How to check obesity? Give extra marks to children who are slim

HEALTH GETS SPECIAL WEIGHTAGE

Paris: Pierre Dukan, the nutritionist behind the popular but controversial Dukan diet, has suggested that France tackle child obesity by giving extra exam marks for slimness. Dukan, who has sold 8 million copies of his diet book worldwide, made the proposal in a 250-page book called 'An Open Letter to the Future President', which he sent out Tuesday to 16 candidates for France's presidential election. 

    The plan calls for high school students to be allowed to take a socalled "ideal weight" option in their final year exams, the "baccalaureat", under which they would earn extra points if they kept a body mass index of between 18 and 25. 
    Those already overweight at the start of the two-year course would score double points if they managed to slim down over a period of two years. "It's a fantastic motivator," Dukan said. 
    "The baccalaureat is really important in France. Kids want to get it, their parents want them to even more, so why not get them to work together on nutrition?" 
    Weight gain is becoming an increasing problem in France and experts say sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition are to blame. 
    "There's a real problem. Since the 1960s the number of overweight people in France has risen from 500,000 to 22 million and it's going up every year," Dukan said. "When you reach those levels, it's no longer a health problem, it becomes a political problem, and leaders of the nation need to worry about it." REUTERS