|
Photos credit:Sylvia
Pecota
|
Which celeb would you most like
to put on your diet? Oprah Winfrey. She goes on
a program and loses weight, but then blows it, then
tries another one, etc. This is a girl who has all the
opportunities to do the right thing and she has not
found it. We'd love to get her on the program —
but only if she'd commit to doing a maintenance with
me.
Have you ever been fat?
No.
So how did you get into the
dieting industry? I have a little bit of hypoglycemia.
If I go too long without eating, I get light headed.
In fixing my problem and rethinking my eating, I realized
the patients I was treating in my family practice for
obesity and diabetes were having many of the same symptoms
as me.
Have you ever done the Bernstein
Diet? As a matter of fact I did. I went on it for
two weeks and lost seven pounds — many, many years
ago.
A man named Glenn Duffin died
after being on your diet. Do you disagree with the 1988
coroner's report that said your diet contributed to
his death? Definitely. First of all, the coroner's
report on Duffin said they could not find a cause of
death, could not attribute a cause of death to dieting.
He was only on our diet for a week and a half, and he
wasn't even following it — he was cheating all
the time. Unfortunately, dealing with people who are
ill, patients sometimes pass away. The pathologist could
not find the main cause of death, could not establish
anything related to cause of death.
Then why'd you settle for $700,000?
I didn't, the CMPA did. I had no choice, I was adamant
the lawyers not sign off because there was no reason
to. At the time I was bound to follow them.
Did that upset you? Yes,
it led to the concept of a potential placing of blame.
It was very surprising to me that the lawyers dealing
with it wanted to move on when there was no causative
factor.
Is your cookbook's "Spicy Lentil
Burger" as good as a Big Mac? [Laughs] I have to
tell you, by and large, that the benefit of the recipes
is that they all taste good and they're easy to do.
Do you think you could've saved
Elvis? I saw him perform in Las Vegas a few months
before he died. He looked like he was the product of
drug reactions, not obesity.
Does your 1,000-calories-a-day
diet really eliminate hunger pangs? When we get
our patients into ketosis, we find it helps stabilize
blood sugar levels. The only time someone gets hungry
on our diet is if they cheat.
Do you think fat doctors should
be forced to shape up and set an example? When I
go to the bariatric meetings, a good 30-40% of the doctors
and nurses there are significantly overweight, and these
are people who treat obesity in their practices. Yes,
doctors should lead by example, but if they don't it
doesn't preclude them from being good professionals.
The Bernstein Diet is notoriously
tough. Are you a bit of a drill sergeant? No. I'm
a very practical-oriented person and the rigidity comes
out of a practical aspect of it, a way to get longterm
success. And yeah, I'm a little bit of a perfectionist
too.
The archbishop of Ottawa lost
a lot of weight on your diet in 2001. Did he give you
any kind of special blessing afterwards? [Laughs]
No, he was just very thankful.
But were you hoping for a blessing?
No.
Has anyone ever told you that
you look like David Letterman? No, I never heard
that one. But I have been told I look something like
Spielberg.
The Bernstein Diet can cost
over $150 a week in consultations, followups and vitamin
injections. Isn't that kind of pricey? No —
pound for pound, we are about one third the cost and
many times more reliable than other commercial diets.
If Atkins and Bernstein went
head to head, which would come out on top? Bernstein.
Every time. I knew Dr Atkins, he was a very nice man,
a very bright man. One of the things I like about his
program is he gets people into ketosis and they burn
fatty tissues. But he tells people to eat high protein
and fat. And as soon as they reintroduce carbohydrates,
they start a fat rebound weight gain and they don't
fix their long-term eating habits, don't undergo behavioural
changes. Part of the problem is they are too much on
their own.
You've opened up diet clinics
in the US now too — are there any differences between
Canadian and American dieters? The American patients
we have are generally larger than the Canadian patients.
The overweight person there tends to let it go a lot
farther than people here. At a diet clinic here at a
busy time, you might see a couple of people who have
more than a hundred pounds to lose. But walk into one
of our American clinics, you will see lots of people
who have to lose a hundred, sometimes even two hundred
pounds.
Blue Jays or Maple Leafs?
I'm not a sports fan.
Are your colleagues ill-equipped
to treat obesity? The problem is most doctors have
never seen anybody lose 100 pounds, so they can't follow
the metabolic processes properly. But if you want to
treat obesity, you have to be very aggressive, have
to put the time and energy into dealing with it. A lot
of doctors don't have that time and energy. Most FPs
have that problem.
What's your guilty pleasure?
I don't have one. Maybe I've mellowed.
OK , what's the craziest thing
you've ever done? I used to fly airplanes, small
airplanes. I took flying lessons. One day my engine
conked out taking off from the St Catharines airport
and I had to glide the plane back down very carefully.
I did it a few more times and then stopped. That was
around when I had kids and I didn't want to look at
those potential issues. I learned how to do it, got
my kicks out of it, and that was it. Thereafter I took
up skiing. [Laughs]
Have you got a pet? A little
Yorkie. His name is Jake. He is a great puppy dog.
Do you have any advice for other
aspiring millionaire doctors? I had a bit of a business
concept and I took some business courses. Because of
that I have been able to open many clinics and turn
it into a business and that has enabled me to treat
thousands of people. I hope I've imparted some of that
to my kids. I have three boys — one's a radiologist,
one's a lawyer and another is an MD graduate who's in
business with me.
Interview conducted by Sam Solomon
|
