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Tavis: Dr. Ian Smith is a best-selling author and medical correspondent for ABC's 'The View.' He is also, thankfully, and I appreciate it, a longtime contributor to my radio program, weekends on PRI. Check your local listings. His book, 'The Take-Control Diet,' has been re-released and is now out in paperback. You can also catch him on the VH1 series, 'Celebrity Fit Club 2.'

Dr. Ian Smith: Hello, everyone. How are you? I'm gonna customize a diet based on all of your needs. Now, from what I've learned already, a lot of you are at risk for some serious health consequences. Phil, I gotta tell you something. My five-year-old cousin has a better idea about weight loss and eating than you do.

Tavis: So mean, Ian, so mean.

Smith: No, see, of all the clips, they show that clip. I'm not like that.

Tavis: Why you gotta be, yeah, you are. That--the clips don't lie.

Smith: Well, the clips--you know, the celebrities just came in, and we wanted to set the tone, let them know this was serious. This is not about just doing a TV show. We're really trying to help you. So I guess I wanted to come through the door and tell them that I'm really serious about this. But as the season progresses, you'll see that I'm the nice guy. Harvey, who's a drill sergeant, he's the tough guy, so I don't compare to him. So that was a little skewed. That was just the beginning.

Tavis: Fair enough. We'll come back to 'Celebrity Fit Club 2' in just a second. Let me talk about the book, 'The Take-Control Diet.' What's different? With all due respect, and you and I are friends, but there are so many diet books out there. I mentioned earlier in our introduction that there's not just so many books out there, but conflicting--books about the best way to lose weight. What makes this one, 'The Take-Control Diet,' different?

Smith: Three things. The first thing is that most diet books don't talk about the psychology of weight loss. The inability to put your mind in the right place to fight one of the biggest battles of your life means that your body will not be able to go into the right place. My book starts off in chapter one talking about the mental warfare that you have to get ready for when trying to lose weight. That's number one. Number two, most of the diet books do not talk about exercise. They give you a food program.

They give you menu options, but they don't say, 'This is what you need to do' from the physical activity standpoint to lose weight. All they say is just exercise. So my book helps you structure an exercise program. And third, most of the diet programs do not have foods that are palatable, that people are used to eating or want to eat. My diet allows you to eat regular food, nothing packaged. But it teaches you how to eat these foods and in what proportions, to lose weight.

Tavis: You and I have been friends for a while, as I mentioned earlier, and you recall when I went through a phase where I lost 70 pounds myself, a couple of years ago. I must tell you that of all the things I have done, and you don't get to do what we do in media in America, as an African American, certainly male, without having to go through a lot of travail to get there. So I've had some struggles in my life. But I must honestly tell you, I have never done anything more difficult in my life than to discipline myself over the course of 10 or 11 months to lose 70 pounds. It really is, with all due respect, the toughest thing in the world to do.

Smith: I say right in the beginning of the book that you have to get ready for war, and you know that, because if you do not have the ability to control yourself, to be able to fight urges, to pick yourself back up when you slip a couple of times in a week, then you're not gonna make it. And that's why so many people fail, by the way. It's not that the diets fail. It's that people fail the diets, because they don't have that discipline. They don't have that support. I always tell people if you're gonna lose weight, try to lose weight with a partner, because you have that built-in support. You need support.

Tavis: There are a lot of folks to choose from.

Smith: Right. Right. Exactly.

Tavis: If you're looking for a partner.

Smith: Too many, unfortunately. Too many.

Tavis: Yeah. How bad is, to your point about too many, how bad is this obesity thing in America?

Smith: It's outrageous. I mean--you know, there's overweight, then there's obesity. Overweight is when you're just, you know, past, you know, the limit of where you should be. Obesity is when you are in the severe cases of being overweight. It is outrageous, and it's growing. The problem now that we're seeing, of course, is the children.

The children obesity, the childhood obesity is exploding, and that really is bad, because studies have shown that most children who are of obese parents will end up being obese themselves in adulthood. And we know about the medical complications of obesity, from heart disease to cancers even, to diabetes. All these problems relate to obesity. It's outrageous.

Tavis: I see these overweight kids, as you do, all the time. You're a physician, so I know you see them in your office. I see them in the airports. I see them walking down...I mean, we see overweight kids everywhere we go. And I sometimes wonder whether or not it is, and I'm not a parent, so I don't wanna be too hard on parents, but I sometimes wonder, to your point, whether or not it is maligned neglect. Maligned neglect on the part of parents to let their kids get so big at such young ages, when they know it's gonna be a problem.

But I try to juxtapose that with what some of my--friends of mine who are parents tell me about how difficult it is. 'And Tavis, you just don't get it.' It's really tough to say no to your kid when they want this, and they want that. And you don't want to tell them no, so how do you handle that?

Smith: I'm gonna be a little stronger than you. I'm gonna say it's almost criminal.

Tavis: Wow.

Smith: I mean, it is ridiculous and it is a shame that children, young kids, are the size that they are now. And I, there are a lot of people to blame, but a large part of that rests with the parents. I mean, the parents are in control of the child's food environment, the child's play environment. And so a lot of that has to do with how the parent is able to control this environment. Another problem, by the way, which is a national issue, is that they've gotten rid of physical education. I mean, when you and I grew up, you had to take gym. They called it gym or phys-ed.

Tavis: P.E., yeah.

Smith: P.E. Now it's optional, or it's not available at all. So you have a combination of parents not controlling the home environment. You have schools and the government saying, well, physical education is not of the priority that it used to be. And then you have, of course, all the sedentary things that are happening. Computers, these games, these video games that we had also, but, see, we played sports. So it wasn't an issue of me having to go to the gym all the time, because I was out running around in the back of the house playing sports 'til the sun came down. Then I'd go in and do my homework, go to sleep, and start all over again. That's gone.

Tavis: Okay, I don't wanna put you on the spot and make you too political, but juxtapose these two things for me. On the one hand, you have the government as the entity that puts out these numbers, gives us these stats, has the Surgeon General's office tell us how badly, how poorly we are doing on this weight thing, how we are out of control with obesity. The government tells us that. And at the same time, it is the government that allows phys-ed classes to go by the wayside. You see where I'm going with this.

Smith: Yeah, sure.

Tavis: How does government, on the one hand, tell us how badly we are doing, but not take the steps on the other hand to curb...

Smith: Let me add one more thing to it. Look at the foods that the kids are eating in the cafeteria. There's a big controversy in New York City. Because--of the government, they agreed to have a vending deal with a particular drink company that does not make nutritious drinks. And everyone's saying, "Well, how could you say that we need to eat better and to live better, and yet you let this drink company have an exclusive contract with the public schools of New York City, and they're not nutritious?'

So you're right. You know, my grandfather says, you know, you're speaking out of both sides of your neck. You know, one hand, they say these numbers are bad. We have to do something about obesity. However, they don't put their money or their actions where their mouth has just been. And so it's a, it's a problem.

Tavis: When we saw the clip a moment ago, the 'Celebrity Fit Club 2,' I--looked through the crowd and saw one or two people of color in there, but I raise, before we get back to that, I raise it because I know from talking to you on our radio program, that this obesity thing, as bad as it is in America across the board, it is particularly and especially bad with people of color.

Smith: It is, and a lot of it has to do with the history of our food. A lot of it is cultural in a sense that we eat certain types of foods, a lot of fried foods, a lot of foods that are cheap and easy to access. And another problem, by the way, which people don't like to talk about, is if you look at the areas where fast food chains and delis with bad foods, and high in calories and sugar, if you look at the geographical positioning of these places, a lot of minority and inner city communities have these bad places, these bad food sources right near them.

Tavis: In other words, you don't see Carl's Jr., McDonald's, and Burger King, in Beverly Hills.

Smith: Sure. Sure. You don't see them. I mean, you may see one or two, but you don't see every corner. You go into the inner city, every corner has a store where you can buy what they call these quarter waters, and what that is, is basically sugar water, and just wasted calories. And so, you know, it's a problem that is part our culture and the foods we've grown up eating and like to eat, but it's also part of what is out there for us, and both of them have to change for it to get better.

Tavis: All right, 'Celebrity Fit Club 2,' tell me more about the show. We started there, let's end there.

Smith: Awesome show. This is, you know, I've been doing TV for years. This is the most fun I've had in a long, long time. We take eight celebrities. We divide them into two teams of four. And it's a competition to see who can lose the most weight and get in better shape. And at first, you know, the idea may sound a little wacky. Let me tell you something...

Tavis: I was about to ask you, is this kind of show sending the right message, that we want to compete to lose weight?

Smith: Well, let me tell you why, because I realized when I started doing this show that it's just not about the numbers and winning prizes, but these people, their lives change. And people who have been following the show, we're about mid-season right now, people who have been following the show have said, I get hundreds of emails about people who are at home who say, "You've inspired me.' "I can identify with this certain personality.' "I'm now making changes.' This show is changing people's lives. I have to admit, in the beginning, I didn't think this was gonna happen, but the feedback has been tremendous.

Tavis: Dr. Ian Smith is his name. The new book, well, the book out in paperback now, 'The Take-Control Diet,' includes a 30-day customized menu and exercise program just for you, by Dr. Ian. Of course, you can catch him on 'Celebrity Fit Club 2' on VH1, and weekends on the Tavis Smiley show from PRI. Ian, nice to see you.

Smith: It's good to see you, man, I love you.

Tavis: Good to see you. Love you back, man. Up next on this program, actor and writer Michael McKean. Stay with us.