Comments on: Parting Comments About Comments

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:19:41 +0000

Oh my god, this made me laugh so much I cried!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:07:46 +0000

Hi Tom! Totally hear ya about the blog spam. I use a spam filter called Spam Karma (http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/) which kills most of mine at a blog I run. So maybe that would help minimise the spammage

What I am really commenting for is to say thank you for making a trememdously informative, interesting and entertaining film. It really opened my eyes! Since watching your film on the Documentary Channel here in New Zealand a few months ago I have taken the plunge and gone low carb, now being low carb for 5 weeks.

I am significantly overweight, and though I had lost 20kg in the last year just doing the whole low fat thing, all the while feeling miserable while doing so – for what are now very obvious reasons, low carbing has been somewhat of a revelation to me. Your film really made me look at how my body was working, let me know what the hell all this sugar starch was doing to me, how depriving myself of fat was getting me almost nowhere, and since being on low carb I am just a different person. I am so much more concious of what goes in, and if more people just took notice of what they were eating, switched to clean, whole foods that they prepare themselves (ok, so its ok to indulge in a burger now and then, sure – no buns of course, lol), I just know their quality of life would improve almost immesurably.

I know myself (and my partner) are now enjoying weight loss (3kg in 4 weeks for me!), our bloating and gassiness is all but gone, we have energy to BURN and I just feel like this is what “normal” eating and living should be. So thank you for opening my eyes, Tom.

I’m always pleased to hear the film is leading to positive changes for people. Isn’t it delightful to know you can eat the fat your body craves and actually be healthier for it?

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:09:40 +0000

Aw, you get the fun spam. I get trackbacks to spammy websites.

Definitely give Akismet a try though. You’ll have to get an API key through WordPress.com, but that’s easy.

By: Dale Dietrich

Dale Dietrich — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:09:59 +0000

As a fellow WordPress blogger I have to ask you why aren’t you using the akismet plugin? It will weed’s out spam by the truck-loads. I’d say only 1 in 500 spam comments get through.

I enjoyed your movie last night by the way. I think you were a bit hard on Spurlock, but I understand why. I think your movie could have stood alone quite well without the rather sharp attacks. Did you feel you needed to debunk his film in order to get your message of low carbs out?

Whatever the reason, I enjoyed your movie. Found it quite entertaining and educational. I look forward to Spurlock’s reply. If he ever provides one I hope you’ll post it here.

…Dale

I’ll check out the plug-in after I get my internet access installed in the new house. I appreciate the tip.

Fat Head actually started out as a reply to Super Size Me. It was only during research that I realized how wrong the anti-fat, pro-carb recommendations are. My beef with Spurlock, besides the issue with apparently not following his rules, is that he doesn’t seem to be much of a fan of personal responsibility, which I take pretty seriously. I also believe you can’t solve a problem by blaming the wrong cause, and pinning the obesity epidemic on McDonald’s is definitely blaming the wrong cause.

By the time the film was finished, I definitely believed the dietary science I presented was the most important part.

By: Kim Birch

Kim Birch — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:48:42 +0000

Thanks for the Monday morning laugh, Tom. I’m in the Valley and sorry we’re losing you to Tennessee! Oh well, we’ll always have your blog.

Have a safe trip!

If the state keeps falling apart, you may be following us …

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:10:17 +0000

Hypothesis: This was driving me nuts but I think I’ve figured some of it out.
In ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’, by Kendrick, I was intrigued by a couple of statements. One is that the visceral (abdominal, belly) fat behaves in an almost completely opposite fashion to the skeletal (peripheral) fat. In that we store these 2 types under different (oppositional) conditions. The other statement boils down to the thesis of his book, eating while stressed causes weight gain by the action of cortisol. If we eat (the ‘rest and digest’ phase) while we’re stressed (the ‘fight or flight’ stage) those two competing stages wreck havoc. But where was the mechanism of all this??? I asked as a good little chemist! What was the action of cortisol on belly fat vs. peripheral fat?
Cortisol I think causes the mobilization and dump into the circulation of skeletally derived fatty acids, glucose and protein to treat and fuel an immediate’ threat’. If we’re chronically stress eating at the same time and the mixed message of rest and digest is present concurrently, when the acute ‘danger’ passes, there is all this dietary fat, and additional mobilized skeletal fat now needing to be dispatched. Then, for complicated reasons, this circulating fat is stored in the belly!!! It isn’t burned and it isn’t returned to the original, skeletal fat depot from whence it came. So we’ve now succeeded in converting peripheral fat into belly fat AND any ingested fat (or sugar which can be converted to fat!) into belly fat! What a whammy.
My husband has been low-carb since November. I kept hounding him with the ‘Cliff-Notes’ on Taubes, and he finally succumbed. But to his frustration, he’s lost some weight, but it’s noticeably mostly just be re-apportioned on his body- and focused more on his mid-section. We pinpointed a possible cause in that he has tremendous work stress and while he eats low-carb, in the evenings he can nibble for HOURS. And of course the chronic stress must mean he’s in a high cortisol state and with constant incoming nutrients, he’s never resting and digesting. He’s just always converting peripheral fat into abdominal fat. I was resistant to this visible reality until I just hit on the possible mechanism for it. Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.

By: D

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:29:22 +0000

Much thanks for the laughs.

Have an uneventful, safe move. BTW, the first few times we drove through Tennessee on our trips between Ohio and Texas, it poured rain, it came down in buckets, made it hard to drive. I actually wondered if they ever had sunshine in Tennessee! I hope you get plenty of sunshine for your move.

We’ll keep the light on for your return.

After 12 years in Southern California, I actually miss thunderstorms. But I’m willing to wait until after move-in day.

By: Vin - NaturalBias

Vin - NaturalBias — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:24:50 +0000

Hi Tom, good luck with your move!

I love how you used those spam posts! Very creative and entertaining! I was going to share a few of mine, but none of the ones in my queue for today are entertaining. Oh well. Besides, about a quarter of them are in Russian and I have no idea what they are saying.

If you’re not already using the Akisment plugin, it’s tremendously helpful. I’m getting over 50 spam comments per day now, and having them automatically go into the spam folder is quite nice.

In closing, “I’ll be taking your feed.” (one of the most common lines in my spam comments)

I’m checking comments on a laptop in a motel. I just deleted about 30 comments in Russian. They’re relentless.

By: JudithNZ

JudithNZ — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:56:04 +0000

Splort! There goes another keyboard! Thanks for the laughs, and for all the information. I love your blogs (I read both of them.) Best wishes for your move – I hope it goes well.

By: Tinamemphis5

Tinamemphis5 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:48:19 +0000

Come on Tom, let the comments go unmoderated, it will be fun! Welcome to Tennessee.

Fun, yes, but some of them are explicit to the point of qualifying as appetite control.