Earlier this week, French nutritionist Dr Pierre Dukan put forward an outlandish idea to President Nicolas Sarkozy, among a range of other proposals to encourage the population to lose weight.
Pierre Dukan's idea
Dr Dukan, whose high-protein diet has a swathe of celebrity followers (Pippa Middelton, Jennifer Lopez and supermodel Gisele Bundchen) believes students should be able to opt for an extra Baccalaureat exam (HSE equivalent) subject called ‘ideal weight’, which they can pass simply by being thin enough as it will reflects a pupil's body mass index (BMI).
What is the exam about?
Any student who can maintain a healthy BMI of between 18 and 25 during their final years at school should then be awarded extra marks that would go to their overall total.
No joke! To be honest, I thought it was a scam at first, but after checking newspapers from around the world I realise it was true.
Controversy
The French media swiftly accused Dr Dukan of encouraging excessive weight loss in schoolchildren by suggesting they should be rewarded for being thin.
French daily Le Parisien said the scheme could create an 'unhealthy relationship with food' in young people.
Dr Dukan told the paper: 'There is nothing unhealthy about educating youngsters about nutrition. 'My idea would change nothing for those who have no need to get thinner. But for those who dop, it would only motivate them to lose weight.'
What do you think? Is Dukan's idea any good?
Anything to promote fitness is good if it's done right. I don't think extra points should be rewarded for the result (being thin or having low BMI). I think the extra points should be rewarded for the cause of being fit (for conducting fitness tasks to work towards being fit.
ReplyDeletepoints shouldn't be rewarded for no work if students are already thin naturally.. that wouldn't be fair. In this way, it is the work that is rewarding i.e. exercising.
Hrmm, this sort of idea makes me very uneasy - what of children who are naturally muscular/have a big build/any other factor that may throw off the BMI? BMI is useful at a population level but it's use at an individual level has been questioned, a LOT. Plus, I don't think adding extra anxiety onto students is necessarily going to achieve the results they'd like. I agree with the previous commenter that it's unfair to reward students who are naturally thin, and not to reward those are are overweight but working hard to be fit.
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