Claude Bouchard

Claude Bouchard was on the expert panel that published the Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults in 1998, a report was controversial because it re-classified many "normal weight" Americans as "overweight."

Conflicts of Interest

Some cite Bouchard's involvement with the weight loss industry as evidence of his conflicts of interest. For example, he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Weight Watchers.

Bio

"Dr. Bouchard is a native of Quebec, and is currently the Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, and the George A. Bray Chair in Nutrition. Prior to coming to Pennington, he held the Donald B. Brown Research Chair on Obesity at Laval University in Quebec. He holds a B.Ped. (Laval), a M.Sc. (University of Oregon, Eugene) in exercise physiology and a Ph.D. (University of Texas, Austin) in population genetics.

"His research deals with the genetics of adaptation to exercise and nutrition, and with the genetics of obesity and its co-morbidities. He receives funding from various agencies, but primarily from the National Institutes of Health in USA. He has authored and coauthored several books and more than 800 scientific papers. Among other awards, he was the recipient of the Honor Award from the Canadian Association of Sport Sciences in 1988, a Citation Award from the American College of Sports Medicine in 1992 and the Honor Award in 2002, the Benjamin Delessert Award in nutrition from France in 1993, the Willendorf Award from the International Association for the Study of Obesity in 1994, the Sandoz Award from the Canadian Atherosclerosis Society in 1996, the Albert Creff Award in Nutrition of the National Academy of Medicine of France in 1997, the TOPS award from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in 1998, the W. Henry Sebrell Award from the Weight Watchers Foundation in 1999, and of a Honoris Causa Doctorate in Science from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1998.

"He is a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium since 1996, and was the Leon Mow Visiting Professor at the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne in 1998. In 2001, he became a member of the Order of Canada as well as Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University. In 2003 he received the Alumnus of the Year Award from Laval University. Dr. Bouchard is past president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (2002-2006)."

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults