Fat Fiction

The documentary takes up the history of the official American dietary guidelines and questions the research behind decades of advice saying that saturated fats are harmful. In its account the real culprit is not fat but sugar and processed carbohydrates. Jennifer Isenhart directed and Mark Hyman narrates, with Gary Taubes, Nina Teicholz and Tim Noakes among the advocates of a low-carbohydrate approach who speak; Ancel Keys, one of the founding figures of nutrition policy, appears in archive footage. It should be said plainly that the film is an advocacy piece: it frames the argument from its own side and gives no time to scientists who disagree. The scientific debate in this area is still going on, and a number of the claims made here are not widely accepted.