Reliable (TV) sources

I’ve been sick for a few days and that has led me to watch lots of daytime TV. While all the shows with “experts” are supposed to be helpful, I’m actually more confused now than before I started watching.

Hour after hour – and I started out with Marilyn, then The Revolution, then The Doctors, then Dr. Oz – all told, we’re talkin’ nearly a dozen “experts” contradicting each other’s shows saying one thing is good for us while another tells us something else. Coincidentally they all had similar topics at one point or another.

Maybe it is a stretch to say, but perhaps this is why they don’t find cures to a lot of illnesses and diseases. Nobody can seem to agree on anything.

Dr. Oz is showing how you can have “faturday” and the junk you can eat that is OK for you, but then The Doctors are saying other stuff that makes you question which TV doctor knows more.

And watching closely — particularly Dr. Phil, who is a totally different type of doctor – that there is a disclaimer at the end of the show telling you its content is for information purposes only and shouldn’t be considered medical advice, I sit there and think, Why the hell did I just watch all this if it’s not actual advice but merely a suggestion?

I must say, that when the tease before the commercial break says, “This diet change can save your life” it sounds a little more serious than an indirect suggestion. I take that as, If you don’t do this you’re gonna die.

All the while I remember that self-help and weight-loss products are a billion-dollar market and depending on who you ask you could be making the right decision for yourself by doing something completely different anyway.

Thinking I would gain some valuable knowledge after watching hours of daytime viewing, I find myself second guessing and questioning which TV talker I distrust the least. Will I make any radical life changes based on his or her advice? Probably not.