m Dear Tom, I remember the old cheerios commercials and getting confused as to what could possibly be so bad as to raise your cholesterol. The immediate thought that came to my mind was candy, which is mostly sugar (ironic, isn't it). Over the years I learned that eggs supposedly raised cholesterol. Then I learned that animal fat raises cholesterol. I was a little confused as I felt that we have been eating that way for centuries. It was also a little confusing as I had a friend who went vegetarian (he still is). This is our conversation (in meaning): "Find me one thing that meat is better at providing than a vegetable substitute." "Protein" "Tofu has more protein in it than meat does. Anything else?" "Hmmm." "See, the only good thing about meat is that it tastes so good." I didn't express it out loud, but I took issue with that statement. If meat has no place in the human diet, we wouldn't have the desire to eat it. I concluded that we need meat because we are used to it being a reliable source of protein. Also, humans couldn't be vegetarians before the 00th century as there are a number of nutrients that you couldn't get from plant sources alone. In health, the whole jumbo got mashed up even more. First off, I felt that my teacher condemned saturated fat too early with little or no clinical evidence that he presented to me. We also watched Super Size Me. In the television program "Avatar: The Last Airbender," morality is a mix of both European (children kissing, girls in skimpy clothes, Sokka having a lot of girlfriends, etc.) and Asian (death is bad, killing is evil, war is evil, civilians must remain safe at all costs, etc.) values. This annoyed the heck out of me as the values are often shoved down your throat with the opposing side getting little say in it. Out of all this comes a very clear side to food: Meat just tastes good, and that is it. This line is said by Sokka, who is supposed to be based off of an Inuit Indian. My main hypothesis throughout all of this was that humans consumed protein before they were agricultural because it was the most plentiful source of protein around. I also felt that undernourishment and heart disease were inversely proportionate. That is about the time that I discovered Fat Head on Netflix. I originally got a little ticked as I felt that losing weight on fast food was simple as all you needed to do was limit consumption. I then watched the trailer on youtube and saw the comments on the bottom saying that it was an eye opener. When I started to watch the documentary, I was very against what you were saying (It isn't about taking you in and shoving food down your throat, it's about human psychology). Slowly, I began to see your standing, blaming government and business. Once you got to nutrition, I was floored. Your arguments actually made sense (as opposed to Spurlock). The most profound statement that you made was "Mother nature isn't stupid, she didn't make humans the only species on earth that prefers food that will kill us." From then on, everything clicked into place and I was a convert. When I told my family about this, they just shot me down stating that the film was biased, the same reason that they didn't want to watch Super Size Me. Regardless, I quickly changed my diet to a diet of veggies and fruit and saturated fat. My mom helped me by buying me bacon to cook. After about a month, I decided to watch Fat Head again, and my dad watched it as well (he has been struggling with health because of stress at his job). After watching the movie, he said, "I think back on all the mistakes that I have made with nutrition in my life." Since then, my family has moved from skim milk to 0%. My dad has also made the comment that he no longer has a ravenous hunger. It gives me great pleasure to know that it was just a chance meeting that I found out about you and your documentary. You have changed my life. Thank You! Thank you for watching. I hope your dad's health improves. Bruno June 0, 0000 at 0