The Dukan Protein Diet was created in 1975. It is based on 72 foods rich in proteins: meat, fish, seafood, dairy products, tofu, as well as vegetables and fruits - that is, you don't have to go hungry and suffer. Dukan's book "I Can't Lose Weight" was published in France in 2000 and since then has been republished over and over again in different languages in millions of copies. The book was published in other languages only in 2011, and now Pierre Dukan has come to give interviews, hold seminars and meet admirers.
— Monsieur Dukan, at the beginning of your book there is a dedication to your wife and children. Our Internet resource is entirely devoted to family life, childbirth and raising children. How important do you think family is in today's world?
— I'm 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 being devalued, traditions are being destroyed, so it is very important to have a woman around - an understanding and dedicated woman. It is important for her to praise you, because I can do something that my wife cannot, and she, in turn, brings something that I do not have. This is the base.
My wife gave me two children - and all three, like my readers, are the most valuable thing in my life. This is not a joke, but it is really very important. Our children, who spent thirty years side by side, are already spiritual, religious, that is the magic of life. I think marriages that happen on the run, when spouses are swapped like handkerchiefs - getting married, getting divorced - are bad. This behavior makes the person more fragile, less stable - and this has a negative impact on health. When we are happy, when we are satisfied with our family, with our relationship with our children, then we are better able to resist life's problems.
— What do your children do?
— My son is a financier, lives in Paris, works with me: he deals with everything related to finances, the internet, the website, the products we launch to make people's diets easier.
My daughter Maya is finishing her studies - she studies at the Higher School of Economics (Ecole de Commerce). And there is a very funny story linked to her name, I will tell you now. A patient with a German surname came to see me - she had a Swiss husband - called Maya. I said, "Oh, my daughter's name is the same as hers. "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 responded? "It's me. I'm Maya Picasso. "
— Tell us a little about your brand's products - and how they can be purchased in our country?
— The first product I started producing under my own name was bran. The fact is that bran is one of the most important products in the diet, but it is very difficult to find in France. Bran is very useful: firstly, it cleanses the intestines, and secondly, it provides the necessary calories. As a result, we started to import them from Finland and later discovered that the product was actually from another country - that is, through Finland it arrived in France. (Canada is the largest supplier of bran 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 bran - and that's how the first product appeared.
Later, they began to produce cakes (biscuits) made from bran, which I recommend using in the first stage of weight loss - it is an excellent tool for fighting hunger: a person with an uncontrollable appetite can eat them as much as they want. In my book I give a recipe for these flatbreads: in addition to bran, you need liquid cottage cheese, protein and a little vegetable oil. But many readers wrote on my website about how nice and convenient it would be to buy ready-made flatbreads. So we started producing them. Then they started making ketchup - no salt, no sugar. Now we 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.
— How relevant do you think the problem of excess weight is 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 move little. But if you eat like Americans, you will become like Americans! We must remain true to ourselves, preserve food traditions. You are now at a decisive moment - you can still do something, stop, so as not to lose your balance.
In general, the problem of excess weight is not just a whim dictated by women's desire to look more elegant and younger. It is known 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 finishing high school, I had to choose between art and medicine, my mother, who had always been a beacon to me, said, "If you are a doctor, you can always draw or collect art, but if you become an artist , will never be able to practice medicine. "
Being a doctor, I take great pleasure in healing everyone who can be healed. And, I firmly believe, 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 needs to be maintained throughout life. Many diets do not stand the test of time due to the lack of a consolidation step.
When I started, patients who initially lost weight came back to my office after six months. I improved the technique and they started coming back within a year. But as a doctor, I wasn't satisfied with this result either - I wanted them to be cured forever. Therefore, 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 quickly and effectively cope with obesity, but also maintain results for a long time and without outside help.
— How do you respond to criticism of your methodology?
— I emphasize that my method was created to get rid of excess weight. It is necessary to distinguish between a diet for a person who is 10-20 kilos overweight and the usual diet of a person with normal weight. My technique is based on a very short and concentrated period - from one and a half to three months - this is a heavy "attack", this is war. Then it becomes easier, but of course you still need to monitor your diet - if a person has a problem such as being overweight, there is a tendency to become obese. For example, according to recommendations from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 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 where it was natural to move and I didn't feel obligated to prove it. But modern society encourages all kinds of technologies that make a person's life easier, make him move less – this is precisely the view that needs to be overcome.