Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche
Master in Food Culture and Communications – section B
2011 - 2012
The Pierre Dukan phenomenon: analysis of sociological
aspects, health threats and environmental issues of the last
blockbuster diet.
Figure 1: Pierre Dukan's book Thesis by Vanessa Gho
1 Table of Contents
Introduction .........................................................................................................................3
The Dukan diet in brief........................................................................................................4
The origin of diets................................................................................................................6
Theories of consumption applied to Dukan diet..................................................................9
Nutritional issues...............................................................................................................13
The sustainability issue......................................................................................................15
Food for thought................................................................................................................21
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................22
References..........................................................................................................................23
Attachments .......................................................................................................................24
2 Introduction
Nowadays many countries, especially in the western part of the world, are facing a
change in the relationship between food and culture.
The change in life styles and other factors like health issues and increasing incapacity of
transferring gastronomic knowledge, bring back to fashion “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”.
Michael Pollan in this book describes the condition of humans who face the difficulty of
choosing what to eat since they are omnivores. He borrows the definition of Omnivore’s
Dilemma, name used first by Paul Rozin, from Rousseau and Brillat-Savarin: “When you
can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will
inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the potential foods on offer are liable to
sicken or kill you”.
As already mentioned, the increasing quantity of food that is available in supermarkets
and the lack of information necessary to evaluate the different choices are causing
uncertainty in the consumer’s mind. In order to follow a correct diet, people feel the need
for advices from experts such as nutritionists, doctors or dieticians.
A study conducted by Eurobarometro in 2006 for the European Commission, shows that
the majority of the European population is aware that eating in a healthy way means
adopting a balanced diet that includes all the different nutrients. Unfortunately most of
the people are not able to follow a balanced diet for three main reasons: 31% said that it
takes too much time to chose and prepare a meal, 27% of the people do not have control
on what they consume because it is bought or prepared by others, and finally 23% stated
that healthy food is not appetizing.
3 This scenario of uncertainty is a good business opportunity for many dieticians,
nutritionists and doctors. There has been almost an invasion of diet books, many of them
inspired by Robert Atkins, which propose different approaches to lose weight and be
healthy.
One of the last examples is the Dukan diet by Pierre Dukan. His book is a blockbuster in
many countries and also in Italy and he has become a real guru.
His method is based on the consumption of proteins, better if animal proteins, and is
divided in four different phases. His approach is very precise since everything is imposed
in a clear way leading the follower of the diet through the process of weight loss. There is
no room for any dilemmas on what to eat and this is probably one of the main reasons of
the success of this diet that is effective to lose weight but has some serious impacts on
health and also on the environment.
In this thesis I will analyse the sociological success of this diet that, in my opinion,
addresses some of the main issues about consumption. On the other hand I will also cover
the nutritional downsides and the environmental impact that such a diet can have if we
consider that it is “the unfailing method that helped 13 million people to lose weight”.
The Dukan diet in brief
As already stated, every once in a while a new, revolutionary diet hits the market. The
promise is always the same: losing weight in a fast and easy way without gaining it back.
4 But every time the steps to follow and the food allowed are different, even going in
opposite directions.
Usually these kinds of fashion diets are based on the idea of eliminating one or more
main nutrients that are considered responsible for the weight gain. One time it is the diet
that avoids carbohydrates and allows fats and proteins, another time fats are the enemy
and so on.
Pierre Dukan started as a general practitioner and got involved with overweight by
chance. One day, an obese patient asked Dukan to help him to lose weight. He was ready
to give up any kind of food but meat, so the doctor told him to eat only lean meat for a
week to see what would happen. This is how Pierre Dukan started his own diet method.
The diet consists of four phases:
1. The attack phase during which only pure proteins are allowed. This means that,
for a period from 1 to 10 days depending on the weight loss needs, the person is
only allowed to eat lean meat, fish, eggs, seafood, tofu, seitan and low fat dairy
products in any quantity. During this phase, the carbohydrates and fats intake is
lower than recommended, while proteins are three times higher. Also fibre intake
is very low.
2. The cruise phase during which it is possible to add some kind of vegetables but
only every other day. The allowed vegetables are around 14 types and have to be
low in sugar, starch and fat. This phase lasts until the Right Weight is reached; for
a 20kg weight loss it may last for 20 weeks.
5 3. The consolidation phase during which it is possible to eat vegetables everyday
and a serve of fruit once a day. There are also two celebration meals a week
where the person can eat anything. Thursday, on the other hand, must remain a
pure protein day. This phase lasts 10 days for every kilogram lost to reach the
Right Weight.
4. The stabilisation phase during which the person can go back to a regular diet
following some basic rules: Thursdays must be pure proteins, keep as a base the
food allowed during consolidation, eat three spoons of oat bran a day and finally
forget the elevator.
The origin of diets
Alan Beardswirth and Teresa Keil analyse from a sociological point of view the theme of
dieting in their book “Sociology on the Menu – An invitation to the study of food and
society”.
In the last decades the main fight was against food shortage and the main goal was to
increase the supply. The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s aimed exactly to
increase the production of food in order to make it available to more and more people.
Nowadays there are still some problems for very poor people to access food, but for the
majority the availability is pretty good. The real paradox is that, especially in the richer
countries of the world, the debate is about the control of eating through dieting. In the
6 western countries we are facing the fear of fat, as Alan Beardswirth and Teresa Keil state
in their book.
As the food supplies become more available to more people, the percentage of those who
are on a diet is increasing. Those people are trying to lose weight and, in fact, are
avoiding eating part of the food that is available.
Starting from the 1990s the sociology of the body developed due to some social changes.
Turner, in 1991, focused on the changes in consumer culture in the post-war period as
well as in the structure of industrial society. Also the feminist movement and the
development of postmodern themes in the arts helped the change in the society.
Turner puts a lot of attention to the growth of the service sector that led to the
development of new lifestyles based on consumption and leisure. The body starts to be
represented in art and commercials with emphasis on being fit and practising sports.
The body standard of slimness imposed by the media, advertising and entertainment is
happening in a period of time when the average body weight of people is increasing,
raising the issue of obesity and all the chronicle diseases associated with it.
The concept of beauty has been changing during time and has never been static, as Fallon
studied in the 1990s. In the fifteenth to eighteenth century women were considered erotic
and fashionable when they were fat; in the nineteenth century small waist and fragile
figure was associated with morality while small waist and big bottom women were
considered lower class. Finally in the twenties century the ideal shifted to the masculine
body.
7 Fallon states that the spread of a general standard of body shape has been driven by the
media, especially films that mostly focused on high-class groups, wide spreading their
ideal physique. This emphasis on slimness is recent and is a characteristic of modern
western countries.
In 1985, Mennell explained the shift towards the ideal of slimness with the increased
security of food supplies. In fact the changes that occurred in the regulation of one’s
appetite in a quantitative sense was correlated to the development of manners. There is a
difference between hunger and appetite and the “appestat”, which is a psychological
control on the food intake, regulates appetite. The appestat depends not only on the
individual but is also driven by social factors and in western countries people have been
controlling their appetite pushed by the experts’ opinion that moderation is healthier. This
process brought to the actual situation of fear of the fat.
Featherstone also highlighted the tendency of people to associate slimness to a
demonstration of self-control seen as a personal success.
In this framework it is easy to understand that there is room for profits for different
actors. Starting from dieticians and nutritionist that help people with specific diets,
passing through companies that produce dietetic foodstuff and ending with the new trend
of beauty treatments and surgery.
In my opinion Pierre Dukan’s diet is able to fulfil the need of people of losing weight and
reach the ideal slimness with restrictions on the appetite for some kind of food but none
on the hunger. In fact, the followers of the diet can eat any quantity of food allowed in the
single phases of the diet. Even people with a high “appestat”, meaning a big intake of
8 food that would normally lead to overweight (as Mennell states in “All manners of
Food”), will lose weight satisfying their physiological needs.
This is probably one of the success factors of the Dukan diet that hides to the followers
some downsides both from a nutritional and sustainable point of view.
Theories of consumption applied to Dukan diet
The Dukan diet can be analysed going through some of the steps that Roberta Sassatelli
follows in her book “Consumer Culture” to understand its success from a sociological
point of view.
The blockbuster phenomenon of the Dukan diet happens in a time and society in which
people are constantly fighting against overweight, at least in western countries. Not
everybody has the resources to approach the problem going to see a dietician or
nutritionist that will, after a first visit, set up a customized dieting plan that suites the
single person’s needs and problems.
It means that there is a big part of population that is willing to lose weight but doesn’t
know how to systematically deal with it. There is no distinction between low or high
culture people, just like Horkheimer and Adorno state in their book “The Dialectic of
Enlightenment” regarding the commoditization of culture: the products of the culture
industry are homogeneous and predictable.
The Dukan diet fits exactly this definition because it is a “one fits all” weight loss
program that gives predictable results if it followed carefully. In this way the method is
9 able to attract a large number of people because it is simple, standardized, universal and
methodological.
When using the word universal, I mean that for the Dukan diet the theory of Distinction
proposed by Bourdieu in the 1980s does not apply. In his theory, Bourdieu argues that the
consumer acts with a logic of distinction, meaning that they distinguish between different
goods in order to distinguish themselves from others. Social classes have different
consumption patterns depending on their cultural and economic capital: these two
variables allow us to create a map of social positions. This might be true if we talk about
food or clothing but it seems that when it comes to losing weight, a diet can spread from
upper to lower classes without differences. The Dukan diet has approximately thirteen
million followers all over the world, from Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton, to
Hollywood celebrities, all the way to normal people trying to fight against overweight.
The diet aims to create a lifestyle to follow which is not different depending on the social
class but it is shared by a group of varied consumers that have the same target.
But if the Dukan diet does not fit the Distinction theory of Bourdieu, it also contrasts with
Mary Douglas’ idea that the consumer has an active role. Her opinion is that consumers
are responsible for their choices and decisions and clearly who bought Dukan’s book
made a conscious act but they were probably driven by the fact that it represents the new
trend in weight loss programs and that many celebrities follow it. If it weren’t the diet
that helped Kate Middleton fit in her royal wedding dress, would so many people have
bought the book? In my opinion the fashion aspect of the Dukan diet pushed many
consumers to follow it.
10 It is possible to analyse the success of the Dukan diet considering the approach proposed
by George Ritzer in his book “The McDonaldization of Society”. Taking the famous fast
food chain as an example, Ritzer explains how the consumers want to know what to
expect, without having surprises. Matching this need, the production of food in
McDonald focuses on four main characteristics: efficiency, predictability, calculability
and control.
Efficiency involves the idea of time saving and going straight to the target: the Dukan
diet is simple in its approach because there is no need to weight the food or combine
different elements, so the meal can be prepared without spending too much time. The
different phases to go through bring the follower to a quick weight loss that helps him or
her not to give up the diet.
Every phase of the Dukan diet has a quite predictable result and this helps the follower to
trust the approach especially after the first phase, the attack phase, which shows a weight
loss from one to five kilograms in a few days, depending on the excess weight of the
individual. The results are quite standardized and fit the majority of the followers.
The Dukan diet effectively substitutes quality with quantity. The follower is allowed to
eat as much as he or she wants of the allowed food but as we will discuss later, the
nutritional values of it is not good.
Pierre Dukan has been very smart to exercise control, not on production and distribution
as meant by Ritzer in his analysis of McDonald, but on the follower directly. In fact, the
diet is made up of strict rules listed in a very precise way for each phase of the diet.
Especially concerning the food allowed, Dukan lists not only the food categories but also
11 specific things for each category. There is no space for interpretation; the follower is
guided meticulously through the diet facilitating results to be as expected and in line with
the program.
In Ritzer’s view, contemporary means of consumption are “de-humanized, rationalized
and thus efficient means of rapid supply”. The Dukan diet reflects all these characteristics
and is probably one of the key factors of its success.
Finally the Dukan diet fits the needs of the voracious cultural consumers, studied by Oriel
Sullivan and Tally Katz-Gerro in 2006. In their paper in the European Sociological
Review, “The Omnivore Thesis Revisited: Voracious Cultural Consumer”, the authors
start from Peterson’s consideration that members of the upper class are becoming cultural
omnivores, and add Bourdieu’s focus on the way people consume rather than
concentrating on what. There is then an analysis of the patterns of consumption and not
only to the contents. The scarcity of time that certain groups of people are facing,
especially working class, has brought to an increase in the intensity of leisure and
working activities. More activities are done in the same time, and the time spent for each
of them decreases.
In this framework, the Dukan diet helps people to spend less time thinking about their
weight loss, making it easy to prepare the meal. No weighting of ingredients is needed,
there is a specific list of allowed food, some easy rules to follow. As already stated
before, all these aspects help the followers to speed up the process of eating, making the
weight loss program efficient.
12 Nutritional issues
As stated at the beginning, the Dukan diet has been very criticised from a nutritional
point of view.
The diet goes against the idea of the nutrition pyramid that advises to eat all three
nutrients in the right ratio depending on the age, sex and lifestyle. As a rule of thumb, our
daily calories intake should be 55 to 60% from carbohydrates, 30% from lipids and 15%
from proteins.
Variety is the main pillar of the Mediterranean diet that, so far, is considered a healthy
way of feeding ourselves.
The Mediterranean diet is mainly based on a high consumption of olive oil, legumes,
unprocessed cereals, fruits and vegetables. Dairy products and fish are consumed
moderately, together with wine. For meat, instead, there is a low consumption.
A study from Antonia Trichopoulo, Tina Costacou, Christina Bamia and Dimitrios
Trichopoulo on The New England Journal of Medicine (June 2003) showed that people
in Greece following the Mediterranean diet are more long-lived.
The majority of nutritionists share the benefits of the Mediterranean diet but sometimes
there are still some outsiders that propose a diet that goes against it, pushing people to a
period of mono nutrient diet.
Many dieticians think that the Dukan diet can cause some health problems especially for
people that need to lose a lot of weight and have to follow a protein rich and low
vegetables diet for some months.
13 Juliette Kellow, a dietician with experience in health, food and diet, wrote an article on
the website http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/ on the potential problems of the diet;
in the short term the Dukan diet can have the same side effects as the Atkins diet in terms
of production of ketones due to the absence of carbohydrates. In the long term the lack of
whole grains, fruit and vegetables could lead to lack of anti oxidants that are crucial to
protect against heart diseases and cancer. Dukan suggests taking multivitamins to fulfil
the need but it is much better to take the nutrients from food rather than pills.
Doctor Boris Hansel, a cardiovascular and metabolism specialist in Paris, was
interviewed by The Guardian. He stated that a preliminary inquiry showed the need for a
real scientific study because, in his opinion, this diet could cause serious health problems
as high blood pressure and liver diseases.
The French food standards Authority, Anses, conducted a study in which it was
demonstrated that, on a sample group of 5000 people that followed the diet, 35%
regained their weight after one year, after two years the percentage raises to 64% and
after three years it reaches 80%.
It seems then that the Dukan diet is not effective as it claims to be and could also cause
health problems. This points will sure be researched in a deeper way in the near future
and this is very important since this diet is followed by many famous people and spread
very quickly around the world.
The Dukan diet opens the door also to another criticism that is strongly linked to the
nutritional pyramid and involves the environment.
14 The sustainability issue
In the last decades there has been a growing attention to the sustainability of food
production. After the Green Revolution, agriculture and farming faced a period of
industrialization driven by the need of producing big quantities of food. The use of
chemicals and industrial farming methods had a negative impact on the environment and
nowadays more and more people are aware of this.
With our food habits we are able to push the food sector to a more sustainable way of
producing goods. The way to drive this change is quite simple because it means
following a diet based on the nutritional food pyramid. In fact, what is good for the
human body is also good for the environment.
From these considerations, there has been the development of the double pyramid that
relates the balanced diet to its impact on the environment.
Figure 2: The Double Pyramid
15 The food pyramid suggests that a balanced diet is made of a high consumption of
vegetables and fruits that have to be eaten every day, followed by cereals and legumes
that are an important source of proteins even though they are not as pure as animal
proteins. Dairy products and meat, on the other hand, should be consumed only a couple
of times a week.
In the environmental pyramid it is simple to see that meat is the food product that has the
highest negative impact on the environment. Also fish and cheese have a strong bad
effect while fruits, vegetables and cereals have the lowest impact on the environment.
In the first phase of the Dukan diet the pure proteins allowed are lean meat from veal,
beef or horse, offal, fish, seafood, poultry, lean cured meat, eggs, tofu or seitan, low fat
dairy products. If we place all these products in the pyramids we will see that they are in
the top half of the food one and, apart from eggs and dairy, also in the environment one.
This means that the diet is not good for our health and even for the environment.
In the second phase of the diet, things look a little bit better because it is possible to add
vegetables for half of the week. But we are still missing the cereals that are an important
part of the diet.
Only in the last two phases, the diet is more balanced both from a nutritional and
environmental point of view.
A study conducted by the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition calculated the impact of
the different food products on the environment and can help to understand why the
Dukan diet is very bad for the planet.
16 The estimation was done using data measured through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
that is an objective methodology to detect energy and environmental loads of a process.
This means analysing every step of the life of a product, starting from the growing or
extraction, the processing of the raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation,
distribution, use, recycling and final disposal.
There are three main points considered to determine the final footprint of the food
products on the environment:
 Carbon footprint: measures, in grams of CO2 equivalent, the greenhouse gas
emission that is responsible for the climate change
Figure 3: Carbon Footprint
17  Water footprint measures, in litres, the consumption of water and how to use the
resources
Figure 4: Water Footprint
18  Ecological footprint measures, in square meters, the quantity of productive land
needed to absorb the emissions produced by the manufacturing process
Figure 5: Ecological Footprint
Analysing the above data it is easy to understand that the first category of pure protein
suggested by Dukan in his book, beef and veal meat, have a huge impact on the
environment. For one kilogram of red meat, in average, 26 kgCO2 equivalent are
produced, 15,500 litres of water are consumed and 109 m2 of land are needed to absorb
the emissions.
If we consider seasonal vegetables, on the other hand, there are 0.67 KgCO2 equivalent
produced, 240 litres of water consumed and 3 m2 of land needed to absorb the emissions.
The meat production impact on the environment is due to many different reasons. First of
all, land is needed to keep the animals and feed them. Most of the times the land is taken
19 from forests threatening the biodiversity of plants and animals. The deforestation is also
one of the causes of the carbon dioxide rise, together with the production processes to
obtain animal feed. The animal waste is also a problem because it is rich in nitrogen and
if it is produced in big quantities it can pollute the water in the ground.
There is also a big issue with the CAFOs where the animals have to live without space
for moving and with artificial light 24 hours a day; this bad conditions cause illnesses to
the animals that are then fed with antibiotics which are both bad for our health when we
eat the meat and also for the soil and water because they are present also in the animal
waste.
Not only the breeding of the animals has an impact on the environment, but meat also has
the need of cooling to preserve it. Fruits and vegetables need much less the chain of cold
because they are consumed in a quite short time if we consider, of course, seasonal
products.
Figure 6: Chain of cold impact
20 After having analysed all this aspects about the food and environment pyramid, the
Dukan diet turns out to be bad for the environment and unbalanced on the nutritional
side, especially considering the first two phases that could last even some months.
As already considered, one of the main reasons of success of this diet is the fact that the
weight loss is very fast in the first phase, stimulating people not to give up. It is not
necessary to weight the food or count the calories so it is easy to implement. Since the
quantity of food do eat is free, it also avoids problems of hunger during the day.
In his book, Pierre Dukan is very convincing stating that his method is far the best one to
follow. Of course he is not concerned about the environment and probably not even to go
deeper into potential health problems that his diet could cause.
He claims that his diet helped more than 13 million people to lose weight; maybe if he
would consider the impact on the environment he would not be so proud of this number
since it means a huge footprint on the planet. Multiplying the numbers for carbon, water
and ecological footprint times the kilograms of meat that 13 million people have to eat at
least in the first two phases, makes a big number.
Food for thought
I came across an article on an Italian online newspaper that made me think of the Dukan
diet from another point of view. In a very ironic way the author wrote an article titled:
“The speculative bubble of bresaola” (http://lettura.corriere.it/la-bolla-speculativa-dellabresaola/).
21 The journalist, Francesco Piccolo, after describing his aggressiveness during the period
he followed the Dukan diet, analyses how the demand for bresaola could rise due to this
new fashion diet creating a speculative bubble. In fact, after a period of time, people will
end the diet and go back to a more normal diet.
The full article in Italian can be found also in attachment 1.
Conclusion
The Dukan diet is negative both for people’s health and for the environment but, despite
the increasing awareness of consumers on these issues, it has a great success. This means
that sociological aspects, together with the change in life styles and food culture, have a
great impact on the choices of consumers.
It seems that the promise of losing weight in a simple but yet effective way is a very
strong argument for many consumers, probably also for the ones that are more conscious
about sustainability and nutrition.
If only vegetables and fruits were as appetizing as meat and fish, there could be a chance
to launch a new blockbuster diet that could help the environment as well as our health.
Unfortunately it takes more effort to make vegetables tasty than to eat 200 grams of
savoury bresaola out of the supermarket paper.
In my personal opinion Pierre Dukan has very little of a doctor and a lot of an
entrepreneur. I don’t believe that he is not aware of the downsides of his diet, but he
22 found a treasure! He has the right recipe to make people lose weight in a fast and easy
way that is compliant with today’s lifestyle.
Hopefully the success of the Dukan diet will fade soon, as any fashion does even if the
problem is what the next blockbuster diet will be like.
References
 Pierre Dukan “La Dieta Dukan”. Published by Sperling&Kupfer  Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition in cooperation with Worldwatch Institute, “Eating Planet. Nutrirsi oggi: una Sfida per l’Uomo e per il Pianeta. 2012”. Published by Ambiente  Michael Pollan, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: the Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-­
food World”. Published by Bloomsbury  Alan Beardsworth and Teresa Keil, “Sociology on the Menu. An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society”. Published by Routledge  Roberta Sassatelli, “Consumer Culture. History, Theory and Politics”. Published by Sage  Oriel Sullivan and Tally Katz-­Gerro, “The Omnivore Thesis Revisited: Voracious Cultural Consumers”. European Sociological Review, Oxford Journals  Antonia Trichopoulo, Tina Costacou, Christina Bamia and Dimitrios Trichopoulo, “Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Survival in a Greek Population”. The New England Journal of Medicine (June 2003)  Kim Willsher, “Dukan diet divides French doctors over effect on health”. The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/30/dukan-­diet-­france-­health-­
affect)  Aurora Bergamini, “La dieta Dukan pericolosa e inefficace”. Il secolo XIX (http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/magazine/2011/05/30/AOFFyDY-­
pericolosa_inefficace_dukan.shtml#axzz1oJyGOQpD)  Juliette Kellow “The Dukan Diet”. Website weightlossresources.co.uk (http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/pierre-­dukan-­diet.htm) 23  Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition website “2011 Double pyramid: healthy food for people, sustainable for the planet”  Francesco Piccolo, “La Bolla Speculativa della Bresaola”. Article on Corriere.it (http://lettura.corriere.it/la-bolla-speculativa-della-bresaola/) Attachments
1. La bolla speculativa della bresaola di Francesco Piccolo
Ho fatto la dieta Dukan, sono dimagrito sette chili in meno di un mese, ho picchiato un
buon numero di persone e ho compreso finalmente la questione dei consumi, del
capitalismo e della sua fragilità.
Anch’io ho fatto la dieta Dukan. Ho mangiato soltanto proteine per tre giorni (si chiama
«fase d’attacco»), e in seguito un giorno proteine e verdura e un altro solo proteine, fino
al raggiungimento del peso suggerito. Alla fine, ho perso sette chili, e sono molto
soddisfatto della dieta. Soprattutto perché ho anche imparato una serie di cose. Prima di
tutto, il corpo ha bisogno di rigatoni e Oro Saiwa molto di più di quanto si possa
immaginare. La notte non sognavo altro. Sognavo anche Scarlett Johansson, ma ho
scoperto che il corpo e la mente umana possono fare a meno di Scarlett, ma non degli Oro
Saiwa. Scoperta piuttosto interessante, e in qualche modo confortante.
Poi, ho capito in modo più preciso perché le tigri e i leoni sono così aggressivi. In pratica,
anche loro fanno la Dukan. In modo estremo, oltretutto, nel senso che praticano la fase di
attacco (che negli esseri umani varia da tre a cinque giorni) per tutta la vita. L’ho capito
perché nei giorni della dieta sono diventato una persona estremamente aggressiva. Le
energie molto attive delle proteine sono bilanciate da carboidrati e zuccheri che rendono
più paciosi e sonnolenti. Ma se le lasci agire da sole, sono incontrollabili. Ho mandato a
quel paese, urlando, una enorme quantità di persone, e la dieta è finita in tempo utile per
non perdere tutti i lavori che mi ero procurato. Per l’intera giornata in cui ingurgiti
proteine, non hai altro desiderio che picchiare qualcuno. Una volta ho preso mio figlio,
l’ho piantato contro il muro tenendolo per il bavero, gli ho urlato cose irripetibili a voce
molto alta e a distanza ravvicinatissima, e se non mi avessero fermato gli avrei dato una
testata in faccia. Tenete conto che mio figlio ha poco più di tre anni.
L’altra cosa che ho imparato, è ancora più sorprendente: essere così aggressivi dà una
sensazione molto piacevole. Pericolosamente piacevole. Mi rendevo conto che esageravo,
ma allo stesso tempo pensavo che non avrei più voluto fare ameno di tutta quella
aggressività. Da allora, guardo alle tigri e ai leoni con molta simpatia, perché penso che
sono sempre in quello stato euforico in cui mi sono sentito in quei giorni, pronti a scattare
a qualsiasi provocazione. Li invidio un po’, ora.
Però, la differenza tra noi umani e le tigri, sia in generale sia nel caso particolare della
dieta Dukan, è che noi abbiamo il frigorifero e loro no. Loro devono fare una certa fatica
per procurarsi il cibo, tanto che il «National Geographic» è spinto a filmarli, mentre non
ha nessun interesse a filmare noi mentre compriamo proteine al supermercato o apriamo
il frigorifero per mangiarle. Dukan, che era un medico normale e ora ha assunto le
24 sembianze di un guru (e io lo riconosco come tale), mette tutta una serie di regole,
esclude il prosciutto, per esempio. Io sono arrivato a fare la sua dieta in modo del tutto
consapevole: ho letto il libro, ho ponderato a lungo, emi sono reso conto che aveva due
caratteristiche favorevoli: si poteva mangiare in quantità libera, anche esagerata (una sera
ho cenato con sette fette di carne); e dovevo mangiare carne e pesce, che mi piacciono
moltissimo. Prima di cominciare, non avrei mai sospettato che a un certo punto sarei
quasi svenuto davanti a un pacco di Gentilini.
La dieta Dukan si può praticare in due modi: o iscrivendosi al sito e seguendo i consigli e
le ricette, che sono straordinarie perché trasformano le proteine in cioccolata, soufflé,
amatriciana e fritto misto (tutto all’apparenza, credo, ma l’apparenza è sufficiente nella
quasi totalità dei casi della vita); in questo caso si dedica l’intera giornata alla Dukan,
diventa una specie di professione, ed è bene prendersi tutte le ferie messe da parte per
l’estate. Questo modo di fare la dieta, il più giusto e il più sano, è praticato al massimo
dal dieci per cento delle persone che fanno la Dukan — percentuale che tende a scendere
giorno dopo giorno. La stragrande maggioranza di coloro che fanno la Dukan (e di questi
ho fatto parte senza nessuna esitazione) tende a sopravvivere alla giornata, arrivando a
sera avendo ingurgitato quante più proteine possibili, cercando di non venir meno alla
regola e di non picchiare troppe persone. Cioè, continuando a vivere la vita che si viveva
prima della dieta.
Se si sceglie di fare la dieta Dukan in questo modo, si sceglie, più o meno
consapevolmente, di far ruotare tutto intorno alla bresaola. Poiché Dukan ti dice che puoi
mangiare ogni volta che hai fame, e poiché ogni volta che decidi di fare la dieta
automaticamente provi dei morsi della fame incontenibili (mi dicevano: è un fatto
psicologico, ma non capivo: che differenza fa se uno ha fame per esigenza dello stomaco
o per un fatto psicologico?), il gesto che i dukaniani si trovano a fare durante la giornata
più volte è aprire il frigorifero, sollevare la carta unta che contiene vari chili di bresaola,
strapparne delle fette in strati compatti in modo incurante e ficcarle in bocca. Questo,
ogni giorno molte volte, e per tutto il periodo della Dukan. La bresaola è il cibo più
giusto per la Dukan, perché se ne può mangiare quanta se ne vuole e bisogna solo aprire
il frigorifero e farlo. Costa poca fatica, ti sfama, è innocua.
E mentre aprivo di continuo il frigorifero, ho cominciato a comprendere che stavo
sperimentando qualcosa di più grosso della dieta, della somiglianza con le tigri, e della
improvvisa obbedienza atterrita di mio figlio. In pratica, facendo la dieta Dukan, sono
dimagrito sette chili in meno di un mese, ho picchiato un buon numero di persone che in
fondo andavano picchiate, e ho compreso finalmente la questione dei consumi, del
capitalismo e della sua fragilità. Insomma, ho finalmente sperimentato nella pratica
quotidiana cosa significa in materia economica quella che viene chiamata «la bolla
speculativa».
Perché mi sono reso conto che, essendo la dieta Dukan scoppiata come una moda in
pochi mesi, la bresaola deve aver avuto, per forza di cose, un’impennata di vendite
stratosferica. E sì, perché se prendete la bresaola come simbolo del desiderio di un
periodo — e potete sostituirla con tutti gli oggetti e i desideri dagli anni Ottanta ad oggi
— potete comprendere la storia economica contemporanea in pochi passi.
Dovete immaginare che il nostro consumo smisurato di bresaola ha accresciuto la
domanda in modo esponenziale. Al supermercato ci siamo ritrovati in tanti,
all’improvviso, a fare una collettiva e ininterrotta richiesta di bresaola. Il supermercato ha
25 trasferito la nostra domanda al produttore, che fino a quel momento confezionava il
necessario per la popolazione, e si è ritrovato davanti a una richiesta talmente gigantesca
che ha dovuto mettere mano al portafogli e investire a più non posso: comprare altri
animali, altri impianti e spazi di produzione; e, ovviamente, ha dovuto assumere una
grande quantità di gente.
Non c’è dubbio che sia accaduto questo, da qualche parte, a causa di quel gesto
inconsulto e nervoso che tutti noi contemporaneamente abbiamo fatto, di aprire il
frigorifero e strappare grandi pezzi di bresaola per tenere fede ai suggerimenti e alle
regole della Dukan. E non basta: tutto il mondo che ruota intorno alla bresaola, dal
produttore al venditore al dettaglio, fino ai nuovi assunti, hanno per forza di cose
allargato all’improvviso la misura del loro benessere, e hanno cominciato a spendere.
Ognuno nelle proporzioni che poteva permettersi. Proprio come i grandi economisti
spingono a fare quando parlano di crescita. Creare mercato, assumere lavoratori, creare
tempo libero e far spendere soldi. Così il denaro gira e la vita economica diventa virtuosa.
La ricchezza, cioè, anche se parte dal mondo della bresaola, si diffonde anche agli altri.
Un lavoratore viene assunto dal produttore di bresaola, prende uno stipendio a fine mese,
ci paga le spese fisse e con quello che rimane va al ristorante, compra degli orecchini. E
così, grazie alla mia dieta Dukan e al mio uso selvaggio della bresaola, il ristoratore e il
gioielliere fanno affari, l’economia si muove. È successo senz’altro così. Sta accadendo
senz’altro così. L’economia mondiale, grazie alla pigrizia mentale degli esseri umani a
dieta, è viva.
Tutto qui? No. Ci sono due conseguenze, anch’esse naturali. La prima è che la dieta
Dukan, come tutte le diete, è a termine. Ed essendo una dieta efficace, è a termine per
davvero. Cioè, quando si raggiunge il limite, ci si ferma. La macchina che avete smosso,
ha un termine. Si può dire: va bene, smetti tu, ma continua un altro. Rispondo: certo. Ma
gli esseri umani che devono perdere peso sono tanti, ma non tantissimi. Tantissimi, ma
non infiniti. Aggiungiamoci pure tutti coloro che si sono arricchiti negli ultimi tempi in
conseguenza della fatturazione altissima della bresaola, e sono ingrassati beatamente, e
quindi hanno cominciato anche loro a fare uso smodato di bresaola. Ma anche loro
dimagriranno e il circolo virtuoso si sgonfierà.
In più, c’è la seconda questione, più grave e definitiva, che ho indagato personalmente
per capire se era un problema mio oppure se era condiviso dagli altri praticanti della
Dukan. Risultato: è condiviso con forza dal cento per cento delle persone con le quali mi
sono confrontato. Tutti abbiamo fatto lo stesso giuramento: mai più nella nostra vita
mangeremo una sola fetta di bresaola.
Anzi, la parola «bresaola» ci causa scompensi psicologici notevoli, e giramenti di
stomaco tali che soltanto gli astronauti partiti per la luna possono comprendere. Tutti noi
abbiamo giurato: mai più bresaola. Cioè, è successo che proprio il larghissimo consumo,
smodato e irrefrenabile, di bresaola, ha comportato la saturazione definitiva.
Quindi, da un giorno all’altro, dai supermercati telefoneranno ai produttori e diranno: ne
vogliamo un quarto, un decimo, anzi niente, non la compriamo più. I produttori hanno
comprato migliaia di animali, hanno aperto tanti nuovi siti di produzione, hanno assunto
tantissimi lavoranti. E all’improvviso si ritrovano sul groppone tutto questo, perché
quello che vendono, nessuno lo desidera più. E così tutte le altre attività che si erano
avvantaggiate della ricchezza derivante dalla bresaola: aveva prodotto soldi, cibo, attivato
mutui e rateazioni, e adesso tutti quelli che hanno partecipato, si ritroveranno senza
26 lavoro. Tutto quello che ha procurato ricchezza, adesso procurerà una improvvisa e
ineluttabile povertà diffusa.
Quando ho cominciato a fare la Dukan, non avrei mai immaginato di far parte — di
causare tutto questo. Puntavo ad arrivare a sera senza aver toccato un biscotto. Per farlo,
aprivo il frigorifero, scartavo la bresaola e la strappavo come una bestia. Sono dimagrito.
Mi sento bene, addirittura mi sento piuttosto carino, grazie ai complimenti che mi fanno;
perché come tutte le persone che dimagriscono, poi nei mesi successivi importa soltanto
che la persona che ti incontra, ti dica: ma che hai fatto, sei dimagrito tantissimo. E a me
lo dicono. Però, senza saperlo, ho fatto un danno economico globale di non poco conto.
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