In this new school year, it’s very simple, it’s everywhere. Since August 28, Jimmy Mohamed is the new “doctor” of RTL, one of the most listened to radio stations in France. He writes a daily column in the morning, and presents a show on Saturday mornings. From September 11, he will also be at the helm of the health magazine on France 5 on Mondays and Tuesdays. We also come across him in bookstores: his book Zero stress to lose weight, released in February, has already sold more than 70,000 copies, according to Edistat data. And, of course, he scours social media. This training generalist has 1 million subscribers on instagramand 1.5 million on TikTok. His little videos are a hit there: up to 8 million views for the one where he shoots down industrial sausages!
The credo of this new star doctor, who has been scouring television and radio sets for several years now? Daily health and prevention. Always with this same calm, clear, didactic tone. The same writing too: advice, never morality, a lot of benevolence and a hint of staging – yes, he too has trouble putting his children to bed; yes, he too had fun with burgers-fries-soda galore. No one is perfect, that’s okay. Nothing out of the ordinary, he admits: “I just give the recommendations that everyone knows, and yet it works.” His course of action: no controversy, no waves, above all no slippage. Its only spades are for so-called ultra-processed foods, which are bad for your health – cookies, prepared meals, sugary drinks and, therefore, the famous sausages. “He manages to master a very rational approach to medicine. Even during the Covid, he was able to avoid complicated debates”, appreciates Professor Nicolas Authier, addictologist and guest of the medical journalist on several occasions.
However, it was emissions where controversy reigns that launched it. The Big Mouths first, from 2017. One of his friends had pushed him to apply for the casting: “I was a fan of this program, and I was sure that his profile, rather original, would please: young, doctor, of North African origin, gifted for debate. The hardest part was to convince him”, says Dr Jean-Louis Amegnizin. The argument that hits the mark? “I am of African origin and Jimmy’s father is Egyptian. I told him that our children, tomorrow, must have other models of success in the media than footballers or musicians”, continues the radiologist. Jimmy candidate, and will participate for eighteen months in the flagship program of RMC.
The 30-year-old describes what followed as a succession of serendipity. Guest once on C8 in It’s just TV!, we offer him to come back. Luckily, the producer of this show is none other than Cyril Hanouna. They pass each other in the hallways, and the host ends up recruiting him as a columnist for Drop your post! And Do not touch My TV ! An experience that denotes with the rest of his career, and the smooth image he gives himself today. “It happened naturally, and I learned a lot from it: that television is complicated; that you have to be careful about what you say, that viewers expect a doctor to shows respect and that he is not invective. It is a difficult balance to find”, he justifies. After a year and a half, he realizes that he must “refocus on medicine” and leaves the shows of “Baba”.
Europe 1 then France Bleu follow, at the same time as a columnist position at the health magazine. “We had spotted him because he had been hard-hitting during the health crisis. He is not in the position of the all-powerful, and has a real taste for the news. Not all media doctors have necessarily these qualities”, sums up its editor-in-chief, Camille de Froment-Baril. It’s hard not to draw a parallel with Michel Cymes, long at the head of the emblematic show, former “doctor” of RTL, and author of numerous bestsellers. “They have the same talent for popularizing, the same gift for guessing what will interest the public”, confirms Camille de Froment-Baril. With a few differences, however. The duty room humor of the one who remains “the favorite doctor of the French”? Very little for Jimmy Mohamed. “Alternative” medicines, mostly with unproven efficacy, which his predecessor did not hesitate to highlight in prime time in The Extraordinary Powers of the Human Body on France 2? He “wouldn’t promote it,” he said. But he does not criticize them for all that – always this concern not to get angry with part of his audience.
“I don’t see myself working in a firm at all”
Question of generation, Jimmy Mohamed also masters the codes of social networks. Something to reach a younger audience, breaking away from traditional media. There again, there is no question of dropping small sentences there, nor of arguing there. “We must avoid the pitfall of posts that create buzz: my challenge is to make medicine interesting without falling into this trap,” he explains. On the other hand, like Michel Cymes, he continues to consult: since the end of his studies, he has worked for SOS doctors. A way to keep control, to stay rooted in reality. A choice of exercise oriented towards urgent care, however paradoxical, for a doctor who has made prevention his mantra. “I would like to follow a patient, but I do not see myself working in the office at all, the administrative constraints are too heavy, he slips. Finally, what I do in the media, the messages I send to push listeners and viewers to take care of themselves, this is the heart of the general practitioner’s job.”
Nutrition, on the other hand, is not his specialty. What are his “39 tips for losing weight” worth? L’Express asked two nutritionists to read his book. Their assessment: globally positive, even if they also note some inappropriate suggestions. Of course, they applaud its main principles. Themselves often hammer them for a long time, without being very audible: abandoning diets, ineffective and harmful, in favor of a rebalancing of food; stop counting calories; do not dine too late at night; avoid industrial food… “He also insists on the importance of fibres, sleep, chewing, all this is well validated”, notes Professor Pascal Crenn, nutrition specialist at the Amboise-Paré hospital in Boulogne-Billancourt (AP-HP).
His advice on water (which would make you lose weight if you drink two glasses of it before eating), on vinegar (“calorie burner”), or on intermittent fasting, on the other hand, seems to him more questionable, just like Professor Jean-Michel Lecerf, director of the nutrition service at the Institut Pasteur de Lille. “No well-conducted study shows the superiority of intermittent fasting on weight, compared to other forms of restriction. And above all, when you think about it, it is also a constraint, quite contradictory with the rest of the book where he rightly advocates a change in eating habits gently”, underlines this expert. Pr Lecerf especially regrets an unclear message on physical activity and sport (essential to keep the line and health, even if they do not make you lose weight), and some cookie-cutter advice: “Swallow flaxseeds may cut your hunger, but above all you will have a very bad stomach ache!”, he underlines.
Anyway, the public is won over. “Now, when I go to a restaurant, people watch what I eat,” he says, half fig, half grape in the face of this new celebrity. His friends say he keeps his feet on the ground, and he himself claims to be aware that “everything can end tomorrow”. Even if, in reality, this enormous hard worker gives himself the means that his media activities continue. Thus, his fourth book is already in the making. It will focus on aging well. Without constraints, of course. A subject with which Michel Cymes had already sold more than 120,000 copies (Live better and longer). Will Jimmy Mohamed do better?