Has anyone seen the docu-movie "Fathead"? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it. (I watched it last night - sooooooooooooo interesting!)
I like some points but didn't care for others. I thought blaming kids obesity on school buses was ridiculous... I think it would've been a 1000 times better if be didn't spend 80% bashing "supersize me"
But, aside from that, Iike how simple he explained the problem with refined carbs. It makes sense.
I agree - his explanations about insulin and calories was very interesting. Also, his information about the validity of BMI and obesity was not new to me, but a good reminder.
I think his point was made, though, that fast food can't be blamed for obesity problems.
I didn't realize so much of his documentary was meant to "debunk" Supersize Me - he could easily make two documentaries. One focused on Supersize Me, and the other explaning how our bodies handle fat/carlories/carbs/etc.
I've watched it a few times and I hated Supersize Me. The math just didn't add up and it only villified a company that works pretty hard to give a clean, safe environment to people and offer affordable and consistant meal choices. No one forces anyone to go there and order the worst thing on the menu!
I've been eating high fat/high protein/tons of veggies for awhile now and my BP was 140/90 and is down to 110/60 and my cholesterol was up to 240 and now down to 180 (still high, but better). I've also gone from 295lbs down to 235 (I was weighed at the dr's office) since May. There's some truth to what he's saying!
That's awesome! I was told to watch it by a friend of mine who was nearly 500 pounds and is now under 400 (and still going!). He eats mostly meat with veggies to fill in. He doesn't watch his fat content....just doesn't eat carbs. It's kind of incredible!
Hmm, as someone that doesn't (and won't) do low carb, is it going to annoy me? Sure, I'd lose weight going low carb, high protein because I'd have chronic diarrhea. I also only have one kidney, so high protein wouldn't be a great choice for me anyway. My blood work is fantastic, and I'm still losing weight.
Just watched it. While I thought "Supersize Me" was ridiculous... the guy intentionally pigged out on the worst things he could find and then blamed McD'... I also think "Fathead" is off base. Talking about what people ate for so many years compared to the "foods" generally available now is unrealistic. For most of history people were not feeding and processing animals in the manner they are now... nor were they filling our fruits and veggies full of GMO and pesticides. Examine the labels on processed foods; follow through and see what those ingredients actually consist of. A huge percentage of it is made from GMO corn and soy -- plus everything from wood pulp to dangerous chemicals.
I do totally agree that what the government calls overweight and obese is ridiculous. Years back I worked out, ate a healthful diet and was at a weight when I looked good and was very fit. According to the government stats I was overweight. Ha I'd LOVE to be back there now.
This guy is also right that a population an average of 10 years older than they were at a study years ago is going to weight more. However, I live in an area of the country that is considered among the fittest in the nation... still I look around me closely and am surprised at how large a percentage of people -- including children -- are obviously overweight and out of shape.
I have also been studying a lot about the food industry (check out some of Michael Pollan's stuff) and DO very much believe the food industry is intentionally loading the "food" with cheap corn and soy, piling it full of sugar and salt, fake sugar, and chemicals which are addictive.
I've switched to a semi-vegetarian eating plan... I eat a bit of meat but not much... and my health has improved dramatically, which has been noticed by my friends as well as my doctors.
I find this documentary to be biased in the opposite direction from "Supersize Me."
Supersize Me was just exploiting something everybody knows - junk food and sodas together with a sedentary lifestyle will sooner or later make you obese. On the other hand, during my longest stay in USA [about 15 weeks]. I was eating 90% in fast foods, because it was cheap and easily accessible everywhere. Breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, mostly Burger King and Taco Bell, sometimes McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC or Wendy's. Never limiting quantity nor calories, carbs and fats always eaten to the fullest. At the end I was so fed up with junk food I couldn't simply bear to eat a burger or a pizza, I had enough. And guess what... it was the time I unintentionally lost 15 lbs. How did it happen? Being active, as a tourist, the "european way".
On the other side, Fat Head is a ridiculously direct counter-strike done by the junk food industry, aimed to discredit "Supersize me". Not too much of a lie, but neither giving any useful message for the audience. The bottomline is just "McDonald's is not guilty for obesity". Of course they are not, but how does that help obese people, or yet-to-be-obese people?
I watched it the other day (because it was free on Hulu, and I'm on Thanksgiving Break).
I personally thought that the documentary was really annoying for the minimal dietary information that it contained, but that's probably because I don't care for the "fast food is not responsible for obesity" argument. It was a good reminder for me to keep my carbs relatively low though (which has skyrocketed since I got to college!!)
In regards to the comment that large food industries do not own food or family farmers would be rich, corporations own most of the food in this world. Family farmers do not supply the larger industry. At least for the most part. In fact fa ily farms are struggling because corporations run the food industry which means things like although there are multiple organic apples to be had here in Ontario they come from the USA or ???
There are many healthy people that eat carbs. Junk food is bad for us for a multitude of reasons. If you eat low or high carb junk sure weight can be lost if calories are lowered. But is it healthy?
Just another way to obsess about food which is a key reason for obesity. We are nations poor in emotional health and rich in abundant cheap crappy food. The perfect drug.
Pasta and bread are addictive - this is one point. One quote in the movie says sugar is toxic, but so can be water or oxygen, so I consider this as a nasty manipulation. And last but not least, I still can't understand what make people think that too much refined sugar is bad, but too much (saturated) fat can't be bad. And this while eating way more meat (and animal fat) than any other nation in human's history, AND being surprised they get health problems no civilization had before.
Last edited by MadProfessor; 12-08-2012 at 02:51 AM.
Found it, didn't know about it before, kind of an eyeopener cause I've come to believe that sugar is my personal devil. The film explains that well. Honestly tho I still love pasta and rice and bread, and that's probably my problem.
I eat every one of those and don't consider them problems. I don't eat the "cheap stuff" in the regular grocery stores (with the exception of brown rice) but buy whole grain bakery bread, and organic pasta... especially love organic butternut squash ravioli purchased from a natural foods market. They are not enemies... the catch is I just don't eat them in large quantities and don't eat them every day... in fact I haven't had any of them this week at all. But with my eating plan managed well, I can and do enjoy pasta, rice and bread all three.
They often get a bad rap because people just plain eat way too much of them. But the right kind of them can be healthful nutritious foods. I've lost 72 pounds eating them, so they can't be all THAT bad.
Oh and to stay on topic... yes I have seen Fat Head. Definitely some valid points and IMO definitely some not-so-valid one. And I agree with MadProfessor about the massive quantities of meat eaten by most Americans. One of the smartest things I've ever done was learn to give up most of that and eat meat just occasionally.
As Michael Pollan says in "Food Rules" -- "Eat [real] food... not too much... mostly plants."
Last edited by Misti in Seattle; 12-08-2012 at 04:21 AM.
