“In Defense of Fat” is a Documentary Project That Needs Our Support

In Defense of Fat is a Documentary Project That Needs Our Support

Meet Kennon Hulett, an independent film maker and editor based in New York City. She graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts with a dual major in film production and dramatic writing and has worked on documentary and feature film projects both large and small. She’s in her 20’s and has struggled with her weight all her life.

“I started as a fat kid and it led to me becoming a fat adult,” Kennon said. The the more she followed the “healthy” low fat diet  commonly recommended, the heavier she became. She tried every diet and was not successful until she visited the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at the Weill Cornell Medical College-New York Presbyterian Hospital under the direction of Louis J. Aronne, M.D., F.A.C.P. There they view obesity as a disease and each patient is tested and treated as an individual with varying and specific needs.

Kennon’s Re-education

Her individualized program included using metformin to control her blood sugar. It got rid of her insulin resistance and helped her lose 70 pounds and feel much healthier than she did before. Her experience in gaining control of her health started her thinking about why people get fat and stay fat even though mainstream medicine claims to have all the answers, and awareness about obesity is at an all-time high.

Like many of us, Kennon is not at her goal weight, but she is reclaiming her health and making peace with her body. “We are incredibly beautiful and organic machines,” she says. “I have to deal with what I’ve been given and I want to do good things for myself and for others.”

Reeducating herself about nutrition and the body led Kennon to the Paleo lifestyle and Ancestral Health. The Ancestral Health movement  forwards the theory that the human body is not adapted to an agricultural diet (specifically wheat and other grains), and especially not to the many processed foods we consume everyday. Ancestral Health proposes that returning to a diet similar to that of our pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer ancestors could curb many illnesses linked to the Western diet, including diabetes and obesity. As a result, we are now learning that “healthy” low fat diets and “essential” carbohydrates may actually increase the rates of diabetes and obesity, and that dietary fat (including saturated fat) may not be to blame for our expanding waistlines.

A Documentary about Obesity and the Science of Ancestral Health

In Defense of Fat is a documentary about obesity and the science of Ancestral Health.  Through in-depth interviews, animation, and the examination of  changes in nutritional and cultural attitudes, In Defense of Fat will explain the complex issues at play in our national discussion of diet and health.

“My goal is to make a film that allows a change in the dialog about the state of health based on scientific and well-researched data,” Kennon says.  Understanding the political, cultural, historical, and evolutionary context that has brought us to our current state is crucial if we want to improve health on a society-wide scale.

In Defense of Fat is currently in pre-production.  Kennon is raising $50,000 for equipment, crew, and travel expenses for the first round of interviews in New York, Boston, and San Francisco.

I asked Robb Wolf, former research biochemist and author of the New York Times Best Selling The Paleo Solution, why he wanted to participate in the documentary. He explained, “Where King Corn and Food Inc. have accurately portrayed issues in our food production (including farm subsides), we have no similar accurate treatment of what we should eat for optimum health. Forks Over Knives pushes the largely vegan agenda while ignoring both evolutionary biology and modern science. In Defense of Fat is a science-based riposté to the fallacies of Forks Over Knives.”

 

Other scheduled interviewees include:

Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt: A Swedish physician specializing in family medicine, Eenfeldt is one of the major proponents of the Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) movement in Scandinavia. He was a guest speaker on the 2012 Low Carb Cruise and blogs in English at DietDoctor.com

 

 

 

Dr. Robert Lustig: A nationally-recognized authority in the field of neuroendocrinology, Lustig has become famous in the last few years due to his popular lecture on YouTube called
Sugar: The Bitter Truth ,and his recent appearance on CBS’ 60 Minutes titled Is sugar toxic?.

 

 

 

 

Mark Sisson: Health and fitness expert Mark Sisson is a leading voice in the Primal/paleo movement. His acclaimed blog Marksdailyapple.com is read by millions each month, and he is the author of the best-selling book The Primal Blueprint.

 

 

Kennon Needs Our Help

To help raise funds, Kennon has listed her project on Kickstarter.com (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kennonhulett/in-defense-of-fat-a-new-documentary-about-obesity), a web site devoted to helping creative people raise the funds needed for their projects.   Kickstarter.com is an “All-or-nothing” crowd-funding web site.  This means that if Kennon does not raise the $50,000 she is requesting by Friday Jun 15, 6:16am PDT, the project will not be funded.  And that would be a shame.

Please watch this video presentation by filmmaker Kennon Hulett:

Every Dollar Helps

Every dollar you can contribute will help Kennon get closer to her goal. You can pledge as little as $1.  If you’re feeling generous, you can pledge up to $10,000  (CarbSmart.com has already pledged $250 towards the project). There are rewards for pledging support, above and beyond the satisfaction of participating in something important.   Kennon is offering a wide variety of rewards including postcards, DVDs of the documentary, and VIP access to exclusive In Defense of Fat events.

But the real reason to support this project is to make sure this important documentary gets made. At this writing, more than365 people have contributed over $16,000. Please visit In Defense of Fat to contribute.

Did you contribute? Please let us know by placing a comment below.