Dr Oz urges Americans to 'cancel' breakfast

WASHINGTON

Americans should "cancel" breakfast because it is not needed and should instead have brunch all week long, Dr. Mehmet Oz insists as the U.S. struggles with an epidemic of obesity.

Oz called breakfast an "advertising ploy" during an interview with celebrity news website TMZ, further adding "a lot of the dogma that we were fed for decades came out of advertising."

"It wasn't really based on the truth around our health," he said. "The smartest thing for us to do is cancel breakfast, have your first meal when you're actually hungry."

Oz's advice comes amid a growing trend in dieting around intermittent fasting in which practitioners abstain from eating for a period of time each day, usually between 14 to 16 hours. Other methods include abstaining from food altogether, or keeping intake to just a few hundred calories, for two days per week.

If people are feeling hungry when they wake up in the morning that is likely due to food withdrawal, Oz said.

"Because you had some simple carbohydrate like a potato chip or french fries at 10 at night, that means your body’s insulin is all whacked up,” he said. “By the next morning that withdrawal is happening, you’re starving like a drug addict. You got to get your meds, which are carbohydrates."