just an incredible woman. we are going to have a lot more and many more tributes to maya angelou, including the words of oprah win provide and also first lady michelle obama. really powerful stuff. we are going to bring you on that straight ahead here in the next hour. i'm poppy harlow in new york. "cnn newsroom" continues at the top of the hour. right now, dr. sanjay gupta, m.d. hey there. something surprising to start with today. you are going to see how easily you can buy steroids and other medicines. sometimes with dangerous side effects with just a click of a mouse p also, we tell to you read food labels. understand that those mysterious ingredients sometimes look like code words or foreign language. we have simple tips to help you navigate and steesh clear of what you need to. you heard this advice for years. avoid eating saturated pat, eat red meat at a minimum. science does not support that. it says butter, cheese and stake

can be fi -- steak can be fine. it goes against what a lot of us have seen. amazing results from a plant-based diet. sharon did not experience the classic chest pain. rather fatigue and a pain in her jaw. in fact, she was having a heart attack. >> he says, i can fix you today. i can just take you right down to o.r. and i can operate on you right now. >> what she did next may surprise you. she turned the surgeon down cold. and decided to take a chance. >> i bought parsnips. >> using food. she is basing her diet on a vegan die set you have easy-to-remember adages about how people can decide what they should or should not eat. >> we know what they shouldn't eat. that's oil, dairy, meat, fish, chicken. what we want them to eat, whole grains. beans, vegetables, yellow, red,

green and fruit. what particular vegetables do we want them to have? bok choy, kale, beet greens, spinach, parsley, asparagus. i'm out of breath. >> most major diets include meat. there has been a push for power decades to get americans to eat less. but a new book by investigative repo -- an investigative reporter chalt evenings the idea that red meat is bad. >> it is dangerous book because it is telling people what they want to hear and not what's true. >> dr. dean or i shall helped dr. clinton recover from heart surgery and heart disease by using a vegan diet. >> if you eat a diet high in animal eat your risk of dieing from everything goes up considerably. eating a whole foods plant diet and we know this because even in people who have serious chronic diseases, they begin to reverse them to the degree they make the

changes. >> joining me now to talk about this is the author of "the big fat surprise." it is an incredible book. obviously a lot of people are going to be talking about this. dean or i shall, somebody you talk about in the book, thinks the book is dangerous. i want to be clear on something. are we saying -- are you saying in the book that meat doesn't increase bad cholesterol and some of the things we are told to avoid? or the bad cholesterol itself was not as bad as was reported? >> the reason that meat and cheese and dairy were condemned is because they contain saturated fats. the idea was saturated fats cause cholesterol to go up and that would clog your arteries and lead to a heart attack. it turns out the whole chain of events does not -- it is not what we understood it to be true. in numerous clinical trials, that had been analyzed, analyzed, since had were originally done. it just turns out that people with the higher saturated fat diet do not have a higher rate of heart attacks in the end. >> how do you -- how do you

suppose we got this so wrong? this is obviously, as you know pretty prevalent thinking. medical and nutritional. >> saturated fat has been the dietary culprit of the last 60 years. it really goes back to the 1950s when america was in the lowes of the -- throes of the heart disease. it became if the number one killer. president eisenhower had a heart attack. one of the ideas that caused heart disease was proposed by one scientist who said it was saturated fats. there were other ideas at the time. the scientist got that into the minds of the scientists. it is like that the rest is really history from there. it had never been tested when it was -- when it became dietary guidelines it had never been test. >> one of the things that happened, we started replacing fat in foods with other things. one being sugar. a lot more sugar in our -- our food tastes terrible if you didn't replace it with

something. is it that sugar as -- worse than the fat? got a big sugary soda here. cheeseburger over here. which is worse for your heart? >> i think the evidence really shows that the sugar is much more problematic in terms of your risk factors for heart disease and diabetes and obesity. >> you ask -- you know, you ask a kid about this, he says what's worse for your heart, they will point to the cheeseburger. >> the cheeseburger is -- the meat is month problem. it is the bun that -- >> carbohydrates. >> carbohydrates. right. >> again, as you know, you have written a book. it is a provocative book. there will be a lot of people that come out and say we understand she took issue with some of the studies and were not designed perfectly. there is a lot of evidence to show that vegetarians, for example, have a lower risk of heart disease in the united states and other places around the world where they don't eat as much meat. what do you say to that? people that don't eat as much meat seem to have lower rates of

heart disease. >> there is no evidence to show that vegetarians live longer than non-vegetarians. one of the things that con found the studies, complicates them, vegetarians are people that care about their health. they don't smoke. they go and exercise and go to the doctor. they do a lot of things that make them healthier people. they adhere to medical advice. right? the people that eat meat are the nonadherers and people doing everything wrong because they are going against dietary recommendations. those kinds of complicating factors make the studies very hard to interpret with any reliabili reliability. >> is this what you expected to find when you started writing the book? >> month. i was a vegetarian when i started twrstart ed writing the book. we didn't have money for meals so i ate what the chefs brought out to me. they wanted to bring out red meat and all these things that i had rarely ever eaten. i found that they were

delicious. then i easily dropped this stubborn ten pounds i had been fighting. my doctor said the cholesterol levels were fine. as an investigative journalist i wanted to get to the bottom of that mystery. it was the last thing i thought i would find. >> you eat meat, dairy, eggs, whatever you want now? >> i do. i don't think it is going to make me fat and i don't think it is going to give me heart disease. >> again, it is -- people should read this book. i have been so interested in the idea that we replace so much of these fats with carbohydrates like sugar. that could have been part of the problem. the suggestion that maybe it wasn't the saturated fat all along. a lot of people will pay attention to that. next up, what happens when you try to buy supplement, steroids, prescription drugs from amazon.com. whatever happened to good? good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it. good is maxwell house. ♪ good to the last drop

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millions of people order medicines online and will is a concern some sellers are not what they appear to be. it caught my eye to see the story on the website slate that showed prescription medicines sold to anyone through the giant website amazon, not to mention supplements that might have a bad safety record, even illegal steroids, was possible. joining me here is the report their wrote that story and also a specialist at the shepherd center right here in atlanta, dr. fox. welcome to the program and thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me on. >> what sparked this for you? are you finding prescription medicines on amazon? >> well, it istally a story that arrived at my doorstep.

i can show you -- here. my wife, who is an amazon prime member, she loves the site and loves the ease with which you can purchase stuff on amazon. she was looking for an acne product for herself. she was having a little battle of acne she could not treat on her own with her usual regimen and found a prescription, antibiotic, that she purchased not realizing that it was prescription only and she needed a prescription to purchase the medication. >> it is an antibiotic that you and i both know as doctors, normally you need a prescription. she was able to order it and got it delivered to you without a doctor involved. >> that's right. she didn't know when she ordered it which was also concerning. she opened it up. it is a pharmaceutical package and saw the name which she recognized anded is her husband, myself, a doctor. is this prescription only, how did i get this? my ears perked up at that point. i started looking around and i was shocked to find other

prescription-only medications on amazon. >> to be clear, these things require prescriptions often for a reason. what are the potential side effects of something like this? >> it is a powerful antibiotic. it is one we are trying to use sparingly in the hospital. it is an antibiotic that actually can cause a dead lly infection. it is an antibiotic that's known to cause potentially a very severe skin reaction. something you may want to know before you put it your face. >> i should point out we asked amazon for comment. they didn't comment specifically on this. amazon is not a pharmacy. other companies that may manufacture these drugs may use amazon as a distribution network. who is at fault here? is it the company that's manufacturing the drugs and then using amazon to distribute? or amazon itself? >> amazon has products that they have sourced themselves and they house in their own warehouses and ship out to us directly. they also have a number what they refer to as third-party

sellers. a very large component of amazon's business. folks can sign up to sell on amazon. small businesses from around the world. my wife's case, there was a small business located in thailand where the drug produced. these people -- actually, operating under amazon by selling and amazon is taking a percentage. in the case of drugs, amazon is taking 15% and amazon is doing the payment. it is doing the payment processing. this is very different than a lot of what else we see on the internet where different websites are connecting buyers and sellers. for example, craigslist or ebay and they go and complete the transaction themselves. the is a place where amazon has a business relationship with the third party seller. they are charging that third party sell eer a fee for the luxury of selling on amazon. you remain amazon's customer throughout the process. the argument can be made amazon

has created an illegal market which i have proven true this reporting amazon bears responsibility. >> what they are doing is illegal? >> it is illegal to sell these drugs without a prescription, yes. >> again, can buy this stuff on amazon. they may not recognize the potential problems, side effects, complication indications, the medicines can cause. i appreciate your being on the program. it is a as if mating discussion and i think it will open a lot of people's eyes. if you do buy medicine online and there is a center for safe internet pharmacy, they have a website. you can check whether you are buying from a reputable place by going to the website. safeme safemedsonline.org. it was 40 years ago, mark jones was in a car accident that left him paralyzed. it was from behind the 8-ball he found the ability to overcome. 65 years old, mark "the snake" jones competed in the world

wheelchair 9-ball championships. he never planned on becoming a champion pool player. but it helped him overcome something that happened 40 years ago. >> i was asleep on the passenger side, a volkswagen beetle. the rear wheel came completely off the car and the impact -- my door flew open. i didn't have on a seat sxwelt i through out of the car at 50 miles an hour and i broke my neck, my back. >> reporter: he was paralyzed. no longer able to walk. >> able-body guy, my friends, you know, let's play some pool. i would sit and watch them play. i said, this can't be that difficult. >> reporter: friendly pickup games turned into tournaments. >> it is undescribable, you know. i just love it. you know. i'm -- i just love it. love the competition. >> reporter: it is a peeling he wanted to share with others like

himself which is why he began working with the national wheelchairs association. >> it is not easy. i know what they are going through. that's what the organization is about. getting people back in society and out doing things. >> mark, good luck to you. if you read labels, you know the ingredients that look like they are part of a secret code? i will help you crack that code and a few things to avoid. [ female announcer ] there's a gap out there.

that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things. let's close the gap between people and care. ♪

what did you have for breck past this morning? this is a question i like to ask of a lot of my guests on this program. a few of them are going to know the answer as well as our next guest. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> you know your food really well. >> we know the ingredients list. >> let's talk about the preservatives to start off with. >> let's dangero preservatives. manufacturers love to put them in the food stowe people like us can't tell when the food is going rancid. the problem with this is the national institutes of health says bha is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinog carcinogen. state of california says it is a human carcinogen. these presenter is have atives are banned in the u.k. and japan. as you can see here, they are in a lot of foods here in america. a lot of foods that are kid

foods. cereals, bubble gums, crackers. >> what's this next one here? >> it is not just phonily dangerous. it is disgusting. it is used in foam plastics most often. it is what made the sole of your sneaker, yoga mat. it is in all of these baked goods and bread. it is an asthma-causing allergen that has been banned all over the year. if you use it in singapore you can go to jail for up to 15 years and get a half a million dollar pine. they know that this is not good stuff and not used in those other countries. >> the is naturally -- this is natural. all natural. >> this is not going to be a dangerous ingredient. maybe a little too natural to some people. let's talk about it. if you have evenen anything with natural vanilla or strawberry

flavoring have you probably gotten some of this. it comes from the sacks of the beaver's butt region. it is a brown molasses secretion it puts out to put its scent out there so people know where it is. i don't know who was the first people to take some of that brown stuff and put it on food but it must taste pretty good because we use over a thousand pounds of it in this country every year. it is all natural. >> from the beaver's -- >> yes. >> butt parts. >> yes. >> can you eat ice cream again since you learned that? >> i look for malhave an ail bean or natural flavors, strawberry, natural flavors. >> is it harder for you to eat? you look at this table. there is a lot of products here that are -- people eat every day. >> we actually found this things in every aisle of the grocery store that didn't have any sugar

or any of those ingredients. we pointed to people and said, these are good products. these are bad products. this is how you can stay safe. >> it is good to have a book like this because i think people -- i have young children. you don't spend the time -- even though i advocate reading labels. it is hard to get through those and find the preservatives. it is nice to have a book like this to help guide people. >> yeah. we do every aisle of the grocery store, there are cereals and ice cream in the book. of course, it is free of all these ingredients. >> free of the beaver -- >> beaver secretions. and everything else. >> it is great to have you on the program. appreciate it. thanks for being here. you may wonder looking at all that, why are these ingredients allowed? we decided to call the fda about this. they say, look, we are always studying the latest science. based on what we know all these products are safe to eat at least in the quantities you find on the shelves.

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they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. we are big on fitness here. it has been a big week for me and the fit nation team. that's six regular viewers we pick prosecuted around the country that have been training alongside me for the malibu triathlon. we got together in los angeles and did a mock trial. a lot of group workouts. i can tell you, i'm confident that they are all going to finish this race. they have come a long way since january. but none more so than my new friend, connie seavers. staying in shape was never a problem for connie.

>> we got married shortly after college and then we had three children. it was still not a problem. >> reporter: that was until her 3-year-old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and emily passed away three years later. throughout the ordeal seaver has gained more than 70 pounds and it is weight, she says, she was never able to get rid of. >> i knew that i needed to make a change. >> reporter: she applied to our fit nation challenge. she got in. connie joined the team in atlanta back in january. uncomfortable in the water, not having been on a bike in almost 20 years, and unable to run. now just four months later, she is a new woman. with the help of her coaches and her sassy six teammates she conquered four swims in the pacific other an. rode 45 miles on the bike and jogged seven miles this week alone. >> it is just incredible that we started from zero and now we can make it work. >> i'm so proud of what connie has been able to do. again, i think they are all going to make it to the finish line in malibu in september.

what an accomplishment. you can follow along and get workout tips and get much more at cnn.com/fitnation. that's going on wrap things up for us. stay connected with cnn.com/sanjay. let's get the conversation going on twitter. time now to get you back to the cnn newsroom with poppy harlow. ♪ you are in the cnn news room and time poppy harlow in for don lemon. you have to hear what this vet did to get to the 70th anniversary observe nance normandy. you may just say he went awol. we begin, though, with the former "saturday night live" comedian fighting for his life. one person was killed. seven others were injured and