Dr. Oz and Mark Wahberg Are Going Head-to-Head on Social Media

A controversy started brewing when Dr. Mehmet Oz’s comments about ‘canceling’ breakfast made headlines. The physician’s opinion on the morning meal didn’t go over too well with Hollywood heavy hitter Mark Wahlberg, who apparently can’t imagine jumpstarting his day without a sunrise snack.

Now the two have taken the conversation to social media, with an in-person challenge on record.

Breakfast ban

Speaking to TMZ earlier this month, the famous doctor claimed that he was going to make a change to start off the new year.

“I think for 2020, the first thing I’m going to do is ban breakfast,” the famous doctor told TMZ. “I don’t think we need to eat breakfast. That’s an advertising ploy… Unfortunately, a lot of the dogma that we were fed for decades came out of advertisements. It wasn’t really based on the truth around our health.”

With the latest trend of intermittent fasting, Oz commented that skipping breakfast falls in line perfectly with the eating plan. He recommends cutting off food three hours before bed, then waiting three hours after getting up to eat. Using this schedule, Oz claims you won’t feel hungry in the morning. “If you’re intermittent fasting and you hadn’t had a late dinner, it won’t happen until midway through the morning,” he said.

The physician and talk show host likened being hungry in the morning to a type of addiction. “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 explained. “By the next morning that withdrawal is happening, you’re starving like a drug addict. You got to get your meds.”

Instead, he suggests to ride out the hunger pains and schedule a new daily meal. “Have brunch every day of the week!” Dr. Oz recommended.

Wahlberg’s take

The film actor is known for his intense workout regimen and dedication to fitness. When he heard of Oz’s comments, Wahlberg was quick to give his opinion. “Listen, I don’t care what Dr. Oz says, I gotta have my breakfast before I work out,” Wahlberg said when asked by TMZ about the doctor’s statements on the morning meal. “That’s my preference.”

Wahlberg’s training schedule is legendary. According to Today.com, the Lone Survivor star rises daily at 2:30 a.m. and has breakfast at 3:15 a.m. to fuel his F45 Training workout. The actor is an investor in the exercise franchise, which consists of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), circuit training, and functional training.

As for Dr. Oz’s comments about intermittent fasting, Wahlberg had some thoughts on those as well. “I know a lot of people do a lot of intermittent fasting and stuff like that, but you know what you do? You go to F45 and get that 45-minute workout better than any workout out there, and you start getting in shape,” Wahlberg said, then added a challenge. “Tell Dr. Oz to come work out.”

It’s on

Oz recently appeared on the Today Show and was asked about the back-and-forth with Wahlberg by co-host Carson Daly. “Mark has bought into the dogma of breakfast,” Oz said on Today earlier this week, according to Good Housekeeping. “He believes all the hype that you have to have breakfast.”

Playing point-counterpoint, Daly posed another theory. “Can’t you both be right?” he asked Oz. “Because [Wahlberg] works out so much, he needs that fuel from food, the little mini meals that he eats every two hours.”

Oz wasn’t swayed, sticking to medical studies done on the subject. “My point to Mark: As great as you look now, for the average human being, to get there is difficult,” he responded to Daly. “Most of us, the smart thing to do is to skip breakfast, workout as much as you can — maybe not as hard as Mark does — and you’re going to look better because you’re going to burn fat and not the food that’s already in your stomach.”

Apparently, Oz and Wahlberg will work it out with a workout. “The only way to do this is ‘mano a mano’ in a gym,” Oz revealed. “[Wahlberg] promised already: He’s going to have a big beer and a burger, while I go in on an empty stomach, and we go head to head.”

Hopefully they will post the outcome on social media for fans to see!