Fat Head: an amazing myth-busting documentary!

[Jackal]

Please watch this, Winston!

This awesome documentary exposes the lies that the US government has promoted about cholesterol and its relation to heart disease as well as the lies it has told about the healthiness of starchy carbs.



Winston, you often post topics about mood, and it's an interesting fact that a high-carb, low-fat diet often causes depression. Diet has a big influence on one's mood and on one's libido.

[gsjackson]

Apropos of Winston'e latest health question, I think blood pressure medication is a highly lucrative scam as well.

[fschmidt]

It's best to watch this first:



Fat Head exposes the lies in Supersize Me.

[onethousandknives]

The dude is obese. He's 31% bodyfat when he starts out. Yes, body mass is stupid, but bodyfat is a good indicator. He's 210 or something pounds at his height, right?



Guy on the left is Russian Olympic weightlifter Dmitri Klokov. He's like 230lbs, at probably under 10% bodyfat. Guy on right is like 250 at probably high 20s.

Medical definitions for healthy level of bodyfat vary, but generally for men, anywhere from 5-16% is considered good, some sources say up to 22%, which I think is reasonable.

Also, the man is a f***ing computer programmer who goes for walks. Not an athlete in any stretch of the imagination. His diet may work well for a computer programmer who goes for walks, but I know in my personal experience of trying out high fat/low carb diets, you crash HARD doing any sort of real strenuous physical activity without carbs. Ketosis isn't a good state to be in longterm. The brain prefers glucose to run.

This doesn't make GMOed wheat good, it doesn't make high fructose corn syrup awesome, no, but the idiocy of saying "IT'S ALL CARBS FAULT" is absurd. A good diet has, gasp, both carbs AND fat. This type of dieting is just a silly extreme diet, just like stupid raw vegans who advocate eating 30 Bananas a day and whatnot. It's dumb. Sure, the body will run on it, but it's ridiculous to make it run on it.

[Jackal]

Yes, body mass is stupid, but bodyfat is a good indicator.

Yes.

Also, the man is a f***ing computer programmer who goes for walks. Not an athlete in any stretch of the imagination. His diet may work well for a computer programmer who goes for walks,

Yes, but is Winston much different?

but I know in my personal experience of trying out high fat/low carb diets, you crash HARD doing any sort of real strenuous physical activity without carbs. Ketosis isn't a good state to be in longterm. The brain prefers glucose to run.

There are some high-fat, high-protein diets which have 1 or 2 moderate to high carb days scheduled in periodically. But yes, you're certainly correct that carbs are usually needed for maximum performance during strenuous exercise, but low-carb diets can be great for people who are not competitive athletes and for people whose main goal is fat loss. Normal people don't need so much carbs.

This doesn't make GMOed wheat good, it doesn't make high fructose corn syrup awesome, no, but the idiocy of saying "IT'S ALL CARBS FAULT" is absurd. A good diet has, gasp, both carbs AND fat. This type of dieting is just a silly extreme diet, just like stupid raw vegans who advocate eating 30 Bananas a day and whatnot. It's dumb. Sure, the body will run on it, but it's ridiculous to make it run on it.

I don't think the point of this video was to promote the two diets that this man tried. The point was to debunk the myths in the Supersize Me video and to show that someone can lose weight, lower his cholesterol, and feel good on a high-fat diet. Details about how exactly to put together a good low-carb diet should be found elsewhere.