Hey Fat Head, You’ve Been Fed a Load of Bologna!
by Vin Miller
The low fat diet has been extremely popular for decades and is still strongly promoted by doctors and even the American government. As shown by the Fat Head documentary, it’s a load of bologna and many of us are suffering the serious consequences of our unhealthy fear of fat.
A Misconception About Fast Food
Fast food is undoubtedly an unhealthy and arguably unethical food choice, but not for the reasons you may think. Conventional wisdom tells us that fast food is high in saturated fat and is a major cause of today’s obesity epidemic. However, saturated fat is far from the nutritional villain that it’s made out to be and fast food is no more to blame for obesity than any other type of restaurant food. In fact, many people are overweight as a result of the food that they buy in the grocery store and eat at home.
The popular documentary Super Size Me is aimed at blaming McDonald’s and the rest of the fast food industry for the high prevalence of obesity. The producer, Morgan Spurlock, supports his point by eating McDonald’s every single day for an entire month which leads 25 pounds of weight gain and several other indications of poor health.
As Tom Naughton points out in his documentary Fat Head, Spurlock forced the issue by consuming 5,000 calories of food each day. Obviously, this excessive number of calories is bound to cause significant problems for anyone regardless of what kind of food it is. Based on the nutritional content of a typical McDonald’s meal, Naughton shows that 5,000 calories worth of food is a considerable amount and is far too much for anyone to consume without realizing that they’re overeating.
The Fast Food Challenge
In response to Super Size Me, Naughton set out to disprove Spurlock’s claims and bring attention to a more likely cause of obesity. He did so by eating nothing but fast food for 28 days straight. However, he limited his daily calorie consumption to 2,000 calories per day and his carbohydrate consumption to 100 grams per day. By the end of the 28 days, he had lost 12 pounds and his cholesterol dropped slightly.
This certainly isn’t a testament to fast food since weight gain and increased cholesterol aren’t the only risk factors associated with eating it. However, as Tom’s doctor reluctantly acknowledged in the documentary, fast food is clearly not the primary cause of obesity and poor health that many people believe it to be.
A Big Fat Saturated Lie
For decades, we’ve been led to believe that saturated fat elevates cholesterol, and in turn, causes heart disease. This theory started in the 1950s when Ancel Keys published research data showing a clear correlation between saturated fat consumption and the incidence of heart disease. However, it was later discovered that Keys manipulated the data by selectively excluding data points that didn’t support his conclusion. For example, Norway and Holland had a low incidence of heart disease despite a high intake of saturated fat and Chile had a high incidence of heart disease despite a low intake of saturated fat.
A closer look at past research reveals that no study has ever shown a definitive correlation between saturated fat and heart disease. Started in 1948 and still going, the Framingham study is one of the largest and most highly regarded heart disease studies ever conducted. Dr. George Mann, one of the researchers for the study, has stated that the association of saturated fat and heart disease is “… the greatest scientific deception of this century, perhaps of any century.” Even Dr. William Castelli, who directed the Framingham study for 26 years, said that “the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol.”
Three well respected books that thoroughly explain the evidence against the association between saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease are The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov MD PhD, Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, and The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick MD. For more information, you can also read my article about cholesterol and heart disease which is based mostly on Uffe Ravnskov’s book.
Politics, Corporate Interest, and the Food Pyramid
In the 1970s, senator George McGovern’s Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs resolved to produce dietary recommendations that would reduce the incidence of heart disease. Despite strong opposition and 8 studies involving 5,000 patients that failed to associate diet with heart disease, McGovern’s committee published a recommendation stating that everyone should follow a low fat and low cholesterol diet. Adding insult to injury, this report was written by a committee member who happened to follow a vegetarian diet and had no background in medical or health research.
Despite opposition from the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that McGovern’s report was nonsense, the recommendations for a low fat and low cholesterol diet became policy and are still with us in the form of the USDA Food Pyramid. Unfortunately, these recommendations are much more beneficial to the sales of agricultural products than they are to our health. In fact, the incidence of heart disease and other debilitating conditions has increased since the implementation of the Food Pyramid and the low fat and high carbohydrate diet that it promotes.
Because the medical system is focused on chasing symptoms, many people with reversible conditions remain sick and dependent on treatment. As such, the increased incidence of chronic disease also provides tremendous profit for the medical industry. There are also organizations such as the American Heart Association that earn millions of dollars for endorsing foods like Cocoa Puffs with their heart healthy seal of approval. The misinformation relating to saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease has created a tremendous source of revenue for several industries, and as such, there’s plenty of incentive to keep it alive.
Excessive Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar Regulation
Despite the blame placed on saturated fat for causing obesity and heart disease, excessive carbohydrate consumption is a much more significant part of the problem. In absence of the significant amount of calories that fat provides, the USDA Food Pyramid recommends that we meet our daily calorie requirements by eating mostly grained based foods that are high in carbohydrates. In addition to these foods being problematic because of gluten sensitivity, they’re also a common cause of blood sugar fluctuation. This diet, which we are told will help us lose weight and be healthy, is the same type of diet used by farmers to fatten their livestock!
For someone with an energy requirement of 2,000 calories per day, the Food Pyramid recommends 300g of carbohydrates per day. This is an excessive amount of carbohydrates for many people and is likely to elevate blood sugar and increase insulin production to abnormal levels after each meal. Because insulin promotes the storage of fat and prevents existing body fat from being used for energy, the excessive consumption of carbohydrates also leads to weight gain. In addition, elevated blood sugar can also contribute to the development of heart disease by causing artery damage and promoting the production of the smaller LDL lipoproteins.
Vegetable Oils: From Bad to Worse
Recognizing that we do need some fat in our diet, the conventional wisdom condemning saturated fat suggests that we replace it with “heart healthy” polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Ironically, the dramatic increase of these vegetable oils in our diets just so happens to correspond with heart disease becoming the leading cause of death in America.
Many of the polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils are unstable and are susceptible to oxidation. Furthermore, vegetable oils are also high in omega-6 fatty acids. Although omega-6 is an important type of essential fatty acid that we must obtain from the food we eat, we’ve evolved on a roughly equivalent consumption of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. However, by avoiding animal foods and replacing them with grains and vegetable oils, most people are consuming much more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. The susceptibility to oxidation and the high omega-6 content associated with vegetable oils are a common cause of the artery damage and inflammation that’s characteristic of heart disease.
Nature Isn’t Stupid
Dietary fat and protein are required to support proper human function and are typically found together in most naturally occurring foods. Before the advent of agriculture, which was only about 10,000 years ago, our ancestors thrived on animal foods that were high in saturated fat. Based on the misguided recommendations to avoid saturated fat, we’ve replaced it with foods that are unnatural and have been in our diet for less than 1% of our existence. If you condensed all of human history into a single year, we’d only have been eating grains since yesterday and processed vegetable oils since 10 minutes ago.
It contradicts the intelligence of nature to suggest that the very same foods we evolved on are the cause of obesity and heart disease, especially when these problems barely even existed just a century ago. While science is vulnerable to malicious influence and dishonesty, nature is not, and even without these factors, attempting to outsmart nature is rarely a good idea.
The Extended Saturated Fat Challenge
After Tom Naughton’s 28 day fast food diet, he decided to extend his experiment by continuing to eat saturated fat, but from higher quality sources such as home cooked beef, bacon, eggs, butter, and coconut oil. After one month, he experienced higher energy levels and had a lower total cholesterol with a higher level of “good” HDL cholestserol.
A Side Note About Fast Food and Food Quality
Throughout the beginning of Fat Head, I have to admit that I was initially unsettled by what I was seeing. Although I completely understood the intention to counter the misconceived idea that fast food is the root of all evil, I couldn’t help feeling as if fast food was being legitimized and that obesity was being downplayed. However, my concern was quickly eliminated once the documentary began to focus on saturated fat, heart disease, and excessive carbohydrate consumption. I was also quite pleased to see that Sally Fallon and Mary Enig from the Weston A Price Foundation are part of the discussion. They are both strong supporters of traditional whole foods and the health benefits that they provide.
Although Fat Head is more focused on the issue of saturated fat than food quality, I think it’s important to mention a few points about fast food. Although it won’t kill you if eaten in reasonable moderation, fast food is some of the unhealthiest food available. In many cases, the meat is of poor quality and is from factory farms. It tends to be low in nutrients and often contains high levels of omega-6 fatty acids and traces of hormones, antibiotics, and other toxic chemicals. In addition, purchasing this meat supports the inhumane practices that are typical of factory farming. Many fast food restaurants also add a considerable amount of unhealthy ingredients to their meat which is exactly the case with KFC’s grilled chicken.
In the film, there are two brief references to diet soda that I’d like to mention because I think they could lead to the interpretation that it’s a good replacement for regular soda. While diet soda contains much less sugar, this comes at the cost of consuming toxic artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and splenda which are arguably even more unhealthy than sugar.
If you truly want to achieve optimal health and live a long and healthy life, it would be in your best interest to do more with your diet than simply avoid excessive carbohydrate consumption. Ideally, you should be paying attention to food quality by avoiding processed foods and eating pasture raised meat, wild fish, and organic fruits and vegetables.
Who’s Fault is It?
As Tom Naughton makes abundantly clear in the documentary, nobody ever forced him into a fast food restaurant, and nobody ever hassled him after declining to add fries to his order. Our health is our own responsibility and the immense amount of misinformation and misleading marketing that exists simply underscores the importance of this. For the past several decades, we’ve been the guinea pigs for a nation wide experiment with low fat diets and it’s failed miserably. Although it can take some digging to find, there’s an abundant amount of excellent nutrition and health information available today. As such, the only one who can be blamed for your continued participation in this experiment is yourself!
The dietary recommendations given to us by the government are making us fat and sick and have led to alarming rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other compromising conditions. Furthermore, cholesterol guidelines are continually being reduced and are turning healthy people into patients. Research on primitive cultures has proven that it’s possible to be extremely healthy with total cholesterol levels in the upper 200s, but current guidelines suggest that everyone’s cholesterol should be at levels as low as 185. Even children are being prescribed cholesterol lowering medication. This is yet another example of the responsibility we must take to make informed decisions.
Watch the Fat Head Documentary
A single article simply can’t do the Fat Head documentary justice. It includes a tremendous amount of information as well as excellent visual representations showing how insulin, sugar, and cholesterol affect our cells and arteries. Furthermore, Tom Naughton happens to have a background as a comedian which makes the documentary very entertaining. There’s one scene in particular with his wife that is guaranteed to make you laugh hard! This is a welcome addition to any documentary that delivers such sobering reality. For less than $20, you really can’t go wrong. I highly recommend that you watch Fat Head and also that you check out Tom’s Fat Head Blog.
This article is part of Real Food Wednesdays.
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Outstanding article.
It is very sad to think that fast food took an unneccessary turn for the worst when saturated fat was unjustly named the villain. Our bodies got turned onto trans fats, fake oils and too much sugar and carbs in the place of good healthy animal fat.
At any rate, fast food is just that: fast. it was never meant to be part of a nutritious diet, but it could certainly be much better than it is now if we went back to our old fashioned food values.
I would love to go back to the old fashioned McDonald’s french fries. They were the best for taste and as it turns out, much better for you than canola or vegetable oil fries.
Thank you, Rob! Yes, fast food has ironically gotten worse. McDonald’s used to use beef tallow (fat) for their french fries which is much healthier and tastier than denatured vegetable oils. I wish they’d go back too, but it would be a political nightmare for them and I doubt we’ll see it happening any time soon.
Great article. …ok, and I’m really confused now! and I need to go and do a heap more reading. ….again!
There are so many things to consider when it comes to our diet and history I think? …it’s quite valid to look back at history to look at what people ate 100’s, even 1000’s of years ago. And of course they survived. But it’s also known that we live much longer these days …so we’re still not quite comparing apples with apples in a way.
For me, a common sense approach really needs to be taken to the things we put in our bodies. If it’s provided by nature, pretty safe bet it’s good for us …well, either that or it will kill us outright! So, we’ll learn quickly to avoid those! :/
Vegetables, fruits, nuts etc and then meats I guess (I have been vegetarian for about 24 years now). For me, drinking cows milk (and milk products) just seems completely wrong and ‘un’ natural. When you look at it, mammals that drink milk do so as new born infants, These new born infants are eventaully weened off milk to then eat more solid foods and never drink mothers milk again. So why do we, as *adult* humans drink milk ….and why then are we drinking ‘cows’ milk? …cows don’t even drink it!
on the issue of being vegetarian …I do so more from what I consider to be an appropriate dietary perspective. With a high does of raw foods, I will eat meat occassionally. I’m not adverse to it, I just don’t think it’s good for us to eat too much of it.
On the issue of fat …..hhhmmmm, I’m out on that one. I would say that high amounts of anything wouldnt’ be good for us …be it saturated fat, unsaturated fat, sugar, fruit etc etc
….again, if in doubt ….if it’s overly processed or needs a lot done to it before we can eat it, then maybe it should be questioned whether we should be eating at all? When I use oil, I use virgin cold pressed olive oils. …or what ever oil.
sorry, I think this reply got a bit disjointed! …I felt like I wanted to say 100 things and just wanted to keep it brief. Let me work on that!
Thanks, Mianne! For obvious reasons, most people tend to be a bit shocked the first time they come across the idea of saturated fat being healthy.
Your argument of us living longer now is a common one. Although it’s a valid point, there are a few reasons why lifespan is not a good measure of health.
The primary reasons why we live longer today is because modern technology makes life easier and safer and modern medicine allows us to survive infections that would have been fatal for our ancestors. Modern medicine has also greatly reduced infant mortality which is of particular importance because having a lot of deaths at age zero obviously has a tremendous effect on average lifespan statistics.
The most important consideration in this regard is quality of life. Sure, many people live into their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond, but many are already living a very compromised and limited life by their 40s and 50s. In studies of primitive cultures, it’s not uncommon for people to live as long as we do today, and when they do, they are still physically functional, mentally sharp, and they don’t have heart disease, cancer, or any of the other conditions that are so common in modern society.
I completely agree with your common sense approach that foods provided by nature are typically the healthiest choices. Meat and saturated fat are part of this!
There have been a number of primitive cultures who thrived largely on cow’s milk or goat’s milk. Based on the notion that it was most likely not a significant part of our evolution, I agree that dairy is not the best choice, but it can be part of an excellent diet, particularly for people who are capable of digesting it well.
I think it’s great that you haven’t simply dismissed these issues and are willing to read more about them. I suggest that you check out the work of Dr. Weston Price and also check out the Weston A. Price Foundation. They have a lot of great information on their site.
The Fat Head documentary, which is the subject of this article, is great as well. The article I wrote about cholesterol myths might also be helpful.
I don’t know your reason for being a vegetarian, but I appreciate your choice. While some people do well on this type of diet, it’s important to realize that some don’t, and being an athlete makes it even more of a challenge. Here’s a bit more of my opinion on vegetarianism. If animal cruelty is your primary motivation, you can avoid this issue by buying meat from conscientious farmers which is something that we all should be doing anyway.
thanks for the informative reply.
With being vegetarian, it was more from a dietary perspective, and from my reading at the time, that we don’t really need meat, and it can promote ’sluggishness’ in the digestive system. Subsequently better uptake of nutrients from vegetables and fruit. There was also in interesting comparison of digestive tract of herbivores and carnivores compared to humans. Where humans digestive tract is more like that of herbivores.
If anything I could agree that we are reasonably equipped to be omnivores and ’scavengers’, but we aren’t like the meat eaters of the animal kingdom such as wild cats etc. …but I’m still open on that one. I know I feel somewhat heavy and sluggish after I eat meat and it even gives me stomach ache these days. So I keep it as little as possible.
I’m aware that I need to be more conscientious when it comes to ensuring proper intake of amino acids to make up complete proteins, but after a while it just becomes habit. Just like anything I guess. As an athlete that is constantly travelling though, it does become very difficult and I invariably eat more meat while I’m touring because there are simply no other appropriate sources of protein. I will generally have more fish though.
I’ll look forward to having a read of your article on vegetarianism.
I don’t know if I’ve already written in one of my posts, but congratulation on a fantastic site. The wealth of information on here is amazing. I’m going to be here for quite a while doing some reading. I look forward to enjoying future blogs.
Thanks, Mianne! It’s always encouraging to receive this type of feedback.
Here’s a great article about human evolution and eating meat.