Customer Reviews

Fat Head

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

"Fat Head" is simultaneously a send-up of Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" and an expose' on the state of nutrition "science". Using humor and Pythonesque cartoons, Tom Naughton does a good job of tipping many sacred cows on the topic of nutrition, showing how the government, media, and special interests combined to yield the current situation: people are eating what's supposedly "healthy", yet are developing metabolic diseases like diabetes at an alarming and increasing rate.

The core premise of the movie is to revisit "Supersize Me", where Spurlock supposedly showed the evils of fast food by eating nothing but McDonald's for a month. Spurlock gained 25 pounds, was issued a variety of dire health warnings by his doctor, etc. Naughton turns this idea on it's head: he also ate only fast food for a month, but used his "functioning brain". Rather than just blindly eating whatever was available, he avoided those foods which science has shown contribute to metabolic problems like obesity, including sodas, french fries, too much bread, etc. The result? Eating nothing but double Big Macs and the like, he lost over 12 pounds in 28 days and his cholesterol went down. The expression on his doctor's face alone is worth the price of the DVD.

"Fat Head" is very funny and discusses the science of fat gain and loss in an manner which is easily understood. My kids (8 and 4) watched it with me, and they "got it". Get a copy and share it with your friends and family.

I've been an avid follower of the low-fat diet craze ever since I started yo-yo dieting in college. After having my son 2 years ago, I was over 215lbs, so I turned to cutting calories and, in August 2008, I started Nutrisystem.

I've lost over 73lbs so far, but after seeing "Fat Head", I'm finally seeing the facts of low-carb diets and I'm off the Nutrisystem wagon. "Fat Head" is a funny and immensely informational documentary that goes into the "bologna" of the low-fat diet craze. Like many people in the US, we're told that fat (especially animal fat) is bad and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, have a piece of bread or a bowl of Special K. "Bologna" says Tom and I believe him!

My father died a few years ago from a heart attack at 55. He went on Atkins about 5 years prior and I remember comments afterwards like "there's no telling what that diet did to his system." Since I can remember though, my father also liked his large share of carbs and battled his love of food and his desire to lose that last stubborn 30lbs. After seeing "Fat Head", I can only now assume that all of those carbs he loved so much were the real culprit behind his heart disease- not the fact that he was on Atkins for 6 months.

Thank you Tom for making me see the light at 29, while I still have time to start making changes that will help insure I see 56.

This movie is funny and entertaining and amazingly informative. It has so many pieces of useful advice that it's hard to catch them all. Furthermore, it passes along this information in a way that got my wife's attention in a way that I hadn't been able to.

A year and a half ago I was 35 pounds overweight. I ate like the standard American. I finally decided to do something about it so I did some research on the Internet, trying to focus on the science-based research. Following the advice that I found, I lost that weight in 4 months and have kept it off ever since by continuing to follow the advice. This movie captured the basic idea of all that research: low fat is bad for you, low cholesterol is worse than high cholesterol for most people, don't eat high carb food.

He does the best job I've ever seen at disproving the lipid hypothesis which nearly every doctor and media outlet promote: 1) Eating high fat foods give you high cholesterol. 2) High cholesterol leads to heart disease. Well, he makes it really clear that both of these statements are false. It's shocking to anyone who has been fed these lines (lies) for year. He explains all of this in a simplified manner that is within reach of everyone.

The other points that he make extremely well relate to what it is that actually does cause heart disease and what we should do and eat in order to minimize our risk of getting it. Again, he's funny and informative. It's hard to believe that this combination can exist when talking about nutrition, but he does it.

I added this to my library so that I can heartily recommend it to my family and friends. I read (and loved) "Protein Power" by Eades & Eades, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taubes, and the "Great Cholesterol Con" by Kendrick but not everyone is going to spend the time and effort to get through these books. However, this movie presents the highlights of these books in 100 easy-to-watch minutes. If you are intrigued after watching this movie, then I highly recommend those books. And if you were not intrigued, then you weren't paying attention. ;)

Amusing, likable, and amazingly informative, "Fat Head" is both a documentary response to Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" and a muckraking expose of the lowfat-eating dogma. You think this is a trivial matter? One doctor involved in researching the supposed benefits of eating lowfat called its theoretical basis -- the "lipid hypothesis" -- "perhaps the greatest scientific fraud of the 20th century." "Fat Head" is also a triumph of self-financed, hands-on, DYI filmmaking, plain-speaking funny-regular-guy division. Watch it. You'll learn a ton as well as be very amused. Loads of personality and flair, an honesty about what it encounters -- and the simple animations it's full of are little miracles of info-compression and info-clarity.

My review cannot adequately do this movie justice! It is so informative and entertaining.

This is the information you've longed to hear and understand. Mr. Naughton has a way of explaining how our bodies work that is so understandable. He brings in respected doctors who also add to the documentary/comedy. It's very entertaining and such a wonderful work! I'm thinking of buying this for all of my family.

This contradicts everything you've ever been told about diet and heart disease with true science to back it up.

This film started out as a hilarious and informative sendup of the Super Size Me documentary from a few years back. The resulting film is that, plus a lot more -- it's also a hilarious and informative sendup of the nutritional industry's disastrous turn of the last several decades!

Now, I'm the sort of guy who will cheerfully devour books like Gary Taubes' meticulous and astonishing _Good Calories, Bad Calories_, but that is simply too much of a long, technical grind for most folks (he was really addressing doctors and professionals in the nutrition industry). I can't give that to my parents, for example. In contrast, this movie is a wonderful resource I can pass on to introduce others to what I've learned from people like Taubes.

Naughton features many of the big names we've come to recognize in this area, like the Drs. Eades, and Fallon and Enig from the Weston A. Price Foundation. And he consulted with people like Taubes -- so even when he needs to simplify something, the result is nonetheless strong. Naughton cleverly, effectively, and humorously addresses topics such as:

* The many distortions and errors of Supersize Me.
* The "lipid hypothesis", where it came from, why it's complete crap, and what damage it's done.
* Metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and the mechanisms of energy storage and use in our bodies -- what the science actually says about how people get fat.
* Inflammation and heart disease, and how they really relate to cholesterol.
* How activists and special interests and their coercive efforts via government intervention are responsible for so much dietary mischief that's hurting us.

And the look on his doctor's face after seeing the results of a month of thoroughly flouting the standard advice of the nutrition industry was priceless!

While there is of course much more to say than can be packed into a film like this, Fat Head just became the FIRST resource I'll share with family and friends on this front -- highly recommended!

This is a terrific little movie that, among other things, is the perfect antidote to the very misleading and over-praised Morgan Spurlock film "Supersize Me" . Naughton, in a very clever and funny way, performs a real service here, setting the record straight on how we have all been sold a bill-of-goods regarding what constitutes proper nutrition. In the process, he exposes the Low Fat advice as the load of bologna that it is, and strikes a blow for freedom of choice at the same time.

Funny and smart, you'll be hard pressed to spend a more enlightening 100 minutes, and you'll come away with more practical knowledge than a whole college course in "convential " nutrition.

Ronald McDonald is not your enemy, but "the guy from CSPI" just might be.

If I've heard it once, I've heard it over and over again since I first started writing about the healthy low-carb lifestyle in 2004 after losing 180 pounds on the Atkins diet-when will we EVER get the positive message of livin' la vida low-carb out into the mainstream of American and worldwide conscience? It's a very good question and my response has generally been that it will likely happen on the grassroots level through people telling their circle of influence the truth about nutrition and health. But this new project from Tom Naughton called FAT HEAD has stepped forward to arm low-carbers with a fun and exciting documentary film that can educate and entertain at the same time.

It is being marketed as an "anti-Supersize Me" response film that challenges Morgan Spurlock's assertion that he got fat and deathly ill from eating at McDonald's for 30 days. The math just doesn't add up as Naughton so beautifully details in his creative and witty film. These kind of facts are quite typical of what you'll see in this movie along with a healthy dose of truth, justice, and the American w...errr, I mean, just the facts about healthy low-carb nutrition.

Naughton features commentary and information from low-carb experts like Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, Gary Taubes, Dr. Al Sears, Dr. Eric Oliver, Mary Enig, Sally Fallon, Uffe Ravnskov, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, and others who give the proper historical context for why obesity seems to be getting worse by the day-it's the low-fat, calorie-restricted, high-carb diets that have been pushed on us for decades since Ancel Keys and his buddies on Capital Hill led by George McGovern in the 1970s made the official American policy on diet. Naughton cleverly demonstrates this in his film with the use of hilarious Monty Python-type of gimmickry and animation.

I had the privilege of interviewing Tom Naughton about FAT HEAD on my podcast called "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" (available for FREE on iTunes) where you'll hear what it was like working behind-the-scenes on a documentary film for a first-time filmmaker, why the premise of Supersize Me is severely flawed, how the REAL reason why obesity is totally missed (insulin and carbs, not fat intake), and the surprising early success of the film being shown in Israel. This is arguably one of the most entertaining podcasts I've ever conducted, so I hope you get a chance to listen to it and then get your own copy of the FAT HEAD DVD for your personal collection. It is THE low-carb event of 2009!

Do yourself a BIG FAVOR and pick up several copies of FAT HEAD to spread the message of the healthy low-carb lifestyle and personal responsibility to the masses. If you care about healthy living and the TRUTH about it, then that's exactly what Tom Naughton delivers to you on a silver platter! THANKS so much for all of your hard work and efforts to present the facts, Tom. So many people will get educated while being thoroughly entertained by your film.

Well, I'll not rehash what has been so thoroughly highlighted in these other great reviews. I agree with all of it.

There's two things in particular for me, the first of which is that I've now watched this four times and have yet to tire of it. The first was on my own, and the last three were screenings for friends and family.

Second is that so far, everyone has been unanimous in their resounding enthusiasm and amazement. This is the thing to have if you're trying to get someone to use their own "functioning brain" with respect to modern nutritional advice.

I also appreciated Tom's evolutionary approach to diet on a level of principle. So, rather than focus on low carb, he focusses on what we evolved to eat, and low carb is a consequence.

I have lost 50 pounds myself and have documented the whole process on my blog FreetheAnimal.

That's one important message of the film -- how misled we've been if we've followed the dictates of Washington agencies in choosing our foods, from where (and why) those dictates originated and how difficult it is to change them. That makes this film sound dull, though, and that's far from the case. My husband and I have watched it three times (so far) and have enjoyed each viewing immensely, laughing and learning each time through. We didn't need convincing, but Tom Naughton has certainly validated our choice of a low-carb, high protein and animal fat diet, begun six years ago, on which we've lost weight and maintained the loss, and enjoy very high-activity lives in excellent health (I'm 72; my husband is 81). That the film is so witty, entertaining and pleasurable to watch is the side issue, however. That it just may change your health and your life is what's important, and why I'm ordering four more copies today, to give to family and friends. Thank you, Tom!