A Smart Incentive or Obesity Persecution?

French diet guru Pierre Dukan is urging his government to give extra marks in school for a healthy BMI. The Telegraph reports:

“Obesity is a real public health problem that is rarely – if at all – taken into account by politicians,” Mr Dukan told newspaper Le Parisien ahead of the book’s launch.

Mr Dukan said his education plan would be “a good way to sensitise teenagers to the need for a balanced diet.”

He denied it would punish overweight children, saying: “There is nothing wrong with educating children about nutrition. This will not change anything for those who do not need to lose weight. For the others, it will motivate them.”

This reminds me of the fitness test the University of Chicago administers to all incoming undergraduates, and the rampant cheating it inspires. The “punishment” for failing the fitness test was P.E. classes through your first year. So on the one hand, you had those who would try to trick the fitness test (these tips are traded on message boards before school starts, one being holding the heart rate meter at varying intensities to trick it) in order to place out of gym classes. On the other hand, you had students who wanted to take the P.E. classes, trying to game their way into them, since those who fail the fitness test have priority status into all gym classes.