Ric Gordon, a regular Today contributor, was interviewed on air on Wednesday to discuss new research by the CSIRO that found Australians, on a daily basis, consume three times more junk food than recommended.

When host Karl Stefanovic asked him what people should eat, Dr Gordon made a controversial suggestion.

"There were no overweight people in the concentration camps. Now they weren't exercising a lot, they just weren't eating," he said.

"Now I'm not going any further with that except to say that what you put in your mouth ends up on your hips. Very important."

Stefanovic, who looked uncomfortable, quickly wrapped up the interview and clarified for viewers: "He said it, not me" as co-host Lisa Wilkinson added: "I'm moving on."

Before the awkward conversation was drawn to a close, Dr Gordon spoke about the importance of healthy eating choices over activity, especially for young people.

"We've got to start weighing people. We've got to get them more active, and we've got to teach them about sugar," Dr Gordon said.

"It's what you eat that's important."

Dr Gordon, who goes by the professional moniker Ric Porter, is one of Australia's leading IVF specialists. His areas of expertise include reproductive assistance and artificial insemination.

Dr Gordon, or Dr Porter, is the second high profile Australian to make insensitive comments about concentration camp victims via the media.

In 2009, shock jock Kyle Sandilands was suspended from his breakfast radio show on Sydney's 2DayFM for his comments that comedian and actor Magda Szubanski would lose more weight in a concentration camp.

Szubanski, who was a spokeswoman for a weight-loss company at the time, had lost 25 kilograms since she appeared on the comedy series Kath and Kim.

Her family is of Polish origin, a country where many of the worst Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, were located.

Sandilands joked on air that Szubanski's work with the weight-loss campaign should continue.

"Magda could have another run out of it," he said at the time.

"She could get another season out of them, easy ... she's not skinny."

His co-host Jackie O suggested Szubanski might not be able to lose any more weight due to her build.

"That's what all fat people say," Sandilands replied.

"You put her in a concentration camp and you watch the weight fall, like she could be skinny."

Sandilands apologised soon after and said he did not mean to cause offence.

Szubanski brushed off Sandilands' comments, but said they were offensive to those who had suffered in concentration camps.

"I couldn't give two hoots about what Kyle says about me, but to trivialise what happened to people in concentration camps is abhorrent," she said in a statement.