Over the weekend, I watched “Fathead”, a documentary produced in reaction to Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me”. This documentary completely challenged everything I knew about weight loss and heart disease, and was also incredibly informative and entertaining.
Tom Naughton, a stand-up comedian and computer programmer, set out to prove Morgan Spurlock wrong. Fast food can be part of a healthy diet. Tom decided that he’d eat fast food three times a day for a month, just like Spurlock…but he’d LOSE weight, not gain it.
According to the “Fathead” official site, the creators describe the film as a “delicious parody of Super Size Me…Naughton serves up plenty of no-bologna facts that will stun most viewers, such as: The obesity “epidemic” has been wildly exaggerated by the CDC. People the government classifies as “overweight” have longer lifespans than people classified as “normal weight.” Having low cholesterol is unhealthy. Lowfat diets can lead to depression and type II diabetes. Saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease — but sugars, starches and processed vegetable oils do.”
Naughton’s plan was simple: maintain a caloric intake of 2000 calories per day while eating only fast food (and a couple of “Carb Options” snack bars.) But you can’t just cut calories to lose weight. You need to be eating the correct types of food, and in the correct ratio. And you also need to take into account your hormones, particularly insulin. When insulin levels are up, you are more likely to store calories from food as fat, rather than burning them. And what increases insulin levels? The consumption of sugars and carbohydrates. So Naughton decided that he’d limit both calories and carbs, ingesting 100 grams of carbohydrates per day.
While Morgan Spurlock gained 25 pounds in his 30 day fast food diet, Tom Naughton lost 12 pounds in just 28 days. His BMI dropped from 31.2 to 28.2, and cholesterol also improved. And that number is even more impressive when you hear what percentage of his calories came from saturated fats: a whopping 54%.
But saturated fats aren’t as bad as we’ve been conditioned to believe. Mother nature isn’t stupid. We prefer fatty foods because our bodies crave these foods, because we evolved to eat animal fats over millions of years. The diets of our ancestors were mostly meat-based, with a few fruits and veggies, and very few carbs…and they didn’t have a lot of heart disease. It wasn’t until the advent of agriculture that wheat and grains became a big part of our diet, and it wasn’t until several decades ago (when we started eating processed vegetable oils) that heart disease rates increased.
According to the lipid hypothesis, “Saturated fat raises cholesterol, and cholesterol causes heart disease.” But this hypothesis was based on skewed, outdated research. According to the doctors interviewed for “Fathead”, the lipid hypothesis is “bogus”. No medical studies have proved that a high-fat diet causes heart disease. In fact, several major medical studies have proved that high-fat diets have no link to heart attack rates.
Eating a diet rich in saturated fats has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels in your blood. And it isn’t cholesterol that causes clogs in your heart valves. Inflammation does. Cholesterol can build up on these inflamed parts of the heart as part of the healing process, but the root of heart disease is inflammation. And if you want to increase your HDL (good cholesterol), you need to eat more saturated fats. Bad cholesterol (small LDL) levels are increased by eating sugars and carbs.
Stress, elevated insulin levels, and smoking all cause heart disease. They also cause elevated levels of cholesterol, which is why people thought for so long that cholesterol caused heart disease, when really it is just a SYMPTOM of heart disease.
Processed vegetable oils and transfats are rich in Omega-6 fatty acids. And while your body needs a little of these fatty acids, too many cause stiffening of cell membranes and inflammation. You’re better off eating fries cooked in beef tallow or duck fat than fries cooked in vegetable oils.
So, in summation, here are Tom’s tips for losing weight and making your heart healthier:
1. Limit your calories to what is appropriate for your size and activity level.
2. Only eat natural fats, not transfats or processed vegetable oils (cook food in butter or coconut oil)
3. Limit your carb intake to 100 grams per day (not the 300 grams per day suggested by the FDA)
4. Get about 50% of your calories from saturated fats
5. Avoid foods with a high glycemic index (note that most unsweetened cereals still have a glycemic index rating that is higher than granulated sugar)
Follow these tips, and you’ll likely see the same success as Tom did.
After watching the intro to this movie, I had to turn it off. Tom was monotone in his presentation and the whole thing seemed to be retaliation from the spurned fast food industry.
As for the final steps, I agree with all of them except #4, which gave me a shock when I read it (surely he meant 5%?) – that’s a HUGE portion of saturated fat in the diet; something that you don’t even need to be healthy. According to the Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200), you should limit saturated fat to 10% but “lowering calories from saturated fat to 7 percent can further reduce your risk of heart disease.” That doesn’t mean you have to consume it at all. According to the FDA (http://www.fda.gov/food/labelingnutrition/ConsumerInformation/ucm109832.htm):
“Saturated and trans fats raise LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol levels in the blood, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease…Therefore, it is advisable to choose foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol as part of a healthful diet… choose the food with the lower amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. Health experts recommend that you keep your intake of these nutrients as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet.”
The other tips aren’t anything new. Those are standards that have been in place for a while and aren’t Tom’s at all, but the FDA’s.
I’ll take the advice from “Supersize Me” and avoid fast food except on the very rare occasion. Countless studies have confirmed that fast food is NOT healthy. How can it be? Saturated fats, oils used over and over again to fry foods in, meats with fillers in them, breads lacking whole grains and corn syrup laced throughout; all highly processed foods. My body doesn’t need that.
The Mayo clinic is wrong. The FDA is wrong. The simple truth is that they have based their advice on one research project that discarded all of the information that didn’t say exactly what the researchers wanted it to say, and that is, that saturated fats are bad. Ancel Keys is the bogus researcher that committed that travesty.
But since that is exactly what most people have been taught, they refuse to see the actual, true, factual science that is presented in the documentary, that is presented in Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes, and that is presented in countless other ways. Some people cling to their beliefs even when the truth right in front of their eyes says that they are wrong.
Hi Ryan. Thank you for your response. I have a hard time believing anyone, though, who says that “people the government classifies as “overweight” have longer lifespans than people classified as “normal weight.” Where is the research behind this statement?
I wrote a post about this after submitting my comment. I brought up a couple of other points that I question: http://cot.ag/gw7C1Q
While I don’t know how the FDA/mayo clinic have come to their conclusions, I suspect it was not from one study. The NHS in the UK have come to very similar conclusions about saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease and has based these on carefully going through all available research (not just ancel keys!), assessing the research quality and putting the results together to see what common factors come out. This is done transparently and can be found in documents such as:
http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign97.pdf
(note: it is in the best interest of the NHS to prevent ill-health as it keeps their costs down – less people on drugs/having surgery is definitely cheaper.)
The “truth” is that no-one knows exactly what is going on yet with diet and cardiovascular disease and recommendations can only be based on the knowledge we have to date. We know pretty certainly that smoking and obesity strongly increase cardiovascular risk and that fruit and vegetables reduce it, but we don’t know all the mechanisms involved to make that happen. There is quite a lot of evidence to show high saturated fat diets increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing LDL cholesterol and this is further supported by evidence that lowering cholesterol levels reduces risk (e.g through statins or by dietary changes). BUT there are different types of saturated fat and these may have different effects (e.g. that from palm oil/animals is linked with increased cholesterol, but saturated fat from coconut oil isn’t). There is also evidence to show monounsaturated fats (as found in olive oil) reduce cardiovascular risk as they increase HDL cholesterol levels – so while a low fat diet may help with weight loss (9 kcal/g for fat, 4 kcal/g for protein and carbs), a low fat diet is not outright better for your heart. It’s clearly complicated and that’s before bringing genetics in (some ethnic groups are at higher risk of heart disease etc).
It is only when a large body of research builds up that consistently says the same thing that we can say we “know” something. Right now the fact that you have conflicting views to the FDA and can quote a bit of research to support it does not mean you are correct. Likewise if the FDA had more evidence for their views they would be able to make recommendations they could prove without a doubt (similar to smoking –> lung cancer) and you wouldn’t have conflicting views to them – you would agree because they could prove it beyond a doubt. I’m just trying to say is that it is very likely Gary Taubes etc and the FDA probably both have SOME valid points and SOME things that are incorrect – as more research is needed in many areas of heart disease.
I’m sure if we all stop smoking, eat more vegetables (and some fruit) and keep our weight down our cardiovascular disease risk will decrease. As for the things we are less sure about, probably best to keep our intakes of these things moderate and monitor our personal responses – if your cholesterol is high why not try reducing saturated and trans fats and monitor your cholesterol, but if that doesn’t work try something else and monitor…
“The diets of our ancestors were mostly meat-based, with a few fruits and veggies, and very few carbs…and they didn’t have a lot of heart disease.”
I find this hard to believe. It is very costly, energy-wise, to stalk and hunt. The calorie benefit gained from hunting meat had to outweigh the cost to get it. Hence the rise of agriculture – it was more successful to not only eat a plant-based diet, it was cheaper energy-wise. Stalking the wild asparagus is much cheaper, energywise, than stalking the wild ox. :-)
Like the rest of nature, humans evolve to fit various ecosystems. The Inuit eat meat and fat almost exclusively, while other native peoples eat mostly plant-based diets. There is no one size fits all, as it were.
To balance out this story, it would be good to see some health statistics from a group of people who are mostly vegetarian as a way of life and who eat whole grains for their carbs (say, Seventh-Day Adventists).
Lastly, this is all anecdotal. Did a doctor or dietician review this?
Sure, it may be easier to hunt down some asparagus, but how much energy are you going to get out of a handful of asparagus, vs a wild animal? There’s no comparison, you can feed a family with a deer, but good luck feeding even one person with asparagus. You will never, ever feel satiated after eating asparagus.
And as for vegetarians… have you ever seen an actually healthy vegetarian? Not just some skinny twig of a person, but someone who could actually defend their lot from a hungry lion? Not exactly.
I’ll go beyond vegetarian and point to a list of vegans that are not twigs.
http://www.bestveganguide.com/vegan-athletes.html
Our vast genetic pool never ceases to amaze me. Despite how horribly we treat ourselves (e.g. eating like a vegan) some outliers can always find a way to thrive. Just imagine how they’d do if they weren’t so terribly led astray.
Exactly. Hmmmm…. let’s see, should I drink down this cup of beef fat in like a minute or eat 120 pounds of asparagus ALL DAY LONG?
Exactly. Hmmmm…. let’s see, should I drink down this cup of beef fat in like a minute or eat 120 pounds of asparagus ALL DAY LONG?
what would the calorie defecit be if our ancestors gathered enough whole grains (grass seed), soaked them, ground them by hand into a paste, then cooked them. that is what it takes to make grass seed edible. but yet they are a pretty bad source of nutrients. hunting meat in an unfettered environment is not such a laborious undertaking for skilled, nomadic tribes. the wildlife is plentiful.
also, there are no tribes today living a primitive lifestyle like our ancestors who do not eat meat.
Quinoa, spelt, apples, peaches, berries, kale, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, rice…there are edible plants other than grass seed.
As for a “tribe” living exclusively on plant-based edibles? Here you go:
http://www.llu.edu/public-health/health/about.page?
“(Seventh Day) Adventists, due in part to their unique dietary habits, have a lower risk than other Americans of heart disease, several cancers, and probably high blood pressure, arthritis, and diabetes. This, along with their wide variety of dietary habits, provides a special opportunity for careful research to answer a host of scientific questions about how diet (and other health habits) may change the risk of suffering from many chronic diseases.”
I am not a Seventh Day Adventist – nor do I play one on TV. I just know about their lifestyle from eating at one of their restaurants in Boston.
I am speaking of primitive tribes who eat to thrive and survive. People who do not have access to medicine or supplements.
It might be true that there are few tribes that don’t eat meat, but that’s not the point. The majority of hunter-gatherer societies today get the bulk of their diet from plant-based foods, not meat. The only exception I know of is in extremely cold areas where plant foods are scarce. As Helade says, grass seed is DEFINITELY not the only plant-based food out there. In pretty much any ecosystem you can find a variety of nuts, berries, root vegetables, edible fungi, fruit, grains, and other plant foods for the picking. Meat is an efficient source of energy, but actually fairly difficult to gather regularly AND in large quantities without expending so much energy as to make the whole exercise futile. So they don’t! They hunt and fish and trap, but they know if they don’t catch anything it’s not the end of the world because plant foods are still plentiful. If you read up a little on the dietary habits of the !Kung I believe they are fairly typical for HG societies.
By the way, you can find a fairly detailed breakdown of the !Kung diet here:
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-3f.shtml
There is a disconnect permeating this debate.
We’re human and we’re pattern seeking animals. This ability has helped us thrive and survive. The downside to this tendency results in attempts to seek “all-or-nothing” answers about any number of questions — black or white, either-or, us or them.
The question of what we should eat probably goes back to our early ancestors. They had to learn by trial and error. Today, so do we. Most every commenter thus far has claimed their position — whether paleo diet, low carb, high grain, low grain, carnivorous, vegetarian, etc. — as valid based on scientific or case studies.
The conclusion?
We are all wrong.
There is no Holy Diet Grail except two principles…moderation and diversity. That means a diet rich in..a little bit of everything..even junk or fast food when you want it…can result in a healthy, happy life.
The problem develops when we turn diet into dogma. Thou must not eat any sugar ever. Thou must not eat grains. Thou must not eat meat. Thou must not have a Whopper. Thou must use MY DIET because MY DIET is the ONE TRUE NUTRITIONAL GOD.
Let’s face it: We don’t know which diet will absolutely allow us to live long and happy lives. When we study centenarians (i.e. The Blue Zones), we find that many factors that contribute to a stimulating long life have more to do with how we live rather than what we specifically eat.
People who develop less stress (The Blue Zone people of Sardina, Okinawa, Costa Rica, etc.), who have a positive outlook, who exercise as a natural part of their day, and who have strong social ties, seem to live longer no matter what their diet (except for the vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists in the Blue Zone study, none of the populations practice an exclusionary diet).
From an anecdotal view on longevity, I’ve learned that there is no X factor that guarantees longevity — we can only ride a wave of probability (i.e. What is most likely to contribute to the Holy Grail of Health?).
The very fact we are having this debate demonstrates the problem: The issue of finding the perfect diet has a strong undercurrent of stress. Our quest for just the right gym or exercise machine has a strong undercurrent of stress.
In short, remove the stress; get happy, get connected; get active (gym membership NOT necessary) and live longer. The first step is to quit hurling studies and guesses at each other and admit (repeat after me): “We’re Not Sure.”
Seventh Day Adventists are healthier than the general population and this is usually attributed to their being vegetarians. However, they don’t smoke or consume alcohol. Mormons, who also do not smoke or consume alcohol and are the biggest beef eaters in the U.S. are healthier than Seventh Day Adventists. Per Occam’s razor….
Oh, and the comment about our ancestors eating mostly saturated foods- yes. And guess what they didn’t do for most of the day?
Sit on their rear ends.
Ha Ha Ha, this is so true!
I watched this documentary the other day. I really enjoyed it and went out and bought the kindle edition of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Taubes. It’s along the same lines and it’s really good also.
[...] Read it. [...]
I’m on a paleo diet for last month and it is working wonders for me. I’ve lost 20lbs without doing any exercise eating lots of butter, coconut oil, eggs, meats and vegetables.
We humans are not evolved to eat grains, legumes and lentils. They contain some very harmful proteins like gluten, anti-nutrients and phytic acid that do no good to us.
This post and the film Fathead are both irresponsible and frighteningly misinformed. A lack of the proper amount of nutrients can cause a person to lose weight, because the body starts drawing nutrients from fat stores, muscles, and bones, which can cause irreversible damage. Tom’s tips for losing weight would suggest avoiding fast food restaurants. I am shocked that this post was published.
Your first sentence is baseless. Avoiding fast food isn’t the point. Avoid consuming excessive amounts of sugar, limit overall carbohydrate intake. Don’t fall victim to the lipid hypothesis. In regards to nutrients, carbohydrate isn’t essential for humans. None. Zero.
Use FREE INTERNET SEARCH to inform yourself on anything you’re not familiar with.
Yes, because we all know that fast food is completely lacking in carbohydrates and simple sugars. That was one of the points of Spurlock’s movie – the supersizing aspect of sodas, fries, etc. and their effect on the average Joe.
did u even see part of the movie? Naughton ate less than 100 grams of carbs a day all at a fast food restaurant. that is about a 3rd of what the average joe eats. he lost weight and lowered his cholesterol. Naughton’s point was that it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. People need to take responsibility for themselves and find out what is trully healthy. No one forces them into a restaurant and tells them what they need to eat. Our government does recommend eating less fat. Guess what replaces that macronutrient? CARBS!
What I would like to know (maybe not actually) is why people would want to prove they can eat fast food that much? Even if it doesn’t have ANY negative effects on weight or heart disease it will ceratinly not provide the nutrient spectrum we need. Not to mention is is the lowest quality “food” you could imagine consuming. What about fibre for goodness sake?
AND how many people will be so health conscious and regimented walking into a fast food restaurant. Just because it could possibly be true does not mean it will be practically true.
Come on people, eat some berries and nuts at least. or at least if you want to throw out the suggestion of eating any grains, at least eat good quality meat…
you didn’t watch fathead either did you?
What about fiber? It hasn’t been shown to have any health benefits.
none? that’s a bit extreme. So are you living a zero carbohydrate diet (ie meat/fish and oil only?) – no nuts, dairy, berries..?
I agree with Haley. Fad diets (e.g., Atkins) and misleading information that is not based on nutrition science but instead sees conspiracies everywhere have no place on a lifehack site, as far as I’m concerned. This post has led me to remove this site’s feed from my home page. Just terrible. Don’t believe me? Ask a real nutritionist.
You really have no idea what you are talking about.
You couldn’t be more wrong…no one here is saying NOT to consume veggies and fruits…rather that they are overhyped. Fruits are high in carbs and sugar…yes it is better to eat grapes than a little debbie snack but fruits should be limited. Veggies are essential but only as a side dish to meat. Meat should make up 70% 80% of your diet. And that does not mean eating 3 steaks a day!! It means 1 big steak a handful of mixed nuts and perhaps some sauted veggies with water. That’s it! We aren’t meant to eat a lot. I’ve seen so-called vegetarians and sure they are thin but they have no muscle mass and they also have little bellys. I am ripped and I don’t even work out. Fat is should be your main source of energy. I would reccomend cutting carbs from 50 to zero. They are really non essential.
I loved the movie. I had read Taubes’ book before and had wondered if someone would make a response to Spurlock’s movie.
Some other things that are funny. The supposed “food pyramid” that is recommended by the government comes from the Department of Agriculture–yes, Agriculture and not Health. I guess it’s not big surprise that grains are promoted most. Secondly, what do farmers use to fatten up livestock? If you said “grain,” you would be correct.
Another good book in the same sort of way as Taubes book is Gina Kolata’s “Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss.”
I do love to see these types of posts on blogs other than the paleo/primal blogs I follow. It means this information is getting more an more popular, more and more in the faces of those who need to see it most. Thank you!
Everything you know is wrong. The Mayo clinic is wrong. The FDA is wrong. All of these wrong sources of information got their wrong information from the wrong place. The truth is available, but it won’t come from Big Agra and Big Pharma, both of whom make a lot of money with you eating their unhealthy food and taking their pills and shots and medicines.
there are many commentors on here that obviously did not watch the move Fathead. Until you watch it, do not criticize the author or Tom Naughton’s recommendations. Watch the movie, learn the science and come back. Would love to read your comments then.
It sounds like you are referring to the movie “Fathead” and self-proclaimed medical school dropout, Tom Naughton, as a reputable source of scientific and nutritional information. Some acclaimed doctors do support a primal diet, but overwhelming research has shown that diets high in fat do in fact increase risk of heart disease and cancer. World Health Organization information regarding lipid risk factors:
http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/en/cvd_atlas_06_lipids.pdf
We could argue all day about who’s research and findings are more accurate, but the fact remains that supporting the accuracy of FDA heart health recommendations by proving one can lose weight on a diet of fast food is imprudent.
your reference measures risk based on cholesterol levels which is bad science. WHO stats show no correlation with high cholesterol levels and heart disease deaths. http://escapetheherdblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/cholesterol-will-kill-younot-so-fast.html
i encourage you to actually watch the movie Fathead. I too was of the same opinion as you until I looked around and realized the typical diet prescription has done nothing but make the US an extremely unhealthy population.
I too was really skeptical, but the second half of the movie was amazingly informative and prompted me to go do my own research. Grin and bear the obnoxious narrator, and watch the movie.
This movie is just a bite of bacon on how wrong and ass backwards the ADA, FDA, USDA are in regards to their dietary recommendations that everyday get spewed onto the populace through dietitians, doctors, etc. If you want some good info on cholesterol (and probably more detail than you’d care to know), start here:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/01/does-dietary-saturated-fat-increase.html
or here:
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/
It’s really unfortunate that the host of this movie is so obnoxious and that he promotes fast food so much. It’s painful to watch the first half… but the second half, where actual research is referenced, is FASCINATING. It got me to research a lot more about paleo/primal eating and the lipid hypothesis from more reliable-sounding sources. Watch the movie, then do your own research.
I lost a 150 lbs over the course of just under 3 years.
I pretty much treated it like a math problem:
1 lb is 3500 calories.
Limit my intake to about 2100-2300 calories a day. I didn’t care where they came from, so I ate what I craved. I just made sure that I stuck to my daily limit. It may not be the “healthiest” way of eating, but I find that my food choices tend to be balanced, and if I want fast food I can have it. I just have to make sure the rest of my day doesn’t go over my limit. And if it does, no big deal, I wouldn’t be hard on myself for it, I would just try to stick it better the next day.
I worked out at the gym 3 times a week and would do an hour or so on my elliptical at home on a couple of the off days. Sure I could have lost weight faster. But I never felt I was on a diet because I ate what I wanted, I just kept the overall intake of calories within range.
So about a pound or so a week for a few years, I hit my goal weight. I have maintained that weight for almost 2 years now, and have no fear of regaining it. As I have learned a way of eating I can live with for the rest of my life. Diet implies a short term process to achieve your desired weight. When in fact you have to find a method of eating that you can live with for the rest of your life, or you are just going to rebound.
My god, people are idiots. They will keep parroting the FDA, ADA, AHA, b******t guidelines fed to them by the media without EVER bothering to think for themselves, do a little research, and find out the truth.
Since this post is about the movie Fat Head, maybe people should WATCH it before spouting off. It’s free on Hulu. Or are uninformed opinions somehow more valuable?
Whereas almost any restrictive diet will cause weight loss in the first 4-6 weeks (and despite the “Fathead” label, that diet IS restrictive), the conventional wisdom on saturated fats is very skewed.
More and more high-quality studies (as opposed to “observational” studies) point to saturated fats not being nearly the bogeyman they’re made out to be.
However, the QUALITY of food from a fast-food restaurant could cause long-term nutrient deficiencies, first and foremost being the low quality of mass-produced meats. And even if you included the fast-food salads, most items thrown on them are of relatively low nutrient density (iceberg lettuce!).
So, in short, “dieting” via fast food isn’t the road to actual overall health, but eating quality proteins accompanied by saturated fats just might be a part of it.
I think many are misunderstanding the point of the movie Fathead. The creator was initially doing a reaction to the movie Super Size Me because he believed there were many flaws or misrepresentations in that movie. Tom Naughton felt Morgan Spurlock falsified the diet he said he ate and asked on multiple occasions for the food log from Spurlock’s experiment. He never received the food log despite the fact he was told it existed.
What Naughton set out to do was prove that eating fast food all day every day had the potential to not cause all those health issues. In doing the research and prep, he also discovered how misguided the current conventional diet recommendations are. He interviewed experts in the field and read countless studies. And he continues to do so. You don’t need to be a doctor or scientist to read and interpret information. It does take time and intelligence to understand it.
In the end, if you haven’t already, just watch the damn movie. It is free on Hulu. It will be about 1.5 hours that could change your life or may not but certainly isn’t a waste of time or intelligence.
WHOA! This sounds pretty irresponsible . . . all one has to do is take a look around . . . we are a sick, fat group of people here in the U.S. Look at health care costs alone if you’re confused. This is complete nonsense. You may get away with eating a SAD (standard American diet) until you’re about 30 without huge complications (that you’re aware of . . ) but it will catch up to you and your quality of life will reflect poor dietary choices you make early on in life.
If you want to know how to lose weight, stay trim and be healthy, ask someone over 50 who walks the talk.
I highly recommend reading real science-based nutritional information. Begin with ‘The China Study’ by T. Colin Campbell, M.D. and diss the fast food altogether . . .
Thanks for the post, it’s great to get conversation up about this subject!
please tell me you’re not pushing the china study as evidence?
that has been shredded google denise minger to see what i mean
also mark sisson of marks daily apple is a great resource
Chris Masterjohn shredded the China Study as well, as have others.
This is amazing! If this is true it’s as if we’ve been living in Seinfeld’s Bazzorro world where everything is opposite. Has any one else published findings to support Naughton’s conclusions? This kind of opposite reality “truth” causes one to wonder what other widely held beliefs are false. Is the Earth oval instead of round?
Naughton seems to share the same basic philosophy as that of the Primal/Paleo movement as embodied in the work of Mark Sisson http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
I’ve reviewed Sisson’s writings pretty thoroughly and his conclusions are heavily grounded in the latest scientific and paleo-historical studies. Over the past week, I have embraced a few of the Primal principles (fewer carbs, more protein, more sat. fat, natural movement exercise/play, limited sun exposure, no processed sugars) and I immediately noticed a boost in energy. I’ve stopped feeling so weighted down, weak and wobbly. If you want a very thorough overview of the Primal lifestyle, I would highly recommend Sisson.
This goes well in line with Tim Ferriss’ slow-carb diet. It’s incredible how much we don’t know about how the human body functions. I wonder what new hypotheses the future will bring.
Waldir: I noticed Ferriss and Sisson had the same philosophy and it looks like Ferriss is a kind of “disciple” of Sisson’s Primal Plan. I’m sure the best in physiological understanding is yet to come!
Cool. I didn’t know about Sisson. Funny how even their websites look similar! I’ll take a look at his work, thanks for the tip!
One thing that I was taught is to follow the money. There is a lot of money in treating the symptoms. The same can’t be said for preventing the problem.
Whenever I began to see an issue trending into a tennis match (back-and-forth commentary; trading volleys, etc.) I start to examine the labels that are in play. I think one label that clouds the issue is “fast food.”
At the end of the day, fast food is simply food..true it is processed and morphed into something that nature never intended but it is still food. It’s not the poison we imagine it to be nor is it the epitome of healthy eating. In moderate amounts, it will nourish a human body as surely as anything from a garden or farm. It won’t nourish as effectively or as efficiently as its purer counterparts but it will get the job done. However, like all things, consumed in unhealthy amounts it will prove to be…well..unhealthy.
It seems that we could discard the labels (organic or fast food or low-carb) and focus on the reality: these are all chemicals made of simple elements…some are more beneficial and some are less so.
The question one must ask (once the labels are put away) is simple: Is this chemical I’m about to consume going to be beneficial to my survival and well-being? In the case of a few McDonald’s hamburgers (assuming an active lifestyle and some better diet choices at other times..yes, a big assumption), eating a few won’t tip the scales into the realm of poor health. The burger has pros (protein, iron) and cons (heavy carbs in buns, high sodium). It’s not the best strategy every day and long term..but it meets (or meats) basic needs when we’re out and about.
My philosophy is simple: VARIETY. Eat what your body tells you to eat…but keep all in balance (lots of veggies/fruits, lots of good meat, some carbs, a few sugary, fat laden indulgences and daily activity).
In the final analysis, I suspect we worry ourselves into poor health instead of just listening to our bodies. I’m guessing our Cro-Magnon ancestors never had to consult their version of Dr. Oz nor did they measure our servings or grams nor did they have to chisel out stone comments and laments about the best or worst diet (although they MAY have invented the word “Blog” — as a proper name).
cheers, and enjoy that burger…or sprouts
So many diets in the news today it’s hard to know which is best for you. I can only speak for what I’ve learned and I tried the HCG Diet. It worked for me and I did not spend hundreds for injections. I used the drops and followed a strict calorie intake. You can red about my story and see over 100 hcg diet recipes at http://www.hcgplan.net
[...] Supply: Lifehack [...]
[...] Source: Lifehack [...]
I watched Fat Head right after reading this post – WOW. I’ve always been fascinated by nutrition from all angles, not just the traditional FDA guidelines, and I did enjoy Super Size Me when it came out. But this was really eye-opening. The documentary is cheesy, yes, but people obviously didn’t watch it if they’re jumping all over it for “promoting fast food”. I’m nowhere near overweight, but have always had problems with my blood sugar and I’m going to rethink my carb-heavy diet now. Thank you for posting about this!
[...] Full article [...]
I’m pretty sure that some of the info. in this post is just plain wrong, or just a straight up lie. Yeah…because I’m pretty sure the diets of our ancestors were not meat based. The first humans barely ate any meat at all. Where the hell did you get your information from? And…yeah I can lose weight and lower my cholesterol eating anything I want, it’s about moderation and Americans don’t know moderation. Therefore this mockumentary proves nothing at all, as a matter of fact it doesn’t even address the same issues.
Yes, that can be seen by the thousands of cavern painting representing lettuce, broccoli and asparagus.
It never ceases to amaze me with what assertivness people can show off their utter ignorance of what the science really says.
A good advice, read some time books about paleo-anthropology.
Watch this BBC documentary, you may learn something
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0Bmsydg7Y&playnext=1&list=PLF2A6B362CB6AE2D7
There is a disconnect permeating this debate.
We’re human and we’re pattern seeking animals. This ability has helped us thrive and survive. The downside to this tendency results in attempts to seek “all-or-nothing” answers about any number of questions — black or white, either-or, us or them.
The question of what we should eat probably goes back to our early ancestors. They had to learn by trial and error. Today, so do we. Most every commenter thus far has claimed their position — whether paleo diet, low carb, high grain, low grain, carnivorous, vegetarian, etc. — as valid based on scientific or case studies.
The conclusion?
We are all wrong.
There is no Holy Diet Grail except two principles…moderation and diversity. That means a diet rich in..a little bit of everything..even junk or fast food when you want it…can result in a healthy, happy life.
The problem develops when we turn diet into dogma. Thou must not eat any sugar ever. Thou must not eat grains. Thou must not eat meat. Thou must not have a Whopper. Thou must use MY DIET because MY DIET is the ONE TRUE NUTRITIONAL GOD.
Let’s face it: We don’t know which diet will absolutely allow us to live long and happy lives. When we study centenarians (i.e. The Blue Zones), we find that many factors that contribute to a stimulating long life have more to do with how we live rather than what we specifically eat.
People who develop less stress (The Blue Zone people of Sardina, Okinawa, Costa Rica, etc.), who have a positive outlook, who exercise as a natural part of their day, and who have strong social ties, seem to live longer no matter what their diet (except for the vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists in the Blue Zone study, none of the populations practice an exclusionary diet).
From an anecdotal view on longevity, I’ve learned that there is no X factor that guarantees longevity — we can only ride a wave of probability (i.e. What is most likely to contribute to the Holy Grail of Health?).
The very fact we are having this debate demonstrates the problem: The issue of finding the perfect diet has a strong undercurrent of stress. Our quest for just the right gym or exercise machine has a strong undercurrent of stress.
In short, remove the stress; get happy, get connected; get active (gym membership NOT necessary) and live longer. The first step is to quit hurling studies and guesses at each other and admit (repeat after me): “We’re Not Sure.”
There are many good points in your article, but I think it’s a little irresponsible to recommend 50% of your calorie intake should be from saturated fat. What is this based on? the opinion of two doctors and the short term experience of one comedian/programmer?
There is actually quite a lot of good quality evidence linking high saturated fat intake to both heart disease and increased cholesterol. Yes inflammation and artery wall damage are essential parts of the process of heart disease and less highlighted than cholesterol in the media, but cholesterol is also essential. It is the cholesterol that actually builds up to block the arteries (interacting immune cells). So getting rid of inflammation and preventing artery damage (e.g. from high blood pressure) are extremely important, but lowering cholesterol levels also pushes things in the right direction and shouldn’t be ignored!
The fact that stress etc lead to elevated cholesterol levels does not prove that cholesterol is a symptom of heart disease. Why can’t stress etc both increase arterial damage/inflammation and cholesterol levels, which both increase heart disease risk?
Another point – we crave fatty/high energy foods because in the circumstances we evolved in we didn’t have the abundant supply that we do now, so we had to stock up and store it as fat. Periods of starvation clearly do not occur now we are not living naturally (did these ancestors even live long enough to die of heart disease?)
AMERICANS ARE FAT, and it’s because we are lazy in our lifestyles as much as lazy in our food choices. If you blame fast food blame it for the real reason: it adds to our already sedentary lifestyles.
If you actually want to lose weight, and lose it fast: vacation in ANY other country, but instead of living like an american in another culture, live like they do for a week. You may hate it because you’re not used to actually ‘living’, but you will be amazed at how you feel and look when you return. Other cultures are still human… Americans are just lazy, boring, disgusting blobs.
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bs lol…
I just finished taking a nutrition class for my nursing degree. This Fathead guy is an idiot. Our country has the highest rate of heart disease in the world. We are also the fattest country in the world. That is not a coincidence.
If you think that the obesity epidemic is exaggerated, compare our population to any other country. I went to Virginia for a week and half the people there looked like beached whales.
Fat people only live longer than skinny people IF THE SKINNY PEOPLE ARE SICK.
Have you ever seen someone 200 lbs live past 75? If so, without having a heart attack? Exactly.
The only thing he got right in that movie was the fact that you can have fast food once in awhile and still be healthy. Everything else was confirmation bias. 9 out of 10 studies show a causative link between obesity and heart disease but one doesn’t? SEE I WAS TOTALLY RIGHT ALL ALONG! IT’S ONLY 9 OUT OF 10!
“4. Get about 50% of your calories from saturated fats”
WHAAAATTTT?!
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This is a great,awesome and mind blowing post. Healthy diet is really good for health. We should eat more oily food and more sweet food because they invite disease like heart attack and diabetes. We should do exercise like dancing,yoga and cycling for weight loss. More carbohydrate food is really bad for health.
This is a great,awesome and mind blowing post. Healthy diet is really good for health. We should eat more oily food and more sweet food because they invite disease like heart attack and diabetes. We should do exercise like dancing,yoga and cycling for weight loss. More carbohydrate food is really bad for health.
morons….
’we’ eat to much grain…we grow too much grain…..we shouldn’t feed grain to ANYLIVING THING……animals eat meat and grass…grain just phaaarrrks them up…….