is it working? "sanjay gupta, md" starts right now. there is a food fight brewing in the lunch room. the question is this, do parents and teachers always know what's best? good morning from los angeles. i'm dr. sanjay gupta. today i'll tell you what happened after celebrity chef jamie oliver led one town to ditch chocolate milk. a lot of people would say his efforts backfired. also this morning, a look at your toxic house. carter oosterhouse will help you detox your home just in time for spring. i want to kick things off in washington the supreme court is set to hear what some are saying is the biggest case in a generation. under the microscope this morning, health care on trial. more specifically the patient protection and affordable care act. you may have heard it referred to as obama care. according to our latest poll,

just 38% of americans like this new health care law. while 56% oppose it. it's a central issue for the republican presidential candidates including mitt romney, who took a jab at president obama while speaking in rockford, illinois, last weekend. >> you know his views on health care. his view is the heavy hand of the government can do better than you can in picking your type of insurance, the kind of coverage you'll have. ultimately, i believe, the kind of procedures you will be entitled to will be decided by government under his plan. if i'm the next president of the united states, on day one i will stop obamacare in its tracks and get it repealed. >> look closer and you will see people oppose the law for different reasons. 37% say it's too liberal. 14% say it's not liberal enough. in fact, recent polls show most people don't even know what the law really does. so why don't we give you a quick reminder. already in effect health plans must provide certain preventive

services such as mammograms and colonoscopies for free. no copayments. children without private insurance can stay on their parents plan until they turn 26. to date, 2.5 million young people have gotten insurance through the provision. the law is closing the donut hole. 5.1 million seniors have gotten help paying for prescription drugs so far. that could be hundreds of dollars in many of these individual cases. there's even some bigger changes that are in store for year 2014. such as insurers will be prohibited from denying coverage to anyone even if they have a pre-existing condition. medicaid will be expanded. most businesses will be required to cover their employees and anyone who doesn't have coverage through work, medicaid or medicare, will be required to buy it themselves or pay a penalty. now it's that last part that requirement which is most controversial. it will be the key issue in front of the supreme court this week. and i recently met with

economist jonathan gruber who helped design the plan and ultimately a similar plan in massachusetts. he says the mandate is like glue, without it, the whole thing falls apart. >> the goal of health care reform in both massachusetts and nationally is to fix broken insurance markets where insurers can discriminate against the sick by excluding them for illness. the mandate makes that possible by requiring broad participation in insurance pools and making sure the sick and healthy buy health insurance. the part of the law people like is where we get rid of discrimination. you can't have that dessert without the spinach that is the individual mandate. we can't overstate how important it is. >> we'll follow the developments in d.c. closely. make no mistake, what happens there, it's going to impact all of us. you can follow along with me on my live stream or twitter at sanj sanjayguptacnn.

an update on a story we reported in los angeles, last year the american civil liberties union filed a lawsuit against a veterans administration on behalf of homeless and mentally disabled veterans. it accused the v.a. of breaking a promise to build permanent housing with services the vets needed. on this huge piece of land right next to a wealthy part of los angeles. the story dates back to the 188s. back then the government wanted to create facilities for aging veterans of the civil war. so former senator john p. jones and his friend, who was a glamorous heiress decided to donate all the land. today just a few miles from the pacific ocean it is some of the most valuable real estate in all of north america. the original deed includes a condition that the land be used to establish and maintain a branch of a national home for disabled vets. there are nearly 8,000 vets homeless in los angeles alone. hard to believe. last fall the v.a. told us they are committed to helping every single one of those men and women.

but this week a federal judge said the lawsuit can go forward. he said the v.a. does have a duty to provide that housing. now, there is no trial date that is set as of yet, and the two sides could still reach an agreement. but, you know, during my investigation, i met a 22-year-old former soldier, robert rhysman. he's not part of the lawsuit but he did end up homeless after being kicked out of the army despite a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. when we met, he was living in a halfway house a few blocks from where we are now. i asked him to come by this morning and give us a quick update. good to see you again, robert >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> people saw your story a few months ago, heard your story. how has life been, first off? >> i'm doing better actually. i'm still in school. i'm doing everything i need to be doing. i'm getting close to getting out of the halfway house and getting my own place. >> so you're still in the same facility?

>> i'm still in the same facility right now. >> you don't call it a halfway house. >> i prefer transitional house. but i'm doing much better. much better now. >> i mean, what is -- living there, how consistent is it or how reliable is it in terms of your houseing? are you guaranteed that you can be there a certain amount of time? >> no, you can be there up to two years but at any point if you aren't doing the right thing, they can get rid of you. >> you recently had your case reassessed was the language i heard, the case with the v.a. what does that mean for you? >> it's good news. basically their original decision to deny me for all benefits was reversed, and i'm now eligible for all benefits. there's a lot of other people, though, that the v.a. needs to do that for. they've done -- they're doing right for me right now.

but, yeah, there's some people that they need to change their decisions for, as well. >> you're a young guy. i mean, what do you think about when you think about two years from now, three years from now for you? >> for me, hopefully in three years i'm done with school. i'm a psychology major. i'm trying to do something in that field. i would like to hopefully within the next year or two transfer to an actual university and get a real -- a real degree from a university. and so, yeah, i'm moving forward. i got plans. >> i don't know if you have an answer to this. i don't know if you've heard much about sergeant bales in afghanistan who is now back having, you know, shot several and killed several people in afghanistan. >> i heard something about that, i did. >> i just wondered. i mean so that he four tours of

duty. some have speculated that he also had posttraumatic stress disorder. >> i would almost 100% tell you that he does. i mean, i'm not a doctor, but from what i know about it, i think he does. >> it's so tragic. i mean, do you -- does any of that make sense to you? >> yeah, actually, it makes sense to me. a lot of veterans suffer from that, including me. and it sounds like to me like he had a moment, and it led to him doing something that is now going to ruin his life, and it's a terrible thing. >> you look well. i'm glad to see you and i'm glad you're still able to stay in school and we'll keep tabs on you. >> all right. >> thank you very much. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> as you can tell a lot of the stories we do on the show are about resilience, people overcoming things. the next story is no different. this guy was a top notch mountain climber who lost both legs in an accident.

and today is perhaps the premiere designer of artificial limbs, so good, in fact, says healthy people will want these thing, as well someday. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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well over 1,000 veterans have come home from iraq or afghanistan missing arms or legs and this grim parade, this flaring need, well it's been driving a revolution in medicine. many vets still struggle with old-fashioned prosthetics. but there is new technology out there that offers hope of less pain and more natural movement. in fact i paid a visit to one designer who is leading the way, he's also got a daunting story of his own. >> my name is hugh herr. i'm a professor at m.i.t. we develop robots that attach to the body that help people move again. >> here at his playground in the famous media lab hugh herr designs prosthetic limbs with amazing capabilities. in rehab medicine, no one has done more to bring the future to the here and now. as you can see, hugh has a personal stake in this work.

back when he was a kid, all he wanted to do was climb mountains. >> by the age of 12, 13, i was considered a child prodigy in climbing. was climbing walls that had never been climbed before. >> but then at age 17 -- >> in 1982 i was mountain climbing. climbing, and we got struck by a tremendous blizzard. what we intended to be a single day turned in a four-day trip. i suffered severe frostbite to my lower legs and after months of effort, my team gave up the fight to save my li limbs. >> so obviously it's a deeply personal quest, as well. >> it's funny because i was a terrible high school student. at best i got c's, i often got f's. then my accident happened when i was 17, and it just inspired me

to begin developing prosthetic limbs for myself and other people. >> losing both legs, a lot for anyone to overcome. but with hugh, it lit a fire. >> whenever i sprint upstairs with my limbs, when i get to the top i giggle. i mean, i grew up with the television show "the bionic man" and woman, ""six million dollar man" so when i'm running up steps, i hear the motors. it's absolutely hysterical. >> one of his first designs, adjustable legs so he could do things on the mountain that used to be impossible. at mit this is how he and his team like to work. first, they break down a real human movement. then find a way to copy it. with better and better machinery. his latest creation is a bionic ankle.

>> now, the human ankle is turbo charged. it gives so much energy as you're walking and running and conventional prostheses lack that energy. so i wanted to have an invention that really propels the amputee forward and allows them to walk with less energy. >> sean brown lost a foot in an industrial accident 20 years ago. he uses it himself. >> his gait is normal, normal. >> hugh says even this is primitive compared to what we will see in years to come. >> i'm often asked would i wish my biological legs back? i say absolutely not. my bionic limbs are part of my creation. they've become part of my identity. as my biological body ages, my artificial limbs get better and better. they're in a sense immortal. >> you can see more of my time with hugh herr this sunday on "the next list" 2:00 p.m.

right here on cnn. but up next we'll go back to school. there's a food fight that's brewing. the question is this, does chocolate milk do a body good? so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network.

metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol.

we all know childhood obesity is a big problem in the country. that is why the federal government along with local school systems has been looking at ways to cut calories and provide healthier lumps to their students. salad bars, cooking from scratch, healthier drinks. one drink in particular is creating a lot of controversy. it's lunch time at hunting ton middle school. it seems pretty mellow now, but over a year ago, these kids were in the middle of a food fight. a fight specifically over chocolate milk. >> we were really asked to remove the flavored milk from the schools. >> nestled in the appalachian mountains, huntington, west virginia, has taken its share of lumps.

in 2008, it was labeled one of the most unhealthy cities in the country because of its obesity problem. county school officials were determined to offer more nutritious meals. tv chef jamie oliver came to visit. oliver made huntington part of his reality show and one of his changes was to take chocolate milk out of the cafeteria. milk out of the cafeteria. >> the sugar content of the milk he thought was too high. >> reporter: but the plan backfired. >> the students boycotted the milk. >> the consumption of milk dropped 38% in the elementary and middle schools and 75% at the high schools. instead of milk the kids were drinking sugary juice and soda brought from home. >> white milk, it doesn't satisfy my taste buds. >> reporter: about half the students live around the poverty level. for many school lunch and breakfast are their main meals of the day. without milk kids weren't getting enough vitamin d, vitamin a, calcium, or potassium. >> we knew those students were not drinking milk at home and

were not getting any of those nutrien nutrients. >> reporter: three months after oliver left, they had a do over. chocolate milk went back in the cooler. >> it was three or four months after he left he wanted to come back and do a follow-up but we weren't interested in that. >> reporter: since then the usda has made its school lunch guidelines stricter, it must be fat free and contain around 150 calories or less. that's down from 190 calories. >> our new product is a fat free skim milk and the sugar went from 29 grams on the chocolate to 22. >> reporter: by comparison the same size soda has about 30 grams of sugar. some nutritionists say 22 grams is still too much. but here the compromise seems to be working. for kids and parents, milk with sugar is better than none at all. >> last year after a long debate, the los angeles school district took flavored milk out of their cafeterias. since doing that they've seen a 5% drop in the total amount of

milk consumed. as of now chocolate milk remains off the shelves and there are no plans to put it back on the menu. so that's what's going on at school, but what about at your home? well, up next, build smart, breathe easier. an ecofriendly carpenter. [ phelps ] two things i need before the race. music. and the confidence to win. [ male announcer ] head & shoulders active sport with the high-performance hydrazinc formula, helps lock in scalp moisture for hair that's up to 100% flake-free. head & shoulders active sport for men. wash confidence in.

most of us think of our homes as a safe zone, a place we feel protected, but you may not realize everyday items could be make your family sick. there are simple, inexpensive ways to detox your home. >> i have always built efficient -- tried to build efficient ecofriendly green homes. >> hgtv star carter teamed up with habitat for humanity. >> one thing that struck me when i have been doing some reporting is that the air inside homes can often be worse than the air outside homes. >> exactly. >> and then people shut the

doors, they shutted windows and it's trapped. >> people spend so much time inside. >> they're breathing in dust, mold, dirt, pet dander causing their aways to constrict, swell, and triggering attacks in 24 million americans with asthma. so this is sort of allergy-free or asthma-free zone. >> yeah. >> this is the kitchen. what are the thins you notice here? >> some of the thing we notice are cabinetry is not plywood or veneer. it's hardwood. so there's no toxins in there with the adhesives because there's no adhesives holding the wood together. so that's something -- >> if you look you don't see -- sometimes you will see fwglue i the back. >> exactly. i'm sure there's adhesives holding some of this together, but the actual doors themselves, the siding themselves is not plywood so right away we know we're just eliminating those adhesives, not even bringing them in. >> if you don't want to replace

your plywood cabinets purchase a sealant to limit the adhesive exposure. and you know that new house smell from a fresh coat of paint? well, that smell is often chemicals that can make it hard for you to breathe. >> what you want to get and what you want to look for is what is called no voc paint, at least low voc paint. all the homes we did we used no voy paint. it doesn't have that paint smell at all. they made huge strides in the last two years on how functional that paint is meaning how well it coats the wall. >> so therey're pretty good, yo can work with it. >> yeah. >> it's a hard wood floor. they can be expensive. >> yeah. i mean, hardwood floors, you can get vinyl floors that look like hardwood, that look exactly like hardwood. >> as you walk into the more living area, you have bedrooms, appliances, and i'm going to admit to you right off the bat, i'm guilty of -- i'm going to go

check as soon as i get home to see if it looks like this. >> it's something everybody should check. you have an air filter on there. now, everybody should change their filters every three to six months. i'm going to say everybody changes them probably every two years, and this is one that i picked up out of my office, and it was obviously extremely dirty because what they're supposed to look like is this right here. so you can see the difference on that. >> just getting that much dust otherwise in your lungs and inhaling small particles, you can understand why it would be a problem, not only in terms of your ability to breathe but this also cause that is inflammatory reaction. >> and what i like to do is write a little date on there so you know when you changed it last. >> another room to pay attention to is the bedroom. linens, pillows, they're breeding grounds for dust mites and allergens. >> you can wash these linens. you can wash the pillows as

well. so they're -- and these will not harbor the dust mites as some linens, you know, they make it a little easier for the dust mites to live. >> look for linens with a certified allergy and asthma-friendly seal on the label. >> you don't have to live with these symptoms on a day-to-day or regular basis. think about the things that you have in your house that you can make it more efficient within your home. you can make it cleaner and you can make the air quality better in your home. we're trying to bring awareness to that so people know maybe i could change my blinds, my air filter, the paint on the walls. >> better air when i get home. >> those things will make a difference. >> you know, another thing that you can do with your family to keep them healthy is take your shoes off before entering the house. think about this, your shoes are often covered with chemicals, garden pesticides, lawn fertilizers, herbicides, road oil, and it can be dangerous