Evidently, something didn't add up for Tom Naughton, writer and thinking man, when he watched Morgan Spulock's Super Size Me. As I'm sure you're aware, for Spurlock's documentary, he committed to eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days to test how healthy the food was, and from there, make a few assumptions about American restaurant consumer patterns, point a few fingers, and get some wheels moving in a few obtuse directions.
When Tom saw it, a few problems jumped out at him. Tom claimed to have something that made him a special and appropriate choice to test these hypotheses, a functioning brain. Tom set about to create a documentary-retort to Spurlock, and thus was born the brilliance which was Fat Head.
Initially, the documentary started with the most basic and simple theories, (ones that actually leave you scratching your head when you realize that you've heard them for a decade and never thought enough about them to recognize their stupidity) such as "McDonald's forces you to eat unhealthy food," and "nutrition information for meals at places like McDonald's is too difficult to access."
He continues on by demonstrating, through basic, elementary-level mathematics, that Spurlock has been dishonest about the facts as he presented them in his documentary, and to nail home the point even further, will repeat the experiment, with considerably more transparency, and a lot of peripheral, yet pertinent information thrown in to educate the viewers.
What followed was a collage of medical professionals, doctors, scientists and other germane speakers explaining bit by bit, the specific process by which fat is stored, why it is stored, the function and necessity of cholesterol, examinations of clinical studies, and revelations about why the current understanding of these things is so very, very, very wrong.
I don't want to reveal every detail of the film, because it is truly entertaining and enlightening, and I encourage anyone and everyone to pick it up and watch it. (Spoiler alert, by lowering his carbohydrate count, increasing his saturated fat intake, performing an extraordinarily simple calorie count, and continuing to eat the "good stuff" at McDonald's, such as cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, etc., he lost 12 pounds, improved his cholesterol AND improved his body fat percentage in 30 days) but the part that I want to highlight is his examination of what was called "the lipid hypothesis."
Only one study, from quite a few decades ago, demonstrated that in some countries where saturated fat intake is higher, there is also a pattern of high cholesterol, which is (was) believed to be responsible for heart disease. These results were untrustworthy at best, as it was eventually revealed in the original study, that only the countries that proved the theory of "fat = bad" were included in the results report.
Naughton reveals that, not only were these observations false, and contrived for money, but that there were 28 studies to the contrary that say that saturated fat has NO discernible effect on cholesterol levels and does NOT lead to heart disease, while there are 0 studies that say that there is a connection. The scientists go on to explain how foods are processed in the body, revealing that it is not high fat (or even high calorie) intake that leads to excess body fat storage, but is instead high levels of insulin in the blood directly caused by an over-consumption of foods that are processed in the body as sugars. (breads, grains, pastas, rice, etc.)
The simple, accessible, honest, candid way this information was revealed in the movie helped everything I knew about health and fitness click into place.
Tom Naughton ate satisfying foods that he enjoyed and that left him feeling full and happy. He was able to listen to his body's cravings for what he really wanted, filter that through his functioning brain, and satiate his body while improving his health and life.
Since watching this film, and combining the things that I learned from experimentation, I find it difficult to put on body fat. When I comfortably ate (with a very liberal definition of dietary discipline) this Christmas and all of the goodies, I did not exceed 15-16% body fat at all. My clothes fit great, my workouts are easy and fun in a challenging way, and I finally feel as though the echelon of fitness and physical performance is available to me. I feel encouraged to pursue extreme programs, and serious bodybuilding and powerlifting, knowing that I will never have to worry about getting fat again. I now believe that if I approach working out with the same vigor that I always have, practicing what I now know, I will be able to drop down into single-digit body fat percentages easily.
Further reading for your edification on the subject:
Dr. Jaminet's "Perfect Health Diet"
Jamie Scott's "That Paleo Guy"
Chris Masterjohn's "Daily Lipid"
Miki Ben-Dor's "Paleo Style"
David Evan's "Healthy Diets and Science"
Prof Andro's "SuppVersity"
Nek Kock's "Health Correlator"
Peter Dobromylskyj's "Hyperlipid"
Dr. Deans' "Evolutionary Pyschiatry"
Anastasia's "PrimalMedEd"
And please check out Fat Head by Tom Naughton, and Jamie Lewis' blog, Chaos and Pain. His Apex Predator Diet is spot on for this science and encourages a healthy, aggressive, masculine attitude toward weight training as well.
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