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Help Your Health: Fiber; White House Summit on Countering Extremism; How to Fight Radicalization; "Inside Man" Preview on Bitcoin

Aired February 19, 2015 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the five things you need to know for your new day.

Number one, President Obama calling on Muslim communities to do more to counter what he calls violent extremism. The president says the terrorists do not represent Islam.

Kurdish forces in Iraq continue to fight off the latest wave of attacks by ISIS. The terrorists are targeting key Kurdish defense points as they try to expand their footprint.

Leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany agreeing to make another push to enforce the cease-fire in Ukraine. This comes on the heels of a major strategic loss for Ukraine. Troops abandoned a key town after clashes with pro-Russian rebels.

The Justice Department could be preparing to sue Ferguson, Missouri, for a pattern of perceived racial discrimination if the department does not implement changes itself.

A huge swath of the U.S. dealing with bone chilling temperatures through tomorrow. The arctic air affects about 25 states, even Florida. Schools in Chicago, Cleveland, and Cincinnati are closed today.

We're always updating the five things you need to know, so go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

All right, so we all know that eating better and exercise can make you healthier, but it can be difficult. We have a couple of new studies out which may raise your eyebrows a little bit. Maybe too much of a good thing is the issue here. Let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He explains it all on "New Day, New You."

Good morning, Sanjay.

I looked at these studies. Essentially what it says, you're better off sitting on your couch and eating bran flakes.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what you took away from those studies? Well, they are interesting studies. And these are big studies. We've got to pay attention to them. They followed over a million women for nine years. And I'm going to give you the headline here in a second. But what they were trying to do, John, I'll prep this by saying, is trying to find, what is the sweet spot in terms of exercise? What's going to give you the most benefit in terms of reducing your risk of heart disease? And as you say, more is not necessarily always better.

So, again, a million women over nine years. Let's take a look at the numbers here. You're going to look specifically at women who rarely or never exercise and their risk of heart disease, 5.2 percent. If you exercise two or three times a week, it goes down significantly there, 3.5 percent. But I think this is what you were paying attention to, and a lot of people are, John, daily. If you started exercising daily, 4.3 percent risk of heart disease. Still better than if you never exercise at all, but not quite as good if you exercise two to three times a week.

They don't know how to explain that last number completely. It could be that people who exercise a lot more may be ultimately eating more. They maybe have other risk factors for some reason. But the sweet spot appeared to be in that two to three times of strenuous exercise daily.

BERMAN: Yes, and it's important to remember, some exercise, I think, is crucial there. The study does reinforce that.

Sanjay, what about diet? What about eating the right things?

GUPTA: This was a very interesting study as well. And, look, we talk a lot about diet and, you know, admittedly, a lot of the diets that are recommended are pretty complicated to follow. And that's been always one of the big criticisms. So in this next study they basically took about 240 people, split them into two groups. One group just got an increased fiber diet, 30 grams more of fiber every day. The other group was on the American Heart Association diet, restricting calories, restricting saturated fat.

And what they found at the end of the year was the people who were in the first group, just added more fiber, they lost around 4.6 pounds. People in the other group lost around 5.9 pounds. The other group did lose a little bit more weight, but just a modest amount more. The point, again, similar to the exercise study, is that you seem to get the greatest benefit at the beginning of something. Just making one change here with regard to diet, adding fiber, it seemed to make a big difference.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, when you're talking about fiber diets, to a lot of people that doesn't sound like much fun. So what kind of foods are we talking about here with fiber?

GUPTA: Some people -- some people love fiber, John, I don't know what you're -- but, no, oatmeal, brown rice. People, that's what they typically think of. But, look, a lot of fruits have -- raspberries, for example, have a lot of fiber, pears. So, really, doing the same things that you've been told to do, eating a lot more vegetables, but really focusing on the fiber. If you can increase it by 30 grams makes a pretty big difference.

BERMAN: I'm not anti-fiber, just let's stipulate that.

GUPTA: It sounded like you were a little bit.

BERMAN: I'm not anti-fiber. Just too much fiber, you know, I'm saying.

GUPTA: Especially when you're a morning anchor, yes, no, I get it.

BERMAN: But why -- why, Sanjay, when it comes to exercise and when it comes to the things like fiber, why does too much seem to backfire? Is there any science to back that up?

GUPTA: So when it comes to the exercise thing, it's a good question. I think part of it may be people who strenuously exercise a lot could be at risk of increased heart problems, who are just doing it not just for cardiovascular benefit, but for some sort of other, you know, endurance athlete type sports.

With regard to diet, I think it's a simple thing. You put a more complicated diet together and people just don't follow it. So if I just say all you need to do is add 30 grams of fiber to your diet, that's all I want you to do for the next year, you're going to make a significant improvement just by doing that one thing.

BERMAN: Important lessons. I'm sorry I have the bran lobby after me right now. But, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, great to have you with us. Appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BERMAN: So let us know what you think. Tweet us @newday or go to FaceBook.com/newday. Tell us your thoughts.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Did you just say why does sometimes the information about diet backfire after you were discussing fiber?

BERMAN: We say a lot on television. Sometimes -- sometimes the words truly backfire.

CUOMO: Was it intentional?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You'd like to revise. I can't believe Sanjay -- I mean I guess I can.

CUOMO: He let it go.

KEILAR: Sanjay just went there, man.

BERMAN: Yes.

CUOMO: He just -- he just let it go.

KEILAR: All right.

BERMAN: The fiber diet is the whole point. CUOMO: Right. Backfire. Very strong.

KEILAR: Oh, it just keeps going.

CUOMO: Please.

KEILAR: President Obama offering his assessment for fighting extremism, but his comments at a White House summit aren't pleasing everyone. We'll be telling you why.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all know there is no one profile of a violent extremist or terrorist. There's no way to predict who will become radicalized. It's not unique to one group or to one geography or one period of time.

We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was President Obama at the White House summit on countering extremism. Did he accomplish anything to help turn the tide against radicalization? Let's ask Dean Obeidallah, who was at the summit. He is a columnist for "The Daily Beast" and he's host of "The Dean Obeidallah" show on Sirius XM Radio. We're also joined by Christianne Boudreau. Her son Damian became radicalized and he died fighting for ISIS in Syria. She has since established Hayat Canada, a family counseling and outreach program for relatives and friends of people who become radicalized.

I want to start with you, Dean. You were at this summit. You heard what President Obama said. This is a critical time. Is the president doing enough at this time?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, COLUMNIST, "THE DAILY BEAST": I think they're doing exactly what they can. They talk about the pilot programs. They had representatives of these federal sponsored programs with law enforcement and Muslim American leaders in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Boston. Now they're working together -- together to counter radicalization. It's part of the Muslim community's greatest interest to not allow any Muslims to go and listen to the lure and sales pitch of the al Qaedas and the ISIS out there. so we're in this fight together. I think it was a great conference. I learned a great deal personally.

CAMEROTA: And certainly a great conversation to have no matter where you fall on some of the debate points in this.

Christian, your son was radicalized. He gave his life for ISIS. The president says that he doesn't want to refer to this as a religious war, as a war against Islam. Let's listen to some of what he said and then discuss it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam.

We must never accept the premise that they put forward because it is a lie, nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders, they're terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What was your reaction to the comments that you heard him say, Christian?

CHRISTIANNE BOUDREAU, ESTABLISHED HAYAT CANADA: I actually tend to agree with him. This is not a religious war or anything along those lines. They're just taking it to use it as their vehicle to strengthen what they say and to try to get into those minds and hearts of our youth and to reach out to them. That's not the case. It's an ideology that right across the board it's similar to gangs, cults, and everything else. So that's the way we really need to look at it.

KEILAR: And, Dean, I know you share some of the beliefs on that.

OBEIDALLAH: Yes.

KEILAR: You've written about this, that you think there may be over focus when it comes to -- on associates of -- or Islamists, I guess we could say, if you're not going to say Islamic extremists?

OBEIDALLAH: I agree. And, Christianne, first of all, I'm very sorry about the passing of your son. And the program that we did yesterday, part of that is to prevent this from happening again. And the work that Christianne's doing in Canada is exactly that.

It's not about Islam. I don't know why people are obsessed, they have to call it Islam. It's terrorists who want to use Islam to gain power. That's what they're about. And using Islam helps frame the whole dispute in the way ISIS and al Qaeda are begging us to do that.

KEILAR: But so -- but so do you see -- I mean, a lot of people will look at this and they're very fearful of ISIS. You bring up other examples of extremist groups. I mean we could talk about, you know, ETA (ph), which is -- want vast independence in Spain. But there's no sort of cohesion. There's no sort of international aim. ISIS has taken territory, a wide swath of territory. You don't -- you think these are all the same, all these groups?

OBEIDALLAH: It's not about being all the same. I mean this was supposed to be a countering violent extremism summit. It wasn't just supposed to be about Muslims. It ended up being 90 percent about Muslims. There are other violent extremist groups in America. White supremacist groups have killed more Americans in the last five years than ISIS or al Qaeda have on our soil. It's about keeping us safe as Americans. Not just looking at one target. Because a backlash that can be caused in the Muslim community, which frankly people don't talk about.

There's one thing, ISIS and al Qaeda want this -- us to be called an Islamic movement because they want a backlash against American Muslims, Canadian Muslims, European Muslims because it alienates people in our community. It makes them ripe for picking off and recruiting. It's a bigger issue there. There's two levels to this. It's not like it's political (ph) correctness. It's about what's accurate and what will save American lives.

KEILAR: But let's -- let's talk about recruitment, Christianne. You are in the -- this unenviable position of having lost your son to being recruited and going to fight for ISIS. You have said that there is this stigma around discussing radicalization, really the threat here or the vulnerabilities. Let's listen to some of what President Obama said, aside from just using Islam, he also talked about some of the other tools that, for instance, ISIS is using.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The high quality videos, the online magazines, the use of social media, terrorist Twitter accounts, it's all designed to target today's young people online in cyber space. And, by the way, the older people here, as wise and respected as you may be, your stuff is often boring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Your son, Christianne, was won over. Tell us about your son and also your message to parents of other young people who may be vulnerable.

BOUDREAU: Well, with Damien, I think initially he had met somebody who was looking for that vulnerability within him. And so they found that he had passion to want to help. He wanted to make a difference.

And the reasons he went over, he told me, were to help women and children. They were suffering at the hands of Bashar al Assad. It wasn't a religious ideology in his mind; that wasn't just the purpose for him. And once that information was given to him, they led him to areas online to seek out reinforcement to everything they were telling him. Unfortunately, at the time, there was nothing to counter that. There are no other ideas, in a healthy way, of how to help people to counter the ideologies that were planted.

And that's basically what's happening. We've got a whole medium out there now that reaches out to our children in their smart phones, in their iPads, through whatever medium there is, that we as parents don't have control over. The world is changing quickly. We can't be there 24/7. Things happen out in the environment. They have other environmental forces and factors that play a huge part in their lives, not just the parent. The parent is such a small piece.

And we really need to get past that stigma and that fear to engage them, A, into talking about it, educating them much further in advance. We do it with sex education, with drugs and everything else; why aren't we doing it with this? This is a problem that they face, and we need to arm them with those tools so they have the proper education going into it, so they're resilient to these types of things.

KEILAR: It's so --

BOUDREAU: And that's our responsibility as a parent.

KEILAR: So well said. It's so important. Local communities are really the battlefield as much as Iraq and Syria are the battlefield.

Christianne Boudreau, thank you so much. Dean Obeidallah, really appreciate you talking with us.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right, when we come back, Morgan Spurlock is going to take us inside another episode of "INSIDE MAN". He's looking at the Bitcoin. Michaela and Alisyn found this so fascinating, they come back to do this in this segment. You will see them after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BERAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: There it is.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We may have to change the song, right?

CAMEROTA: It's not a dollar.

Welcome back to NEW DAY. You've probably heard of Bitcoin, a new virtual currency. But do you really know what it is and how it works? Morgan Spurlock wanted to find out so he goes into the Bitcoin world in tonight's "INSIDE MAN". Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN SPURLOCK, CNN HOST (voice-over): This place is no different from any other auction house, but instead of bidding on art, I'm bidding on Bitcoin.

(on camera): What do I have to do to buy some Bitcoins?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much do you want to buy?

SPURLOCK: One.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, OK. The market's 627. Buyers are paying that, 634. You can say 630 right now and then you become the best bid in the market.

SPURLOCK: OK, Great. Then let's go for 630 right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me a minute, I'll squawk it out.

SPURLOCK: OK, he's going to squawk out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 627 bid, 627 bid -- 630. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 33.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For 627 bid. 633.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 41, 41. 31.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, 628 bid.

SPURLOCK: One coin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 631 ask. 628 bid, 631 ask.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you go 30, can you go 30?

SPURLOCK: I have no idea what's happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 629 bid. 630.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sold. Sold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 633.

SPURLOCK: So I'm buying 630 from you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SPURLOCK: OK, so now explain it to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: 630 of what?

CAMEROTA: Yes, and explain it to us. Joining us now is the host of "INSIDE MAN", Morgan Spurlock. I thought I was watching an episode from "Guys and Dolls" right there. What has happening?

SPURLOCK: I got great deal here, buddy. I got something great for you.

PEREIRA: I got a horse.

CAMEROTA: What was that?

SPURLOCK: So there is a Bitcoin center downtown just off of Wall Street where you can go buy and sell Bitcoin. And they have auctions. They have a running tab all day long, a tally of kind of what the market is for Bitcoin, what people are buying and selling it at. And so there are people there who actively go and buy and sell Bitcoins. That's where I started my journey.

PEREIRA: Flag on the play. Slow your roll. First of all, we have to describe and define what exactly Bitcoin is. Because I think a lot of people are struggling to understand. It's a digital currency. It doesn't really exist.

SPURLOCK: Yes. PEREIRA: It's not based off of gold as our dollar is.

SPURLOCK: Correct.

PEREIRA: So qu'est-ce que c'est?

SPURLOCK: So Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created to not kind of be influenced by volatility in the marketplace. Now, granted, a lot of people will say it is still a volatile currency, because of -- when I first bought it was $634. Now it's down to $200. So it's already dropped -- it's not good. It's already dropped 66 percent.

So some people will say, well, no, that's just what's happening. It's an influence of the economy. It will go back up. But it is still a bouncy currency. But it's one of those things that I can send anywhere in the world. I can send to you whether you're in South Africa, you're in South America. And there won't be any bank fees. There won't be anybody taking any money out of my or your pocket. So there are up sides to it that are positive.

CAMEROTA: You lost me at digital currency, which is the first thing you said. Is this in use right now?

SPURLOCK: It's in use right now. It's in use all over the world.

CAMEROTA: Who takes it?

SPURLOCK: All kinds of different people. One of the things I wanted to do essentially was see how could I live -- could I live -- on Bitcoin or nothing else? And there are grocery stores that take it; there are shops that take it. There are tons of websites that take it. So you can travel, you can buy plane tickets, whatever. So, for me there, it was interesting to see how many places in New York City are actually accepting Bitcoin.

PEREIRA: Because it was sort of was in the shadows a little bit and it was kind of --

SPURLOCK: Dodgy.

PEREIRA: Yes, a little dodgy, a little sketchy there. But now it's becoming more legit? Is it being widely accepted or is it a few bodegas here and there that are accepting it?

SPURLOCK: It's growing. There's an actual app that you can download that will show you everywhere in New York City or every city in America that uses Bitcoin, where you can go, which is pretty amazing. In the beginning, it was a nefarious currency, I would say.

PEREIRA: Black web.

SPURLOCK: Because it was associated with the deep web where people were buying and selling illegal goods, drugs, you name it.

PEREIRA: The dark web, I should say. SPURLOCK: Yes, the dark web. So what's happening now is it's

becoming much more mainstream. And it is a currency that more and more people are starting to rely on because they say, listen, I don't want to just have the government telling me what my money is worth. Can't I help dictate what that is through the marketplace?

PEREIRA: The million (ph) under the mattress thing isn't so smart anymore.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

SPURLOCK: That's right. And the other thing is there's no way to tie this money to anyone. You have a Bitcoin wallet that's in your phone. And there's no traceable currency. So I can send it to you --

PEREIRA: Which makes it a regulatory issue, doesn't it?

SPURLOCK: That's exactly right. So I now can send currency to everyone, and no one will know who sent it. I mean, it's completely invisible, that transaction.

CAMEROTA: That is so fascinating.

PEREIRA: I want to know more, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, I can tell you how to do that. Morgan, thanks so much for stopping by. And you can be sure to tune in to "INSIDE MAN" tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN to learn more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. I hope your NEW DAY is going well. Here on the show, we take a lot of pride on giving you what you need to know and smart talk about those topics, but every once in a while there's a jewel. Today it was John Berman's discussion with Sanjay Gupta about fiber. I want to thank you for that.

BERMAN: It was an important discussion, a medical discussion. And he is a medical doctor. It was good.

CUOMO: Very strong. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, I'm doubling down on that. We could all go with a little more fiber and I like the humor with it.

BERMAN: I've already said way too much about fiber today. I feel like I can't say anymore.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: You filled out your form (ph)?

BERMAN: Yes, exactly.

CUOMO: A lot of news this morning. Let's get you to the NEWSROOM with Carol Costello. You know you liked it.

KEILAR: She hate it.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEWSROOM": I think I'm not going there. Have a great day.

"NEWSROOM" starts now.