. But many cultures around the world use this all the time. If you go down to supermarkets, you'll see the dried mushrooms, a small handful, and a pint of boiling water. You can see the colour, right? Yes. If you smell that, you get deep, deep gravy-like umami flavours, right? Yes. Then we're going to hit it up with some beautiful puree of tomatoes. Watch the outfit. I'm going to want your lovely outfit, by the way. Thank you very much. Three... I had your back. Don't worry, I had your back. Three tablespoons. Then one onion goes in raw. And then here's a little ingredient that you don't really have over here. This is called Marmite, or you can get Vegemite. What's it called? Marmite. Marmite? You can get it here, but it's not that common. You're a lover or you're a hater? Not a lot of people know about this. You know, really, I grew up with this too. Oh, it's one of my favourite ingredients. My father's from South Africa, so we grew up with this in my house all the time. It's fermented nutritional yeast, right? Yes. It's umami. It is deep, salty, savoriness right here. This is fabulous. But you only like a little. It's really good. On toast with butter, that's all I need. Why don't we have this here? I don't get it. Well, you have got it here. You just have to look a little bit harder. Now, you see we're whizzing it up here. Now, we're going to use some rosemary. And the use of rosemary, this gravy, we're going to boil that up here, and that will be the base to our cottage pie. Pour this in? Absolutely. All right, with that accent, anything you tell me to do. The question is, why change? Why change? Well, you want to save some money? Yeah. If you want to be better for your body? Yeah, of course. And I think, you know, ultimately, if you can make something delicious, this is definitely the way forward. So, we've got some mash that we've done. We're going to simmer this now for about 15 minutes, just to make it really delicious and gravy-like. And then I'm going to show you how to top it a little bit later. Right. When we come back, what we're going to do, we're going to put it all together. Shock you guys. See what Marmite tastes like in this. We're going to make a beautiful gold in a bubbly pie. Plus, Jamie's green mac and cheese. It will become your family's next go-to dinner. Stick around, everybody. An evil doctor out for revenge. He said he had these fantasies of kidnapping me, injecting me with fentanyl, setting me on fire, and killing me. All new Oz. That's coming up tomorrow. I'm grabbing the drinks as Jamie Oliver puts the finishing touches on his lightened up mashed potato top cottage pie. Jamie, what's next? Okay. So, what I'm putting in now is just some lentils. And I'm going to add a little seasoning to kind of give you that incredible depth of flavour. Obviously, pepper, a nice little hit of salt, but also a tiny pinch of cumin. So, if you can just top that now. And, of course, what we want is the delicious base. We want that gravy. We want the potato to be fluffy, but also crispy on the top. So, as he beautifully does this, shall I help as well? Please help. Get me out of my misery. What I'm going to do is cook this in an oven at about 350 Fahrenheit for around 30 minutes, 40 minutes, until it's just blipping and golden and crisp. So, here's a little swap out. Here's one I made earlier. Go on. I've already been peeking at it because you talked about it and you just drove me crazy. Oh my goodness. That smells so good. Show Mr. Cameraman here. Look, look, look. You see this. This is almost as pretty as Jamie, y'all. Almost. Almost as pretty as Jamie. Bless you. Oh, I love when she patronises you. Keep talking. At 45, I need all the help I can get. So, listen. So, you know, again, it's a good meal. It's a delicious meal, but the question is, has it got that kind of feeling that you get if you were going to use mincemeat? That's the question. And if you can save the money and enjoy it as much, then happy days. So, I'm going to take a nice big portion. I like the way you serve. That's a good serving right there. And, sir, please. Oh, yes. Please judge him. Thank you very much. Judge me. What I do best. Go right in. What I do best. Oh my goodness. Thank goodness there's no meat in this. I can't fit in my pants after this serving, my goodness. I'm not playing. Look, the important thing here as well, and I'm really chuffed about this. Thank you. But I'm a meat eater, so it's not like I'm trying to convert you. And if you can do yourself some good and save some money, happy days. We'll have that as well. And I noticed, by the way, since you show up that you are, you serve this. Is this broccoli, Rob? What is this? So, just take any greens you can get your hands on that are in season. Just steam them or just put them in a pan with a little oil and a little water. Season it up. This is really good. It really is really good. Well, the question is, has it got depth of flavour? Yes. All through. That's the meat. That's the thing. And look, bless you, everyone. I can see that there's some people in the audience that are in. And there's some people that are looking at me like, I'm not sure about that. You can achieve that loveliness that you'll get by using meat. Now, speaking of love, and we do love you, this is spectacular. This, believe it or not, is a delicious comfort food. I would never expect it. It is a green mac and cheese. Yes. And Gail serves it. Jamie, what the heck is this? It's a mac and cheese, right? We all love it. So, you've got the pasta, you've got the cheese, you've got the stringy ooziness. Lovely. But what I like to do is take things like broccoli, you know, take a little bit of leek or onion, fry it off again, and then we go in with a little flour, some milk, the cheese, blend it all up, and you get this, look, if you look, it's brown and crispy on top. Mr. Cameraman, come over here. If you look, have a little look into the heart and soul of that. The luminous, green, sweet, delicious, oozy, cheesy mac and cheese. This is spectacular what you do with vegetables. I mean, come on guys, this is amazing. And I tell you what, speaking of vegetables and vegging out, all right, what is the most surprising thing that you do to veg out and relax? Me? What would you say? Yeah, sure. Can you relax with all those children in the house? No, it's almost impossible. I've got five kids, ladies and gentlemen. I know what you're thinking. Yes, I'm a machine. But basically, what I try and do is find like what used to be called the dog house, now we call it a quiet place. If the sun shines, I love a hammock. I'll be in my pajamas. I'll just sit back, relax. I love that. I love it. But yeah, vegging out is one of the best things in the world, right? Especially when it tastes this good. This is my kind of vegging out right here, yes. Speaking of vegging out, Jamie Halliburton's new book is called The Ultimate Veg. It is available now when we come back. An easy tip, make comfort food dinners on a fridge clean out day. All the things you want in one. Stick around. A new study is linking hair dye and chemical straighteners to cancer. Hair care products have thousands of chemicals in them. Is your hair dye and chemical straightener really safe? Before I got cancer, I dyed my hair religiously. That's coming up Friday. We're back with the wonderful Jamie Oliver, dishing about comfort food favorites. And the most comforting thing about any dinner is knowing you don't have to go to the grocery store to make it. So recently, my daughter Daphne caused quite the scandal when she showed Bellamy Young how to make a delicious pasta dinner out of what she had hanging out in her fridge. Take a look. I'm outside Bellamy Young's apartment, and we're about to crash her kitchen. And now she's playing the ferocious matriarch on Fox's new show, Prodigal Son. Okay, let's find out what's in the fridge that we can use up. What's the oldest thing in your fridge? Do you even remember? I bet the oldest thing that I have right now are some herbs. Good. Let's try to use up some of your older herbs. Oh, yeah, please. We have rosemary and thyme. I want to use thyme. We have this gorgeous, fresh lasagna kale. We'll use that up. Let's get some brassica in there. Two brassicas. Let's go. Look at you. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to use up your kale, your cauliflower. We're going to use up some of your herbs, some fresh thyme, a little of your vegan butter, a little cheese and white wine. If that doesn't scream Bellamy Young's dinner is ready, I don't know what does. I want a picture of us. All right, we're all tasting this cauliflower and kale orchiette pasta. What do you guys think? Delicioso. It's great. You know, the thing that's so great about pasta of any kind is it's such a perfect base for sort of getting rid of all the odds and ends in your fridge. You know, tossing it together, it's easy, you're always going to have that in your pantry and it can just sort of be the basic go-to to put in all those great veg. My kids will eat anything with pasta. Oh, yeah. Anything with pasta. So, yeah, great. Absolutely delicious. I don't mind being a vegetarian for five minutes if it tastes like this. Okay, I'll take it. You know, Jamie, this year is all about Power One. I want to applaud you, not just for being a great chef, but all the work you've done to help kids around the world. Thank you. God bless you for making sure they know they matter. Next Wednesday on The Dish at Oz, it's the Super Bowl party. You cannot miss. We've got the Oz-approved foods. Everyone, I mean everybody, we rootin' for you. See you next time.