I've always been a big Oprah fan...although I am a little conflicted of late. been doing WW for 20 years. Just wanted to start off with these tidbits of info.

For the past few days Oprah has mentioned that today (10/30) she would reveal her "new low calorie/low fat treat" on the air. I thought it was a low cal recipe.

Instead, it was a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bar. We have been talking about Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bars at our Weight Watcher Meetings for three years or more. I'm not sure if they are available all over the country yet or not.

In addition, if anyone is paying close attention, in Dr. Oz's first book, he mentions that if people have problems losing weight, they should go on a program like WEight Watchers. Of course, in his newer book, he doesn't say anything even remotely like this. IN ADDITION, he has a special "Dr. Oz" soup...that is similar to the WW Soup. Generally speaking, Oprah seems to avoid mention of WW or have people on her show (over all these years), who have lost weight on WW or any program...with the exception of recent movie stars on Jenny Craig I suppose. Recently she had on Jenny McCarthy, but she taked solely about autism.

Don't you find it a little unusual that Oprah, who has been doing shows sporadically on weight loss for many years, has avoided mention of Weight Watchers? Even her guests don't seem to mention the program? She seems to avoid mention of all programs...until very recently when a big star was involved? In addition, she DOES feature folks who have lost weight using Dr. Oz or Bob Greene's menthods. It seems unreal to me.

These are more observations than anything. Any thoughts?

Personally, I don't care much for Oprah. I applaud her for trying to do a changeover of her show from the way she originally had it, but since then, it seems to me like she shows the same topics over and over again. Plus, in my opinion, she's a little too big for her britches at times, and you can tell it from her attitude. I've yet to watch a show of hers where I honestly feel like I took something informative away from it.

As for the weight loss issues, I'm sure she was trying to avoid endorsing any specific programs. However, at some point she changed it a bit since she started showing those programs that SHE likes....in the end, it's her show and she can do what she wants with it. Doesn't mean I listen to her...

Well she's a bit behind the curve on the Skinny Cow bars. I find that to be pretty typical of Oprah. She "discovers" a product or concept that's been around for years and acts like she did something special.

I can certainly see not touting any specific diet plan since people lose on so many different ones and not everything is right for everybody. Bob Greene and Dr. Oz are an exception for her because she's making money off of them. She's involved with the publishing of their books and manufacture of their products, same as she is with Dr. Phil.

Oprah is a billionaire business person who has managed to convince a whole lot of people that she is just like them and is looking out for them. I don't have any problem with that but people should understand it.

There's always the possibility that she's getting paid to endorse the Skinny Cow bars and that it has nothing to do with endorsing a diet plan or not

Well, I for one am feeling a little duped. I "fell" for the concept that she was doing her best to help people across the board. But, another observation from today's show (and I've seen this before) is that she wants a freebie item from each person who appears on the show. At first I thought this was kind of cute...the rich lady likes a freebie or a deal, but now it is getting old and obnoxious. I too like the remake of the show. And there are times that I think the topics are helpful to many people. But more and more I see that she is "all business all the time," and things are disguised to look as if they are not. She has her hand out a lot and I wonder what happens (or doesn't happen) if you don't feed it. My guess is she is a hurting soul...

LOL - well I actually just wanted to say that I like the WW bars and ice cream treats better - they are individually wrapped and don't get a funny taste like the Skinny Cows once they are opened.

Y'all leave my Oprah alone! If I haven't seen it on Oprah, it ain't so. If I haven't read it in Newsweek or Prevention, it ain't true! LOL.

I am sure Oprah promotes whatever suits her, and she has endorsed some books, hired some people who fooled her, but she owned up to it. I so love her for using her money and power in Africa. Wow...I love what she says about people saying there is so much to do there, where can we start? She says, "you start where you can. You do what you can". Great wisdom.

She promotes Dr. Oz, but then again, he is a very wise guru, too. My SO did his gorilla diet for two days; it was gruelling, but it was very good for him and it was a real eye-opener about how many fruits and vegetables we should be eating.

Since the founder of Prevention, Mr. Rodale died, it has gotten very commercial; it promotes certain products, lots of them, and it is easy to see through it.....there is endorsement and promotion going on; I still read it and take alot of information away, but I have to look very carefully at what it suggests I should buy. Look at the ads on 3FC; I have to run Spybot and Adaware daily. I still visit the site almost every day, and jump in from time to time.....buyer beware, reader beware, view beware...read, view, listen, process; decide for yourself. I have learned an aweful lot from y'all on 3FC...but leave my Oprah alone! LOL.

Mary...You make good points. BTW...I thought Prevention mag. seemed "different," to me. I had read it years ago and picked up some copies this past year and they didn't seem of the same quality. STill good, but not of the same caliber.

I really like Dr. Oz. I think I probably have all of his books.

(Side Note: Did anyone notice that on a recent Oprah show he said that we should all take note of the fiber content of what we eat and how fiber helps a lot with weight loss??? Wow...another news flash...I wonder where I have heard that before??? Hmmmm).

And I have gotten a lot of good information from Oprah's shows. I also see where she has helped a lot of people. I'm taping it now and primarily watching the shows with topics I enjoy. In some cases, I might watch a small part of a show or not watch at all. Certainly not going to be a regular thing anymore.

Probably what is really irking me is that I see that I have been looking at her and her show with blinders on. I only wanted to see things a certain way. I normally view people and situations more open minded and realistically. I also tend to look for patterns. I'm not sure what happened here! But I can see clearly now...

I REALLY liked what you said: ".....buyer beware, reader beware, view beware...read, view, listen, process; decide for yourself."

Thank you...

p.s. I do recall a few things about Skinny Cows...
There was an article about a year or so ago in our local paper that at least one of the Skinny Cow items had an incorrect calorie count on the box. It was too low (what a surprise). I never heard whether or not it was corrected. (I would hope so). In addition, yep...I also recall a bit of an aftertaste with some of their products. I'm getting such a "bad" feeling about Oprah's endorsement of this product, I'm likely to avoid trying it again...at least until I get this bad taste (LOL!) out my mouth.

Pardon moi! I'll say no more blaspheme against Oprah.....

Anyhoo, about those Skinny Cows thingie, are they really that bad? I have seen them in the stores, but never got them because if memory serves me right, they usually had chocolate somewhere in it, and I'm mildly allergic to chocolate. In fact, that's one of my biggest gripes about the ice cream industry and candy in general...they seem to think everything is just not delicious enough without adding chocolate to it....sighs...

I used to eat the Skinny Cow bars, and liked them. But I don't like the list of ingredients, so now if I want ice cream, I'm more likely to have a little bit of something more natural. Bryers Vanilla Bean is good!

Oprah has avoided discussing WW, and I don't know why, either. She promoted Jenny Craig with her buddy Kirstie, and the other programs some of you have mentioned, so who knows?

I was thinking yesterday as I was eating my FF Yoplaint yogurt..Key Lime..my fav and Oprah's fav...I noticed that stamped right on the front is endorsed my Bob Green's Life Diet....BUT..if you look at the ingredients..it contains High Fructose Corn Syrup?? and chemical sweetner?? HFC is one of Dr. Oz's no-no's??? So when it is all said and done...I am sure they do care about the viewers BUT it always almost boils down to moo-la-la $$$$$$$$$$$$!!!

A little off the point here, but I wanted to share....I was out doing some quick grocery shopping today, and was checking out the oatmeal stuff. Now on the show Biggest Loser, they did a corny promotion spot on there with Quakers Weight Loss Oatmeal thingie, so I compared it to my regular Quakers Apple Cinnamon with Low Sugar, and guess which one had lower calories, lower sugar, AND lower salt??!! My Apple Cinnamon one! Really gotta watch it with all of these promotions of products and reading the fine print.

I am so surprised by these post. first of all, if you don't like oprah-dont watch her! 2nd of all, did you ever hear the saying, don't believe everything you read? well...don't believe everything you see on an TV show either. you need to research for yourself what works best for you. so just because they are eating a certain type of oatmeal on the biggest loser doesn't mean that it is by and far the best oatmeal out there!

and why would a product that is being endorsed by bob greene be perfect for the dr. oz books? they are not the same last I checked. you should always being looking at the ingredients...and products do change their ingredients from time to time.

as far as oprah not talking about weight watchers? so what! its her show! she gets to talk about whatever she pleases...maybe she tried ww and it didn't work for her? who knows? who cares...her show is meant to be entertaining, last I check it wasn't a news show so don't expect all of the information to be 100% accurate and don't expect there to be conflicting information out there. there is for everything.

Briza - Oprah does do lots of weight issue shows, not just general entertainment, and we were simply wondering about the ice cream bars, fiber, oatmeal, and Oprah's lack of interest in WW, in general. That doesn't mean we believe everything we hear or read. As several have said, we've become a group of label readers. No one has confused Dr. Oz with Bob Greene. As much as Oprah is a philanthropist, she IS still in the business for profit. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

yes, you are right-she is in this for the profit I think becuase I work in the television industry I have a different perspective on this topic, thats all. I liked that saying that Mary had ".....buyer beware, reader beware, view beware...read, view, listen, process; decide for yourself."