Dr. Oz Is Telling New York City Cops How To Stay Healthy And They Don't Like It

New York City police detectives probably learn a lot of things in various training sessions and meetings with colleagues. It’s unlikely, though, that many people would guess learning how much sleep they should get would be among those topics covered. All that changed last week when TV’s Dr. Oz showed up to tell them how to stay healthy.

He talked about taking care of yourself, eating properly, good-diet tips, high cholesterol, getting a good night’s sleep — as if that’s possible for a New York City detective. This is highly unusual, to bring in a TV personality during a training session. I’ve never seen it.

The anonymous source, who spoke to the New York Post, helped bring the latest in a series of odd training moves by the NYPD to light. Under some pretty serious accusations of misconduct and inadequate training, the powers that be in the upper levels of the organization have decided to bombard their officers and detectives with training that features baby oil breath mints, the movie Road House and a really expensive fitness studio.

Dr. Oz has come under some serious fire of his own recently for dispensing what some consider unfounded, or even contradictory, health information (especially about weight loss) to nearly 3 million daily viewers of his show. Dr. Oz has said that his desire to give people information on alternative medicine has always be meant to supplement more traditional procedures and medicines. He also taken some personal shots at the people who’ve talked bad about, showing that he’s not afraid to do verbal battle with his detractors.

The Dr. Oz Show started as such a positive force in TV medical advice, mostly, I have to think, because Oprah was behind his newfound television stardom. He was her personal doctor, after all, and we all know Oprah’s word was undisputed for most of her decades on the air. She could easily turn the public against people or turn folks into stars. There’s no way Dr. Phil would have even gotten on TV without her sign of approval.

But, as much as Oprah started Dr. Oz on the road to super television doctor stardom, she hasn’t said a peep during his recent trials and tribulations. Which shows, once again, that smart people always know when to speak up and when to keep quiet.

The strangest thing about Dr. Oz being asked to show up at an NYPD detective training session might be the very fact that he’s been in so much hot water lately. With everyone talking about how he doesn’t give the best advice on his show, why would the brass at the police department think it’s a good idea to have him address their cops? They likely would have done better getting a regular old respected New York physician, instead of going for shock value by having a TV doc show up.

Not to mention the fact that Dr. Oz went on to give those assembled the most basic, grade school health class level information. Although, I will grant that it was probably a good idea that he didn’t go in there and trumpet the benefits of hemp oil or some such other new-agey alternative medicine. That may just have annoyed the cops even more.

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.