The Dukan protein diet was created in 1975. It is based on 72 protein-rich foods: meat, fish, seafood, dairy products, tofu, as well as vegetables and fruits - that is, you do notyou don't need to go hungry and suffer. Dukan's book "I Can't Lose Weight" was published in France in 2000 and has since been continually republished in different languages in millions of copies. The book was only published in other languages in 2011, and now Pierre Dukan has come to give an interview, lead a seminar and meet admirers.
— Mr. Dukan, at the beginning of your book there is a dedication to your wife and your children. Our Internet resource is entirely dedicated to family life, childbirth and raising children. In your opinion, how important is family in today’s world?
— I am a traditional person. I believe that finding a woman, a real woman, is a great blessing. Now everything is changing so quickly, many things are devalued, traditions are destroyed, so it is very important to have a woman nearby - an understanding and devoted woman. It is important that she complements you, because I can do something that my wife cannot do, and she, in turn, brings something that I do not have. This is the foundation.
My wife gave me two children - and all three, along with my readers, are the most precious thing in my life. It's not a joke, but it's really important. Our children, thirty years old side by side, already come from the spiritual, religious domain, it is the magic of life. I think marriages that happen on the run, where spouses are changed like handkerchiefs - getting married, divorcing - are bad. This behavior makes a person more fragile, less stable, which has a negative impact on health. When we are happy, when we are satisfied with our family, with our relationships with our children, then we are better able to resist the troubles of life.
— What are your children doing?
— My son is a financier, lives in Paris, works with me: he takes care of everything related to finance, the Internet, the website, the products that we put out to make it easier to follow a diet.
My daughter Maya is finishing her studies - she is studying at the Higher School of Economics (Business School). And there is a very funny story linked to his name, I will tell it to you now. A patient with a German last name came to see me - she had a Swiss husband - named Maya. I said, "Oh, my daughter's name is the same as yours. " She asked why we named our daughter that. I explained: "Because I respect Picasso a lot and one of his daughters is called Maya. »And do you know what the woman answered? "It’s me. I’m Maya Picasso. "
— Tell us a little about your brand's products - and how to buy them in our country?
— The first product I started making under my own name was sound. The fact is that bran is one of the most important products in food, but it is very difficult to find in France. Bran is very useful: on the one hand, it cleanses the intestines, and on the other hand, it provides the necessary calories. As a result, we started importing them from Finland, and then we discovered that the product actually came from another country, that is, it arrived in France via Finland. (Canada is the largest supplier of sound in the world). When people "tried" this product, they came to us with suitcases and bought everything. Then I decided it was time to start selling audio – and that’s how the first product appeared.
Later, they began to produce cakes (cookies) based on bran, which I recommend using at the first stage of weight loss - this is an excellent tool for combating hunger: a person withan uncontrollable appetite can eat as much as she wants. In my book I give a recipe for such flatbreads: in addition to bran, you need liquid cottage cheese, protein and a little vegetable oil. But many readers have written to my website to say how nice and convenient it would be to buy ready-made flatbreads. Then we started producing them. Then they started making ketchup - without salt, without sugar. We now produce more than 50 products and sell them all over the world. I hope that in 3-4 months, at the beginning of next year, they will start to be sold in our country.
— To what extent do you think the problem of overweight is relevant in our country?
— I was surprised to read on the Internet that in the megacities of your country there are more overweight people than in Paris. People eat fast food and don't move much. But if you eat like Americans, then you will become like Americans! We must stay true to ourselves, preserve food traditions. You are now at a turning point: you can still do something, stop so as not to lose your balance.
In general, the problem of being overweight is not just a whim dictated by the desire of women to appear more elegant and younger. We know that obese people live 9 years less than people of normal weight.
I'm a doctor, I'm not a businessman. And since I was a child, I wanted to be a doctor. When, after graduating from high school, I had to choose between art and medicine, my mother, who has always been a guiding light for me, told me: "If you become a doctor, you will be able toalways draw or collect art, but if you become an artist, you will never be able to practice medicine. »
Because I am a doctor, I take great pleasure in healing everyone who can be healed. And, according to my firm conviction, being overweight is not even an acute form of the disease, it is a persistent and chronic disease.
In the 70s, everyone wanted to lose weight quickly and didn't think that the weight would inevitably come back later. People now understand that weight must be maintained throughout life. Many diets do not stand the test of time due to lack of a consolidation stage.
When I started, patients who initially lost weight would return to my practice after six months. I improved the technique and they started coming back after a year. But as a doctor, I wasn't satisfied with this result either: I wanted them to be cured forever. That is why, in the end, I perfected my method: I offer patients not only fish, but also a fishing guide, that is, a food plan, according to which they can not only copequickly and effectively to obesity, but also maintain the results for a long time and without external help.
— How do you respond to criticism of your methodology?
— I insist that my method was created to get rid of excess weight. A distinction must be made between a diet for a person with 10 to 20 extra pounds and the usual diet for a person of normal weight. My technique is based on a very short and concentrated period - from a month and a half to three months - it is an "attack" on weight, it is war. Then it's easier, but of course you need to monitor your diet - if a person has such a problem as excess weight, he tends to become obese. For example, according to the recommendations of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization), the daily diet should contain 55% carbohydrates. However, the standards were adopted in the 1960s; for today's sedentary lifestyle, this is too much. When you eat sugar, your body doesn't want it because it understands that sugar is dangerous for the body and should be completely eliminated from your diet.
Very important – and this is nothing new – physical activity. I was born into a world in which it was natural to evolve and I did not feel obliged to prove it. But modern society encourages all kinds of technologies that make a person's life easier, make them move less – it is precisely this vision that we must overcome.