Fat Head (documentary)
Encyclopedia
Fat Head is a 2009 American documentary film
directed by and starring Tom Naughton
. The film seeks to refute both the documentary SuperSize Me, a Sundance Film Festival
award-winning film, and the lipid hypothesis
, a bedrock of nutritional science for decades in the United States and much of the Western world.
The first part of Fat Head focuses on ways the film SuperSize Me stretched credibility or used questionable reasoning. Though the debate that the two films encapsulate will likely continue for a long time, Naughton employs transparency in his effort. An article in the Houston Chronicle
reports: "Unlike Spurlock, Naughton has a page on his Web site that lists every item (including nutritional information) he ate during his fast-food month."
The second part of the documentary focuses on the science and politics behind the nutrition recommendations given by the U.S. government - largely based on the lipid hypothesis which Fat Head claims is in error on all three of its main propositions.
The film claims that the lipid hypothesis has no basis in scientific fact. According to the film there has never been a single scientific study that has linked a high fat diet to increased rates of heart disease. During the film several doctors and dieticians were interviewed and they all stated that according to the latest research in heart disease it is inflammation (typically caused by high blood sugar) and not a diet high in saturated fat that causes heart disease and heart attacks.
The film makes many controversial claims, but, it details the scientific studies that support them and it conveys and clarifies the often complex concepts in the scientific controversies it deals with in a way that is targeted to the general public.
During the film, Tom goes on an all-fast-food diet, mainly eating food from McDonald's. For his daily dietary intake, he aims to keep his calories to around 2,000 and his carbs to around 100 grams per day, but he doesn't restrict fat at all. He ends up eating about 100 grams of fat per day, of which about 50 grams are saturated. After a month eating that way, he loses 12 pounds and his total cholesterol goes down. Due to the trans fats used in fast food products his HDL does go down, but overall, his lipid profile
, and other markers for health, improve quite a bit. His personal experiment does seem to agree with the evidence cited in the film that suggests that the lipid hypothesis is not only incorrect, but perhaps is contributing to the problem it seeks to remedy.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
directed by and starring Tom Naughton
Tom Naughton
Tom Naughton is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, writer, and stand up comedian best known for the documentary film Fat Head. He is known for his advocating of a Paleolithic diet and speaking out against the Lipid hypothesis. Naughton is a former Vegetarian and alcoholic...
. The film seeks to refute both the documentary SuperSize Me, a Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
award-winning film, and the lipid hypothesis
Lipid hypothesis
The lipid hypothesis was one of two hypotheses developed in the 1850s to explain the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis...
, a bedrock of nutritional science for decades in the United States and much of the Western world.
The first part of Fat Head focuses on ways the film SuperSize Me stretched credibility or used questionable reasoning. Though the debate that the two films encapsulate will likely continue for a long time, Naughton employs transparency in his effort. An article in the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
reports: "Unlike Spurlock, Naughton has a page on his Web site that lists every item (including nutritional information) he ate during his fast-food month."
The second part of the documentary focuses on the science and politics behind the nutrition recommendations given by the U.S. government - largely based on the lipid hypothesis which Fat Head claims is in error on all three of its main propositions.
The film claims that the lipid hypothesis has no basis in scientific fact. According to the film there has never been a single scientific study that has linked a high fat diet to increased rates of heart disease. During the film several doctors and dieticians were interviewed and they all stated that according to the latest research in heart disease it is inflammation (typically caused by high blood sugar) and not a diet high in saturated fat that causes heart disease and heart attacks.
The film makes many controversial claims, but, it details the scientific studies that support them and it conveys and clarifies the often complex concepts in the scientific controversies it deals with in a way that is targeted to the general public.
During the film, Tom goes on an all-fast-food diet, mainly eating food from McDonald's. For his daily dietary intake, he aims to keep his calories to around 2,000 and his carbs to around 100 grams per day, but he doesn't restrict fat at all. He ends up eating about 100 grams of fat per day, of which about 50 grams are saturated. After a month eating that way, he loses 12 pounds and his total cholesterol goes down. Due to the trans fats used in fast food products his HDL does go down, but overall, his lipid profile
Lipid profile
Lipid profile or lipid panel, is the collective term given to the estimation of, typically, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. An extended lipid profile may include very low-density lipoprotein...
, and other markers for health, improve quite a bit. His personal experiment does seem to agree with the evidence cited in the film that suggests that the lipid hypothesis is not only incorrect, but perhaps is contributing to the problem it seeks to remedy.
External links
- "Fat Head" official website
- Fat Head on HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...