Health Expert Weighs In on Viral Weight-Loss Trends
Clip: Season 5 Episode 39 | 4m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
Expert separates fact from fiction in viral weight-loss and health trends
Health Expert Weighs In on Viral Weight-Loss Trends
Clip: Season 5 Episode 39 | 4m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
Expert separates fact from fiction in viral weight-loss and health trends
If you’ve spent any time scrolling social media, you’ve probably seen the latest trend claiming to be the secret to losing weight or improving your health. Our Christie Dutton talks to a healthcare expert in weight management who can tell us what’s worth paying attention to and what’s just click bait
8/24/2026
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Health Expert Weighs In on Viral Weight-Loss Trends
Clip: Season 5 Episode 39 | 4m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
If you’ve spent any time scrolling social media, you’ve probably seen the latest trend claiming to be the secret to losing weight or improving your health. Our Christie Dutton talks to a healthcare expert in weight management who can tell us what’s worth paying attention to and what’s just click bait
8/24/2026
Problems playing video?   | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Well, if you spend any time scrolling social media, you’ve probably seen the latest trend claiming to be the secret to losing weight or improving your health
Well, in tonight’s look at medical news, our Christy Dutton talks to a health care expert in weight management who can tell us what’s worth paying attention to and what’s just clickbait
Jennifer Truman, nurse practitioner with Norton Weight Management Services, joins us
Okay.
Now, the social media has no shortage of ways to improve your health
You know, the miracle cure
So we’ll talk about a few of them
I want to start off with one social media trend that berberine that is touted to be nature’s ozempic
Yeah.
What is berberine?
So berberine is a berberine
Yeah.
Sorry
That is as a supplement
It’s an herbal supplement that, you know, does show some evidence that it is effective for metabolic health
The data is not really there to, to support the claim as ozempic, but there is some, some really good evidence that shows that it can improve, fasting glucose levels, improved insulin sensitivity, which is very important for weight loss
And even reduction in, cholesterol
Okay.
So maybe it’s, it could help
Yeah.
I mean it’s absolutely something that could be beneficial for people
You know I think that it deserves more research
I think that there’s some data that we could find out there that, could prove it to be more effective than we know now
People who have certain health conditions or who have especially gone through organ transplant should definitely talk to their doctors first before using the supplement
It could render some medications
Ineffective and others may be more effective
Probably probably closer to nature’s metformin than nature’s ozempic
As far as what’s that?
It’s a medication that’s often given to, diabetic patients or even people who are under treatment for obesity
To improve insulin sensitivity
Okay.
Okay.
Got it
All right
Moving on to the second trend
And, this one can be a little tough to watch if somebody and they put garlic cloves in their nostrils when they have a cold
And then in the video, you see I’m pulling out and all the congestion coming out with it
What is this about?
Is it is there any research showing it’s effective?
No.
No, there’s no research showing that it’s effective
I would actually be personally very interested to see how this originated
I would advise against anyone using the peeled garlic in their nose, that mucus that you’re seeing pouring from their nostrils after the the peeled cloves of garlic have been inserted is basically the body’s response to both a mechanical obstruction and then a chemical irritation to the very, very delicate, layers inside your nose
And so they could actually be making the congestion worse
Essentially, the body is producing just masses, amount of, mucus to try to clear that obstruction and then soothe those tissues from the chemical irritation
So it’s making it worse
Congestion
Worse than
Why did they come up with garlic?
You know, that’s a really good question
I would be interested to know why
Now, garlic, naturally
Does have some kind of anti-microbial, properties, but typically that’s when ingested
So, I would advise anyone
I would not advise anyone to put something into their nostrils
You really run the risk of having an obstruction there and having to have it medically removed and causing tissue damage, potentially introducing infection
So not not one that I would, I would say to go with
We’ll skip that one
Okay.
Now, protein matching was so last week
Yeah.
Now it’s all about fiber, Max, right?
Tell us what that is
Tell us what you think about it
Yeah.
So people are trying to get maximum amount of fiber, and I actually don’t completely disagree with this one
I think it’s a great idea for people to be trying to get more fiber into their diets
Current recommendations are, you know, 4 to 5 cups of fruits and vegetables
You know what we’re looking at closer to, three cups of vegetables, two cups of, or servings of fruits daily
To get the amount of fiber that we need, what we know is, on average, 95% of Americans are not meeting fiber recommendations
That’s almost everybody
It’s almost everybody
90% of women, 97% of men
How much are we supposed to get?
So 25 to 38g of fiber
Men are looking at those higher numbers
So certainly, I think it’s a great idea to try to get more fiber into our diets
But I would say start slow
Eat your way into it
And always remember that fiber needs water
You need to definitely make sure that you’re getting, you know, at least 64oz of water or sugar free decaffeinated fluid daily
Too much fiber without the water can cause other problems, such as constipation, bloating, things of that nature
But yeah, fiber is essential
We need it to feed our gut microbiome, keep our blood sugar stable
And just overall health
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