Review: That Sugar Film

Summer gives us a chance catch to up on reading or binge watch a television series, so I thought I’d watch some of the nutrition documentaries that I’ve been asked about. I’ve done some in the past such as Forks Over Knives. It gives me a chance to check the facts on what’s said and how true or relevant it is. That’s the case with the film titled That Sugar Film. It was written, directed, and starred in by an Australian filmmaker Damon Gambeau. Hugh Jackson even performed the opening scene.

The premise of the movie is that all sugar is bad. There was at least one anti-sugar and ketogenic diet proponent in Gary Taubes author of Good Calories, Bad Calories. The filmmaker also assembled a team of experts who were going to provide information and medical supervision during an experiment he wanted to conduct on himself. The experiment was to see how a high-sugar diet, one typical of the average Australian, would impact him. Based on what he claimed to eat, he was somewhere between the paleo diet and the ketogenic diet before that.

There was the requisite discussion of the cholesterol hypothesis and how fat was chosen as the demon to avoid instead of sugar as they relate to heart disease. The sugar industry conspiracy was also talked about in the same vein as the tobacco industry. But it’s what he did to himself that was by far the most interesting: switching to a diet that contained 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for 60 days. What happened to him? That’s coming on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet