Paris-based nutrition firm is making Twin Cities its U.S. home

Despite the title of the bestselling book, French women do get fat. And French men, too.

Dr. Réginald Allouche, a Paris-based diabetes specialist, said he has been trimming the waistlines of the French and others across Europe for more than a decade, using a weight-loss plan he designed based on the science and psychology of obesity. Now he's ready to expand the KOT diet program to America, with U.S. headquarters in Shoreview.

Instead of launching a marketing blitz to bring in consumers, Allouche is pitching the plan to local businesses as a way to help lower their health care costs. Nearly 60 percent of people in the U.S. get health care from their employers.

"Many companies are looking for ways to eliminate these health care time bombs, and there aren't a lot of options right now," said Tom Charland of Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm in Shoreview. Charland is working with Allouche and his food company, Ceprodi, to bring the KOT diet plan to the United States.

The nutritional program produced about $40 million in revenue for Ceprodi last year, a 25 percent increase from the previous year, said Ceprodi CEO Jean Gérard Galvez, who spent a decade as president of the French division of Control Data Corp.

Ceprodi has outposts in France, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland and plans additional expansions this year in United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Italy.

People who are overweight or obese are at increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some cancers. Medical costs are about 40 percent higher for obese people, giving employers incentives to take a more active role.

"You have to go where people spend the most time -- and that's the workplace," she said.

The KOT program includes a line of food that Allouche says is fun to eat and tastes good -- including pizza, pancakes, ice cream and chocolate cookies -- combined with one-on-one meetings with a dietician and a website with menus and recipes tailored to the individual.

"When you are French, you know the importance and meaning of pleasure when you are eating," Allouche said while in the Twin Cities earlier this week.

Employers who use the KOT plan will pay $19.99 a month for each employee. The company recommends that employees pitch in half the cost of the KOT meals. The meals work out to about $16 a day for a three meals and a snack, in line with the typical household food budget, according to the company's estimates.

About 74 percent of firms that offer health insurance also offer a wellness program, according to a 2010 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Weight-loss and stop-smoking plans are often key elements, said Julie Sonier, of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota.

Minnesota's major health care plans offer wellness incentives, and some, including HealthPartners, bring dieticians and health coaches into the workplace. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and similar weight loss centers are familiar mainstays at malls and strip malls.

Still, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight.

The KOT method works, Allouche said, because it is backed by science and ties those on the program directly with people in the medical community who closely monitor progress.

In small clinical trials of 50 hospital patients in France, the KOT plan was shown to lower blood sugar and harmful LDL cholesterol levels, as well as drop an average of 10 pounds per month.

Allouche said the KOT plan avoids the "rebound effect" of losing weight only to regain it later, by using scientifically based nutrition methods to keep metabolism high without losing muscle mass.

The KOT program will officially launch in the Twin Cities on May 1. Company officials say they're talking with a handful of companies, but none have signed up. The company expects to have 20 employees by the end of the year, mostly dieticians who will meet patients at the worksite.

The company has talked to major pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, as well as major health plans and independent insurance brokers.

In coming years, it hopes to set up KOT displays and offices in fitness centers, pharmacies and health clinics in retail stores.

Jackie Crosby • 612-673-7335