Would you like to see THE most clear and entertaining real story on some of the biggest dietary misconceptions out there?
If you haven’t yet seen the movie, Fat Head
In the movie, Fat Head, you’ll learn:
- How the “lipid hypothesis” began (the myth that saturated fats will kill us).
- How obesity and diabetes develop in our bodies.
- Why lowering carbohydrate intake, and increasing animal fats, is so good for us.
My only “negative” comment about the movie:
Just be aware that you may be a little confused in the beginning of the film. Before the best parts begin, it almost feels like the movie maker, Tom Naughton, wants us to eat fast food. He’s mainly challenging the logic in the movie, “Supersize Me”, to help people realize that it’s not the meat at fast food restaurants (or the saturated fats they contain) that make you sick; and that it’s everyone’s choice as to whether they’ll eat fast food or Supersized Coke & fries.
I only wish he would’ve clarified some things.
Making the point that meat isn’t bad for us is great, but how much better if he also got the message across on the vast differences in nutrition between a fast food burger and a grass fed burger from a farmer you trust. He also doesn’t tell us that fast food is usually made with the unhealthy vegetable oils that he so perfectly slams in the second part of the movie.
I emailed Tom Naughton to ask him about these concerns, and he was nice enough to reply and also let me post his answers here…
Before we go further, though, are you wondering how in the world we’re supposed to know who to believe?
When there are such gaps between what your doctor might be saying (“saturated fats cause heart disease!”) and what you see in this movie or hear about at this site (“saturated fats got a bad rap!”), you must wonder like I used to, “How do we know who to believe?” While there still may be some areas that seem muddled (one example that comes to mind: do we really need supplements?), in most cases, and in my mind anyway, figuring this out has become very simple because it all comes down to common sense. Read more about the criteria I use to find the truth on health & nutrition topics.
My email to Tom Naughton:
“I LOVED your movie and I’m working on a review of it for my site. I’m wondering something… I truly believe that Fat Head has the most clear and understandable information debunking the saturated fat myth that I’ve ever seen. (It’s also very entertaining and makes us laugh as we’re learning!) However, I thought the beginning of the movie was a bit confusing. I’m curious why you told people they could eat fast food and not get fat, without also telling them about the crap vegetable oils that fast food joints usually use; and then in the next section, you so brilliantly showed everyone why all they’ve learned about saturated fats is wrong. And I get your point, that no one is forced to eat fast food, but I thought Spurlock had a lot of good in his movie. For example, one of my favorite scenes was where he showed us how long fries can sit on the counter without going bad – gross! While you may not like how he did it, I see him as being “on our side”, because he’s encouraging people to steer clear of fast food.”
His reply:
“Hey, Kelly —
The vegetable oils are garbage, indeed, but if you avoid French fries, which I did, you won’t be consuming much of them. I ate some fried chicken strips, which is most likely why my HDL dropped during that month. If I were to repeat the experiment, I’d avoid those as well.
My beef (pardon the pun) with Spurlock was his premise that it’s because of fast food that we’re becoming obese. I see what people put in their carts at the grocery store, and it’s the same garbage … starches, sugars, products full of HFCS and mutant vegetable oils. Therefore I thought picking on fast food specifically was taking aim at the wrong target, which doesn’t help people understand obesity or avoid it.
He was also pushing the idea that saturated fat is bad and championing a vegetarian diet. As you know, I have issues with both. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up a vegetarian product to read the label and seen soybean oil as a primary ingredient. Yuck.
That being said, I thought his film was amusing. I just don’t believe people learn anything useful from it.
Best,
Tom”
My last question for him:
“I’d love to know (and share with my readers) how YOU found the truth about saturated fats? I call my story my “food conversion“, and I’m wondering what led to yours?
This will make a great post! Thanks so much.
Kelly”
His reply:
“Once I decided to live on a fast-food diet for the film, I started doing research into nutrition and health so I could explore those topics. I started coming across articles that dispute the whole idea that saturated fat is a health hazard, which led me eventually to people like Uffe Ravnskov, Malcolm Kendrick, Sally Fallon, Al Sears, Mike Eades, Gary Taubes, etc. The more I read, the more I concluded that while they’re in the minority, the evidence is on their side.
You’ve seen the film, so you know I used myself as a lab rat by consuming a diet very high in saturated fat for a month after I’d finished the fast-food diet. (That was based on a bit of challenge from Mike Eades.) The “saturated fat pigout” diet, however, included no processed vegetable oils, sugar or starch, except a small amount of low-sugar fruit. You saw the results: cholesterol dropped, HDL went up, LDL went down.”
Buy the movie, Fat Head
Here are a few clips – I love these!
Toward the end of this next one with Sally Fallon (from the Weston A. Price Foundation), she talks about the dangers of trans fats and also why Canola oil was developed and what’s so rotten about it:
- Buy the movie, Fat Head
- Have you seen this post? How did you get over your fat phobia?
- More on fast food dangers.
- Learn more! Other posts on healthy fats & oils.
Now I hope you’ll go check out more REAL FOOD posts: Ann Marie is hosting Real Food Wednesday this week!
Part of Fight Back Friday, Things I Love Thursday & Works for me Wednesday. 
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Dawn @ SmallFootprintFamily 09.23.09 at 12:56 am
I rented this on your suggestion and it was very, very funny and enlightening. I too am going to buy it now so I can show it around. Thanks for the review and for sharing what Tom Naughton had to say.
Kara @ Home With Purpose 09.23.09 at 1:46 am
I had the exact same reaction to the movie and had the exact same questions that you asked! It was a great movie, ESPECIALLY the second half, and I’ve been loving reading his blogs for the last few weeks.
Betsy 09.23.09 at 5:02 am
I got it from NetFlix on someone’s recommendation, didn’t know much about it and couldn’t remember who recommended it or why. So when it started, I was confused, too, having expected it to be “slanted” in favor of our way of eating. It got better.
Not that it wasn’t entertaining from the beginning!
I may put this on my Xmas list, too, or at least rent it again and make DH watch it, lol.
leah 09.23.09 at 9:07 am
This looks like a great movie!
Is Anne Marie having technical problems again? There’s no RFW post up yet at her blog…
Motherhen68 09.23.09 at 9:18 am
I rented this from Netflix after Jimmy Moore recommended it last year. It took FOREVER to come since it was an “extremely long wait”. When I finally received it, I loved it!
The best part for me was when Tom talked about statins, especially statins and women. I asked my mom the next day if she was taking statins and her reply was “of course, I have high blood pressure”. She wouldn’t even watch the film and is convinced that by eating food cooked in lard and coffee w/heavy cream which I eat, will kill me and she’s doing the right thing. What are you going to do?? It’s so frustrating, but she is a grown woman.
CHEESESLAVE 09.23.09 at 9:22 am
I love this movie! I’m only halfway through — it’s in my DVD player now. (I also got it from Netflix)
Loved your comments Kelly — I thought the same things.
Oh, and — I was so inspired by this movie (still only having only watched half), I reduced my calorie intake and started getting more exercise — and I lost 4 pounds the first week!
Local Nourishment 09.23.09 at 9:28 am
This has been on my Netflix queue since January and the demand is just so strong for it that we can’t ever get it! I love your post, Kelly, lots of great information. Thanks!
KitchenKop 09.23.09 at 10:15 am
Leah, it’s early there (CA), I think she’s working on it right now.
Motherhen, I KNOW! That is so sad and frustrating. It’s easier to take if they’d just listen, absorb it and then choose to disagree. I can handle that better than if they’re never open to hearing the truth at all.
Ann Marie, did you mean you reduced your carb intake or your calorie intake? I know you know this, but some things like cream have a lot of calories, but they’re good calories.
Kelly
KitchenKop 09.23.09 at 10:19 am
Ann Marie’s RFW post is up!
Kyle 09.23.09 at 12:21 pm
I’m going to have to look for this, I’d love to show it to other people! It sounds like I could learn some things too. Way to go at emailing him!
Jeanmarie 09.23.09 at 12:39 pm
I love this movie. I bought it from Amazon.com as soon as I heard of it a couple of months ago and I’ve watched it a couple of times. The extra interviews are also very good.
I hope people don’t take away from this that a fast-food diet is okay over the long term… what Fathead does is brilliantly refute the misinformation spouted by Morgan Spurlock and his (apparently) vegan agenda. I enjoyed Supersize me when I saw it but it always bothered me how Spurlock ignored the implications of the guy who ate a Big Mac every day but was lean and healthy. Why? He didn’t force-feed himself 5,000 calories a day, and he didn’t eat the fries or the sodas or all the other extras (that incidentally probably have the biggest profit margins. I know when I worked at a Sizzler steak house as a teen I was told to push sodas as they were low-cost, high-margin to the restaurant). Maybe he even got some exercise!
I do think McDonald’s is a terrible company in many respects (see the wonderful Indie documentary McLibel about a British couple who refused to bow under the weight of legal persecution by McDonald’s Corp.), but Naughton is correct that they do not twist people’s arms to get them to eat their food. We have to be responsible for our choices. We have to care enough about our health to learn about what promotes health and do that.
Charity Grace 09.23.09 at 3:33 pm
Hmmmm, I did have to read this just as I was pulling a pan of cookies out of the oven!
And also as soon as I had another nudge toward improving my family’s health as much as possible.
I enjoyed supersize me (Spurlock reminded me of a family member so much it was truly eerie), but I was really troubled by the implication that it was the fat that caused all Spurlock’s health problems. They only briefly pointed out that in the course of the month he ate THIRTY-FIVE pounds of sugar!!! The doctors were quick to assume that his health went downhill because of the fat alone…Not, perhaps, because the meat, eggs, and milk were of poor quality, or because he ate SO MUCH sugar, or because of the vegetable oils. I think it was helpful in pointing out the dangers of fast foods, but still led in the wrong direction.
Dana 09.23.09 at 7:39 pm
FYI, back in the early 20th century it was considered normal for grown people to eat 2900-3000 calories a day, if not much more for those doing manual labor. And even 1500 calories of fat is not going to do the same things to you as 1500 calories of wheat–they produce entirely different endocrine responses, and have different effects on fat storage. Most carbs and all dietary fats are stored in adipose tissue immediately after ingestion–but in healthy people that storage is supposed to be temporary, because in healthy people their insulin level drops down to just about nothing between meals. That doesn’t happen in people who tend toward obesity due to metabolic damage, which is a heck of a lot of us, including Spurlock when he was consuming 35 pounds of sugar in a month. And I’d be willing to lay money that was only the actual food sugar they counted, not all the other starchy carbs he got which turned into sugar in his body as well.
And it’s one thing to say “take responsibility for your health” and quite another to understand what that means. I suspect a lot more people at least think they are trying to take responsibility than we might guess from the results. But they’re being lied to. If you don’t know what you believe is a lie, why would you ever seek out the truth?
Karen 09.23.09 at 7:50 pm
I hadn’t even heard of this before – but can’t wait to see it…thanks, Kelly!
Cathy Payne 09.23.09 at 8:34 pm
I agree with you as well, Kelly. The clips are the best parts of the film, but you have to wait 45 minutes to get to the good part. I would have preferred to skip all the defense of fast food. It does contain some good information debunking myths but doesn’t really provide good guidelines for what are healthy food choices.
Vin - NaturalBias 09.24.09 at 8:06 am
Hi Kelly,
I was reading Tom’s blog (which is great) for a while before I actually watched Fat Head which gave me very high expectations for it. I too was a bit shocked by it’s beginning which I mentioned in the article I wrote about it. As great as the movie is, I think it would have been even better with a quick explanation of the low quality of fast food meat and that he was only consuming it to prove a point. However, I suppose that would have put some of the blame back on the fast food industry which takes away from the point that Tom intended to make.
Either way, it’s still a great movie and I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
angie 09.24.09 at 12:54 pm
great post thanks for sharing this useful information
'Becca 09.24.09 at 4:03 pm
I agree, there is a big difference between a fast-food burger and naturally raised beef on real bread! His e-mail to you should say, “…if you avoid French fries and all deep-fried foods.” Anything deep-fried, such as a fried chicken or fish sandwich, is loaded with the same horrifying oil as the French fries.
Jeanmarie 09.24.09 at 4:16 pm
I agree, Dana, that there’s much more to it than personal responsibility. When the media and store shelves are awash in misinformation and health-destroying products, you really have to go the extra mile to seek out more complete information. On a personal level, we need to take responsibility for our health, because no one will care more for us than ourselves. That doesn’t negate the fact that on a societal level, misinformation and bad advice can have devastating public health consequences — we can see that around us every day.