The Magic Pill follows doctors, patients, scientists, chefs, farmers and journalists from around the globe who are combating illness through a paradigm shift in eating. According to its followers, this simple change - embracing fat as our main fuel - is showing profound promise in improving the health of people, animals and the planet. The film is highly controversial and was criticized by some medical associations.
The Paleo diet proposes that humans were genetically adapted to eating specifically those foods that were readily available to them in their local environments. Advocates of the diet claim many chronic diseases and degenerative conditions evident in modern Western populations have arisen because of a mismatch between Stone Age genes and modern lifestyles. The Paleo diet typically includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, roots, and meat and excludes foods such as dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, processed vegetable oils, salt, alcohol or coffee.