14 DAY TRIAL // Pierre Dukan, the creator of the very popular Dukan diet, which has often been compared to Atkins, faces an ethics hearing after suggesting that teens should get higher grades in school if they’re thin – with the reverse also applicable.
The famous diet guru suggested that French students taking the Baccalaureate exam (which is compulsory once they graduate high school, and allows them admission to college) should also have to pass the “test” of obesity, ABC News informs.
In other words, he claimed that thin students should get higher scores in the exam than those who weigh more, who, in their turn, should be “punished” for being overweight.
The proposal has generated a very negative response in the medical community, with Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center saying for ABC that what Dukan is doing is encouraging unhealthy behavior.
The French College of Physicians agrees, stating that Dukan was in breach of France's medical ethics code, which clearly stipulates that a doctor must be very careful about expressing certain opinions, because they may have negative repercussions on the public.
In a context in which many teens are already struggling either with an eating disorder or being overweight, asking the state to “punish” them for it is irresponsible and cruel, Dr. Katz says.
“Everything about this is wrong. It’s wrong because it invites eating disorders. It’s wrong because weight has nothing to do with academic performance… and the notion that weight is a behavior that should incentivized is just wrong. Weight is an outcome. We should incentivize things people can control,” Dr. Katz says.
“If we apply rewards to weight, we’re mistaking weight for a behavior. Some people who eat well and are physically active are heavy. And some people who eat poorly and don’t exercise are thin. This misses the mark in every conceivable way,” he explains.
In the same statement, Dr. Katz also says that he believes Dukan is saying these things only because he's motivated by money first and foremost, instead of thinking of the health of his clients – or potential clients.
This in itself is a breach of the ethics code: it's not wrong to make money off dieting, but it is so if it happens at the expense of the health of the dieters.
Dukan is yet to respond to the controversy. A hearing will take place sometime in the next six months and, if found guilty, he will be removed from the medical registry in France.