Mark Wahlberg Debates With Dr. Oz Over Whether to Eat Breakfast or Not

Mark Wahlberg and Dr. Oz are forcing food fans to take sides when it comes to eating breakfast.

On Wednesday, Oz, 59, visited the Today show to further weigh in on his ongoing debate with the Oscar-nominated actor, 48, arguing that the traditionally touted “most important meal of the day” is actually not essential to a healthy lifestyle.

“Mark has bought into the dogma of breakfast,” said the talk show personality, who proponent for intermittent fasting. “He believes all the hype that you gotta have breakfast, which just isn’t based in any medicine.”

“My point to Mark is,” added Oz, “… for the average human being … the smart thing to do is skip breakfast, work out as hard as you can — you may not do what Mark can do, but do as much as you can — and you’ll look better because you burn fat, not the food in your stomach, while you’re exercising.”

The breakfast feuding was triggered when TMZ asked Wahlberg last week what he thought of the no-morning-meal concept.

“Listen, I don’t care what Dr. Oz says, I gotta have my breakfast before I work out, that’s my preference,” Wahlberg told TMZ. “Tell Dr. Oz to come train with me.”

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Mark Wahlberg and Dr. Oz | Gabriel Grams/FilmMagic; Bryan Bedder/Getty
Mark Wahlberg and Dr. Oz | Gabriel Grams/FilmMagic; Bryan Bedder/Getty

Earlier this month, Oz had told TMZ that he plans to “ban breakfast” in 2020 to meet his health goals.

“I don’t think we need to eat breakfast. That’s an advertising ploy,” he said. “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.”

(Before siding with Team Wahlberg or Team Oz and making any drastic changes to your eating habits, it’s best to consult your physician first.)

Wahlberg’s fitness challenge prompted Oz to post an Instagram clip of himself doing push-ups, captioned, “Grab your defibrillator, @markwahlberg. Tag, you’re it.”

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@dr_oz see you soon! 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

A post shared by Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) on Jan 17, 2020 at 9:26am PST

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The Transformers actor followed up with a pre-workout video during which he jests, “Now we really got beef.”

“You gotta have food; food is your friend,” said Wahlberg in another Instagram video, calling out Oz’s breakfast cancelation.

The debate around fasting versus fueling is a contentious one, with some prominent figures citing a less food-focused lifestyle as beneficial to their productivity.

Recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed that he only eats one meal a day — dinner — in a daily routine that also consists of two hours of meditation. The tech entrepreneur previously said his dinners typically consist of a protein (chicken, steak or fish) with vegetables (salad, spinach, asparagus or Brussels sprouts).

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