>> today on the dr. oz show, randy jackson's lifelong battle with weight. >> i was addicted to food. 355 pounds. >> the shocking diagnosis that changed everything. dr. oz: randy jackson, you are a diabetic. >> hits me like a ton of bricks. i made a drastic decision. dr. oz: the show stopping surprise. ext.

dr. oz: get comfortable, i have a special guest, someone that i know is open and down to earth. i have been waiting four years to have him on the show. "american idol's" randy jackson. he spent an entire career taking people out of obscurity into super stardom. his health ended up on the back burner until a devastating diagnosis forced him to shine the spotlight on himself. he is a 20-year music veteran best known as a judge on the hit show, "american idol." >> what is going on here? dr. oz: behind the scenes randy jackson has been fighting a lifelong battle with his weight. growing up in baton rouge, louisiana he was constantly surrounded by rich, southern cuisine. randy turned food into comfort into adulthood and it caught up in 2003 at 355 pounds randy

began suffering from flu-like symptoms, sweating and incredibly thirsty. he was rushed to the emergency room where doctors discovered his blood sugar was dangerously high. diagnosis, type 2 diabetes. at risk hear heart disease and stroke randy knew this was his wake up call. >> i took my diabetes to heart. now it is time for to you take your diabetes to heart. dr. oz: he is producing his most personal project to date to prevent and reverse diabetes. please welcome randy jackson. [applause] i love this. i love this. > how are you? this is a wild crowd.

dr. oz: they love you. >> just a little flower. i feel i am going on dr. oz. we love oz, right? [applause] you know, i like to be -- it feels like it is christmas time. dr. oz: it is. i am go to celebrate you a bit, but i am go to ask you questions. i love the way randy understands what it is like to be down and come back up. you trip, get back on your feet. let's talk about food and your relationship to food. you struggled with it. it has been a lifelong struggle. using medicine as a reward for comfort like many of us have. explain that to me. >> those of us, a lot of people that have weight problems or other things, some people turn to food.

some turn to drugs and others to drink or whatever they can find comfort or solace in for whether you are sad, happy, depressed. you are lost. you are whatever. i think that over the years growing up in the lovable dirty south, the food is supposed to taste good and not be good for you. there is sugar. there is tons of butter. there is tons of salt. but all of the veggies. they need to taste good. how do i get john tow eat the green beans? let's make them taste good. i grew up with that lifestyle. once i moved to l.a. i had a said terry lifestyle. i thought i was working out but it was once a week. t caught up on me. i couldn't believe i was that heavy. dr. oz: 355 pounds. before you were diagnosed with diabetes, which is a big changing noint your life, describe your relationship with food? >> i guess you can say, at that

point i was really addicted to ood. living the studio life as a recording musician and producer, always in an office. i would seafood and eat it. i tried to change it quite a bit. i must have tried every diet on the planet. i tried all of the fasting ones. it happens a lot in l.a. and probably here. everybody is going through the fasting cleanses. the problem is that you still have to change in a behavioral way the relationship with food. i had to change how i thought about it and what it neent me. now it is nourishment for my body, not nourishment for some emotion. dr. oz: so you find out for the first time that you are a diabetic. you hear those words, randy jackson, you are a diabetic. what do you feel? >> it hit me like a ton of

bricks that i had it because i knew it ran in my family and my mom and dad had it on and off, but you never think that it is going to happen to you. i sat there. i was numb. i was in the emergency room. first of all, i am in the emergency room. i am like what is going on. and all that the doctor had been telling me all along, diet and exercise. he would say to me then, i told you. i have been telling you for 5-6 years. i was also the worst guy about going to the doctor. i think most men are. you are supposed to be going every year for a checkup. i would go every three if something was drastically wrong probably because i didn't want to have them say what are we doing here. what do i have to say to you. i call it a blessing and a curse. it is a double edged sword being diagnosed with type 2. because it literally saved my is a disease it

that you can't get rid of but you can manage it. dr. oz: your blood sugar was over 500 which is a toxic number. you could have died from that by itself. what did you do about it? >> yeah. i sat there numb. i went home. i sat there and said look, i have to beat this. i have to manage it. i have to do everything that i can do now. i didn't listen. what really scared me is that this is the reason that i teamed up to get this messaging campaign up about taking diabetes to heart. i didn't know i had it. i thought i had a cold. it was a huge wake up call for me. dr. oz: you get home. you lose a couple of pounds, gain some pounds. >> i go to the nutritionist and the doctor. he puts me on this thing. i lose that first month and a

half maybe 15-16 pounds. dr. oz: then you make what seems, anyway, for some a drastic decision. you decide you are going to get gastric bypass surgery. why? >> i made a drastic decision. i ran into someone that had it done. i remember going to my doctor talking about it saying, listen, you have to put this in perspective. it is not a cure. and i tell this to everyone. it is a great jump start for your weight loss and getting your health together weight wise but it is not a cure. the maintenance and complications from that, it is a major, major surgery. there are complications that i still deal with today that i am sure that you know a lot about that still happen from having gastric bypass. it say major surgery. dr. oz: if you are doing the other things right you lose weight rapidly. you are on national television. you have simon, one of the most

observant people that i know looking over at you. paula is probably jealous at this point. >> simon was jealous too. man, i need to go on a diet. dr. oz: how do you keep it a secret. how do you keep the fact you are losing weight that fast a secret? >> eventually i told everyone. you don't keep it a secret. it is obvious. they see you one day and the next day you are 65 pounds down and counting. was this all a joke or a dream? what is going on. someone said to me, man, i am shocked you would even tell people. i said it actually saved my life. if it can help someone else, you know. dr. oz: some would say you took the easy way out. how do you respond to folks that are critical of you? >> the gastric bypass is not a cure. there is no cure for type 2 diabetes that i know of.

dropping the weight dramatically helps you. i mean it gives you a jump start. it is a funny thing. i would see the skinny people in the park running. we go to central park right now to see all of the people that don't need to jog, jogging. of course i don't want to jog. i am 355 pounds. dr. oz: how much weight did you lose? >> 120 pounds. my god. my god.

> wait a minute. like michael strahan and jimmy allon. >> calm down. we were jogging. >> go to the park and jog. > goodbye everybody. dr. oz: michael. i love the lipstick. i love it. i want to prove that he has lost so much weight that two women can lift him up. please take it away. oh! > we did it.

dr. oz: when we come back randy is keeping his weight down. along with the upcoming season of "american idol." you don't want to miss this. >> up next, what people take away from the randy jackson story to make themselveses help you. >> randy's secret to keeping the weight off. >> i never skip a meal, ever. >> plus the new season of "american idol." >> like a happy family.

dr. oz: we're back with "american idol's" randy jackson. catching up. dance with the ladies. >> jimmy and michael were so funny. where did jimmy get those braces, dude? whoa! dr. oz: i love strahan's lipstick. >> dude, what's going on in here? you think they go out like that every night? dr. oz: i'm sure! ten years ago you had gastric bypass surgery. you lost over 100 pounds. >> yeah. dr. oz: i would love to understand what's your diet like now. what you said is absolutely right. i have to defend everyone out there with gastric bypass surgery, it will not work at all if you don't watch your diet and do smart things i hope you will tell me about now. dr. oz: for me, behavioral

modification. hi to-to-psychologically change the way i looked at foods. the reasondy the book i had a psychologist speaking because i felt like now i felt i never want to be in the position i used to be a lot of times. would i skip a meal and you said it yourself a million times. god, i'm so hungry right now, i can eat a horse and you try to. [laughter] so i said ok, i'm done with that. i do what i call grazing. every two hours or something, i have something, whether it's nuts or protein bar, low-sugar protein bar, low-sugar protein shake or dr. oz's famous drink. dr. oz: thank you. >> whatever that is, i try never go and i never skip a meal anymore. dr. oz: ever? >> ever. and i changed my relationship with exercise. i don't call it exercise. i think that's negative connotation. that's a bad word. i just call it moving. if i said to everyone in here, me and oz are throwing a party at the club, dudes. we're going to one oak tonight.

guys come with us. everybody would come. if dr. oz and i said we're going to equinox. you would be like don't know, pick up my kids. [laughter] i have a gym appointment. midnight? yeah, they're open late. [laughter] i changed that. i love playing tennis. play four times a week. i love yoga. i found things i love that i didn't feel like i was exercising. when i was a kid growing up and playing games with kids in the streets and lovely streets of baton rouge, louisiana, you would be out there six, eight hours with your friends playing. your mom would have to come and get you out of the street to eat dinner. you were having fun. it wasn't a chore, exercise being a chore. i have completely changed my whole outlook on it. dr. oz: you're a walking example, role model for folks with type 2 diabetes. a third of the people who can hear my voice, one in three are prediabetic or diabetic. i know you will spread a message about this. touched on it a little bit. lay it out for folks.

what people need to take away from the randy jackson story to make themselves healthy. >> i teamed up with a great campaign, awareness campaign, taking diabetes to heart. amazing website taking diabetes to heart.com we do pledges on, talk about recipes and talk about what i do. tips and even things to ask your doctor. people sometimes, you know things to ask the doctor, we talked about the abc's. that blood sugar, blood pressure levels and cholesterol levels. these are numbers you definitely need to know and visit your doctor regularly and get checkups and sit with the doctor and come up with a treatment plan that's right for you. a diet, exercise, medication, whatever you need. something you will stick to because what may work for me may not work for you. there's no one size fits all, believe it or not, i know we're all beautiful but we're a little different. dr. oz: thank goodness! >> yeah. dr. oz and i, you know, we met because we were models, so -- [laughter] dr. oz: speaking of difference,

you're on a brand-new season of "american idol." >> season 12, yeah! 1-2! [applause] dr. oz: and you have some very different brand-new judges. mariah carey, nicki minaj. >> keith urban. dr. oz: does keith fight with the other two? >> only two people really fighting is me and ryan. we're still fighting a lot. you don't see it. we fight in the dressing room a lot. we go back and deporge. he wants to wear my stuff. i don't want to wear his stuff. it's just -- dr. oz: being up there with all of the big personalities, there must be clashes, some ego sometimes? >> i think talls is. if you remember early seasons of "idol," simon and paula would clash all the time. me and simon got into it a couple times. simon and ryan would get into it occasionally. i think it's big, passionate people with big personalities. but i must say going swimmingly well now and we found some amazing talent. what i always tell people is i see all of these shows out there and everybody makes about the judges, judges, judges.

it's really about the talent we find because the show is "american idol," search for the next superstar. so that talent has to be amazing. we have to nurture it the right way so when it hits the marketplace t. can go out and be successful which is proof positive of what the show is saying other then that, the show wouldn't really make sense. i mean, we've been fortunate. 8 out of 11 of these kids have all gone on to have bustling, great careers. from carrie underwood to kelly clarkson, jennifer hudson, go down the line. so i mean, i just -- i love it though. look, it's like a happy family. [laughter] one, big happy family. like if me and oz are having christmas together. oz may fight over this turkey leg and i will fight over the other one. i always use the right one. dr. oz: i think it works because you call everybody dog. dog! thank you for being here. catch randy on the upcoming season of "american idol" january 16th on fox.

up next -- french toast to cheeseburgers, "hungry girl" is back with her fattening food take-out. stay with us. [applause]

[cheers and applause] dr. oz: just in time for the holidays, our "hungry girl" is making your favorite naughty foods nice without fattening it up at all. fattening food fakeouts you got for us. >> absolutely. dr. oz: we will start -- i have to say, all of these are miraculous. what i don't understand is how time and again you come back and show us little tips. what's the secret? how do you make this happen? >> it's all about finding swaps for your favorite ingredients. we all want to eat decadent, crazy, high-caloried tempting foods but there's a way to lighten it up at home with a

tiny fraction of the fat and calories. really easy. dr. oz: start off with the first naughty food, stuffed french toast. you all love this. traditional stuffed french toast has, my friends, 727 calories. i don't care how good it tastes. with that many calories it's a problem. what's the secret to making it nice? >> the secret is light hot dog buns. a lot of people, usually ooh and ah over this. dr. oz: stunned. >> yeah. you get stunned. the truth is you want to look for hot dog buns that have around 80 calories and four grams of fiber. and they're great for stuffing. the thing about french toast is it's way higher in fat and calories then pancakes and waffles. that's a fact not a lot of people know. it's easy to lighten it up. today we're making apple cream cheese french toast. starts off with these light hot dog buns. so we're going to stuff it now with some reduced fat cream cheese and fuji apples from natural sweetener and cinnamon. dr. oz: how many calories saving

the bread alone, good shape no matter what you put in here. >> absolutely. there's more secrets. there are! dr. oz: so many secrets! >> i'm full of them. so you cut this once. when it's done, cut it into nuggets and throw it in a skillet. another little secret, dip it in egg batter but use eggbeaters or egg whites so you don't get all of the yokes and fat and cholesterol and then in pa that pan instead of loading it up with butting, use two tea spons and nonstick cooking spray. you save calories too. dr. oz: final result? >> that's the result. look how beautiful. dr. oz: take a bite of this. that is really good. >> it's decadent, creamy. dr. oz: takes like french toast. >> it is french toast! dr. oz: almost wasted calories. all right. "hungry girl's" stuffed french toast, 245 calories. [cheers and applause] no way anybody can tell the difference.

next naughty food we will make nice, buffalo jalapeno poppers. before i introduce that, traditional ones you go out and buy and make for yourself are 816 calories. >> embarrassing. dr. oz: fattening. i have to take this from naughty to nice. >> the secret ingredient is pie fiber breakfast cereal. check this out. these look like the breakfast cereals you get. what do you is you want to grind these up to like a fine powder. we're using coffee grinder here. i will show you how to do this. it's creative and fun and easier then whipping out giant blender if you have a small amount. so grind that up. dr. oz: it grinds to this? >> yes, and it's a little sweet because it's a breakfast cereal. use spices like garlic powder and onion powder. these are made with cayenne that adds heat to the halloweenios, which are hot. nice because it revs up your metabolism. and then instead of frying them,

we bake them. brilliant all around. two kinds of cheese too. dr. oz: you -- the cheese you put into the popper like this. eggs, breaded, bake it, you're done. >> that's simple. dr. oz: i know a little about poppers here, so -- this is better. >> and it's good. it has a kick. dr. oz: i will pass these around. don't worry. they will get mad at me. talk about the last one, ton of calories. "hungry girl's" buffalo jalapeno poppers are 106 calories. [applause] >> for three! dr. oz: three. that's for three. all right. next naughty food is too fattening foods together. you all love quesadillas and cheeseburgers. imagine putting them together, right? traditional cheeseburger quesadilla, before the show i did not think this was possible. maybe for good reason. it has 1,440.

>> that's steep. dr. oz: what's the secret to making this nice >> the secret is high-fiber tortilla. you get practically happen the fiber you need for an entire day in one tortilla. and it only has around 100 calories. flip the packages around and find the right ones but great starting ingredient. reduced fat cheddar soin, libe hamburger style soy patty which tastes a lot like ground beef and want to look look for one like 215 milligrams of sodium. they make lower-sodium versions of this. those are onions. dr. oz: i like onions. >> pickles. classic fast food flavers. fold that. throw it in the skillet. dr. oz: get one of these. >> i like to dip them in ketchup. it kick any fast food craving you have. i guarantee it. dr. oz: i have to say, i love poppers. please pass those out back there. i will taste this myself. in the meantime i want to announce -- >> poppers!

dr. oz: winner of the competition because they're all good. "hungry girl's" cheeseburger quesadillas, 270 calories! can you imagine saving 1,200 calories? [applause] i love these all. jalapeno poppers, they are to die for. graduate you for wonderful ideas. >> thank you -- congratulate you for wonderful ideas. >> thank you. dr. oz: coming up and you can find more on doctoroz.com. did you know eggnog is 400 calories? "hungry girl" has a way to cut hallry calories by more than half. you want to see this. [applause]