Saturday, May 21, 2011

"Fat Head": why fat is good and nutritionists are wrong.

My role model.
I try to blog on topics within my field - economics - which is usually easy, because economics encompasses almost everything. However, I recently watched a health documentary which inspired me to brave the big, scary world of health and nutrition. Written and directed by former health writer and comedian Tom Naughton, "Fat Head" is a must-watch for everyone, especially those who liked and/or took seriously Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me."

Available on Netflix and Hulu as well for sale off the creators website, "Fat Head" is a quick, fun and informative video. However, for those who want the factual gist of it without the cheesy (but amusing) commentary and animations, I present this partially-digested version of the food documentary, broken into three main chunks for easy consumption.


1. The numbers in "Supersize Me" don't add up. In the movie, Spurlock's nutritionist repeatedly says he's consuming over 5,000 calories per day. Problem is, according to Spurlock's own rules, he only had three square meals per day. Even if he Super-Sized at every opportunity (which he claims not to have done) that still only adds up to a rough 3,600 calories. Where'd the rest come from? He must have added several desserts. If someone stuffs themselves with over twice the calories required for a healthy adult... is it really surprising that they gained weight?