Dr Oz on fame, advice – and New Year's resolutions that will keep you healthy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jan/01/dr-oz-new-years-resolutions

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This is a busy time of year for Dr Mehmet Oz, host of the eponymous TV show and promoter of strategies for self-improvement. One morning recently, the 52 year old stood before a studio audience made up largely of women and did what he does best: flirted with, coaxed and encouraged them – he is a protege of Oprah's, after all – to lose weight, in this instance, by having them wave around a pair of trousers termed their Fat Pants, before throwing them in a box (the words FAT PANTS hastily inscribed by a producer on one side) and symbolically discarding them. "Woo hoo!" said Dr Oz, and did a little dance.

It was the kind of tidy piece of theatre he has come to be known for since his show , launched in 2009 and now shown in 118 countries. His books, from YOU: the Owner's Manual, to YOU: On A Diet to, most recently, YOU: Having a Baby, have all been bestsellers. Meanwhile, every Thursday, he performs heart surgery at New York Presbyterian.

Backstage after the show, Dr Oz sat in a windowless dressing room and snacked on walnuts from a plastic container he had brought from home. (He's a big believer in walnuts). He was still in shorts and T-shirt from the work out section of the show, with a trim waist and big shoulders, like the outline of a matador. He also talked at a rate that went some way towards explaining how he keeps several careers simultaneously in motion.

The appeal of the show is its digestibility, the nuggets of advice delivered in list form and via fun activities. Through trial and error, he and his producers have discovered that the shows that do worst are the story-lead specials, those which chart a person's path to happiness without extracting the lessons quickly or slickly enough.

"So, if I do a show about women who have lost their way and I follow their stories, [my viewers] don't really want that. They only get a few moments a day for themselves and it's like: 'I've got enough problems of my own; tell me what I can do to fix my life. I'm sitting here in Topeka, Kansas, I'm not sure my husband wants me anymore, the job is miserable, and I think the best years are behind me – prove to me that I'm wrong."

What they want is simple, practical advice. "Three things that give you more energy today. Or how to make a meal faster. Or how to save money and still be healthy."

Actually, what they want is someone as bouncy and polished as a life coach but with the clinical weight of a surgeon. To that end, Mehmet Oz is perfectly qualified. His sense of audience first surfaced on the football field at Harvard, and later, as a tenured professor, when addressing a huge auditorium of med students, trying "to get them psyched up about the anatomy of the heart".

There is a large dose of schtick when he appears before the camera and a good deal of rehearsed enthusiasm, but Oz is, at the same time, unfakeably passionate about his message: largely, nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. Most of the issues he tackles are variations on the theme of weight loss and the formula works so well that every single episode could be on how to lose weight and his audience wouldn't tire of it. It is, he says with a smile, his "Angelina Jolie" – completely bankable.

It would also bore him rigid if he stuck only to that theme. Oz, like Oprah, his mentor, is ambitious, both for the reach of the show and his own role within it. "People are grappling for little threads they can pull on, to reveal what life is all about," he says. Fat pants for the soul, so to speak.

In this, he is up against every lifestyle guru in town, although, his medical training gives him an extra air of authority, whether or not it's relevant to the issue. The sheer grind of filling six shows a week has lead, perhaps, to a few shaky decisions on guests and there have been predictable flaps; about his "softness" on alternative therapies, particularly homeopathy, which he is not willing fully to discount.

Oz maintains that having someone on his show is not the same as endorsing them and he puts his guests through tough questioning. He also understands that, in much of the alternative therapy debate, "it is a religious difference, not a scientific one: I believe in it, or I don't believe in it; I pick my facts to fit my perception." (His perception is that, with very mainstream practices like yoga and acupuncture, "all these different therapies have worked for millennia in other parts of the world and because of that there's some value to them".)

He may have a tougher sell if, as he hopes to, Oz moves into more psychological and spiritual territory. Even Oprah's viewers faltered with this at first, when she added Ekhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra to her roster of regular guests – although they came round eventually.

"She could have been a pastor," says Oz, who watched her closely during those years, when he, too, was a regular guest. The greatest thing he learned from her, apart from the fact that if you're only interested in yourself, you'll lose your audience, is that lifestyle shows rise and fall on the viewer's trust in the host. Oprah's genius, says Oz, is to say things that might not always be popular but that she believes to be true, which sounds like standard guff until he tells me that the first time Oprah saw Oz's daughter, Daphne, she exclaimed "her head is so big!" (Daphne takes after Oz's father, he says, who emigrated with his mother from Turkey to the US before Oz was born and also had a very big head, so big that "they had to make a special hat for him in the army".)

Unlike most of his competitors, of course, Oz has the advantage of seeing up close the threads that constitute life, at least in the technical sense. He keeps a one day a week surgery schedule so he doesn't evaporate wholly into the bubble of TV land. It is useful, he says, to operate on someone who "couldn't care less how the show went yesterday or how it's going to go tomorrow". And when live TV proves stressful, it is good to remind himself that there more stressful environments in which the stakes are so much higher.

"In surgery," he says, "you have to connect with the heart and figure out why it's not beating: caress it, cajole it; understand where force plays a role and where nuance plays a role. The great surgeons are not people who don't make mistakes; they're people who know how to make a mistake and get out of it." He smiles. That's the power of Oz – transferable wisdom – and the belief that every day should be like January 1 (minus the hangover). "It's like TS Eliot said: you don't want to dole life out teaspoon by teaspoon. Guzzle it down!"

Dr Oz's New Year's resolutions

Don't hit the snooze button: Every time you snooze, you disrupt your hormones and natural cycles through the different stages of sleep. This can make you feel groggy and tired in the morning. So set your alarm to your exact wake-up time and never interrupt your sleep with snoozing – go to sleep earlier instead!

Breathe and stretch for five minutes: When you get out of bed, reach down and touch your toes, relax your hips, and let your head loose. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing for five minutes. This stress busting combo can lower your risk of heart attack, alleviate stress, improve circulation and add years to your life.

Have eggs for breakfast: Research has shown that having protein for breakfast can make you consume fewer calories throughout the day. So have some eggs in the morning to kick start your day. Eat the yolk too as it can reduce inflammation in the brain, which has been linked to Alzheimer's.

Use smartphone health apps: Use the apps on your phone to count calories, access healthy recipes and track your fitness progress. Download what best fits your lifestyle to help you keep on track.

Try black garlic: Garlic can boost your immunity and reduce your blood pressure, and according to a recent study, it can help with weight control as well. Try black garlic as it has twice the antioxidants in normal garlic and doesn't give you a stinky breath.

Fill half of your plate with vegetables at every meal: Vegetables are nutrition powerhouses that can also keep you full for longer. So fill your plate with colorful veggies to lower your blood pressure, keep your blood sugar in check, and reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Get 15 minutes of sunlight without sunscreen: Your body uses natural sunlight to convert the vitamin D in your body to its active form, vitamin D3, which helps you build healthy bones and a strong immune system. Get 10-15 minutes of sunlight a day before applying your SPF to reap the health benefits.

Call a friend: Social support can do wonders for your health. So when stressed out, call up a friend – sharing your worries with a person you trust releases oxytocin in your body, a chemical that helps combat stress hormones and lower your blood pressure. Remember, a little help can go a long way.

Get moving – but you don't have to go crazy. A recent study found that moderate exercise may be more beneficial for weight loss than strenuous work out sessions. Aim to get your heart rate up for 30 minutes about five times a week with exercises like jogging, cycling, or brisk walking, as opposed to hour-long sessions that leave you feeling fatigued and ravenous.