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Gillian McKeith (born 28 September 1959) is a Scottish nutritionist, television presenter and writer. She previously hosted Channel 4's You Are What You Eat and Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever in the UK for several series. She writes a weekly column for Reveal magazine and is the author of a number of books about nutrition, including You Are What You Eat: The Plan That Will Change Your Life (2004).
The MHRA found that McKeith was guilty of "selling goods without legal authorisation whilst making medicinal claims about their efficacy". In an article entitled "A menace to science", Dr Ben Goldacre criticized McKeith for using a number of legal threats to silence critics of her work. His book Bad Science dedicates a chapter to an detailed rebuttal of McKeith's scientific credibility.
Her nutritional advice and the validity of her qualifications (specifically her PhD) have been criticized by health professionals. One TV advertisement of her book was cited by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2005 as misscheduled for a commercial TV break. Another issue was "informally resolved" in 2007 by the ASA following a complaint that her use of the title 'Doctor' was misleading because her PhD was from a college not accredited by "any recognised educational authority". She then agreed to stop using the title 'Doctor' on her products, claiming she understood the complaint to be about one leaflet's failure to note her PhD "without the usual disclaimer she was not a medical doctor".
McKeith's programme takes a holistic approach to nutrition and ill health, promoting exercise, a pescetarian diet high in organic fruits and vegetables, and suggesting the avoidance of processed and high-calorie foods. She recommends detox diets colonic irrigation and supplements, also making statements that yeast is harmful, that the colour of food is nutritionally significant, and about the utility of lingual and faecal examination. Amanda Wynne, senior dietician with the British Dietetic Association, said: "I think it is obvious she hasn't a clue about nutrition. In fact her advice, if followed to the limit, could be dangerous. Her TV programme takes obese people and puts them on a crash diet that is very hazardous to health."
In 2005, McKeith was given the Best Organic Businesses 2005 Consumer Education Award by the Soil Association.
Personal life and early career
McKeith was born in Perth, Scotland in 1959 and grew up on a council estate. Her father was a civil servant and her mother an office worker. She has said that she was raised eating the junk food she now advises against; her father also smoked for many years and died of lung cancer at the age of 74.
She has scoliosis (curved spine).
According to the Mail on Sunday , "McKeith met her American husband, lawyer Howard Magaziner, in Edinburgh where he was spending a year studying. At the time he ran an extremely successful chain of health food shops in the United States with which she was to become involved. The couple now live in London and have two daughters, Skylar (born 1994) and Afton (born 2000). According to McKeith's Channel 4 biography, she was "celebrity health reporter" for the Joan Rivers Show in the U.S., but this claim is disputed by the Mail on Sunday . Her mission, according to her website, is to empower people to "improve their lives through information, food and lifestyle".
Education and qualifications
McKeith obtained a degree in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in 1981, later moving to the United States, where she worked in marketing and international business. In 1984, she received a master's in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1994, she obtained a master's degree, and in 1997, a PhD, both in holistic nutrition via a distance-learning programme from the non-accredited American Holistic College of Nutrition, now the Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, Alabama. McKeith is a member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants. Her website lists post-graduate membership of The Centre for Nutrition Education and certificates from the London School of Acupuncture and the Kailash Centre of Oriental Medicine among her qualifications. Also her website states that she, "After two years of study and exams, recently achieved a Master Herbalist Diploma (Honors) from The American College of Healthcare Sciences (USA), successfully completing all requirements and examinations."
Physician Ben Goldacre, writing in the The Guardian's "Bad Science" column, speculated on rumours that parts of McKeith's PhD thesis may have been published as a 48-page pamphlet entitled "Miracle Superfood: Wild Blue-Green Algae" and ridiculed the pamphlet as Cargo Cult science full of "anecdote, but no data." Goldacre applied on-line to the American Association of Nutritional Consultants in the name of his dead cat and succeeded in getting the same "certified professional" membership as that possessed by McKeith. The price was $60. In 2004, professor emeritus of nutrition, John Garrow, questioned McKeith's credentials and her earlier claims to be "...a scientist doing research and studies."
When questioned by the Glasgow Herald about her doctorate, McKeith said: "I have nothing to be ashamed of. My qualifications are second to none. People out there would love to have my qualifications and expertise." Responding to criticisms of her degrees from Clayton College, she said: "I could have gone anywhere I wanted but I chose Clayton. There was cutting-edge research being put forward by people who were pioneers at the time." Her PhD thesis remains "unavailable", unlike PhD theses produced at accredited universities.
On 12 February 2007, it was reported that McKeith agreed to cease using the academic title "Dr." in advertisements. A spokesman for British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK's advertising industry's self-regulatory body, said: "The complainant was challenging whether Gillian McKeith was a qualified, accredited doctor. We put the complaint to the advertiser McKeith Research and they agreed to remove it." The Guardian reported that ASA had concerns that her use of the title "Doctor" was "likely to mislead the public." McKeith told The Guardian she understood the offending ad was a leaflet without the usual disclaimer she was not a medical doctor. She said she understood the honorific had to go from leaflets, but not from all adverts. Max Clifford, McKeith's PR representative, said that she had not misled the public: "This was one complaint in relation to one leaflet from one trade show, and it was withdrawn. I hardly think that's misleading."
McKeith's products
McKeith is a popular author; her book You Are What You Eat reportedly sold just under one million copies up to August 2005, and was the most borrowed non-fiction library book in the UK between July 2005 and June 2006 according to the British Public Lending Right organisation. At her website she sells books, advice, club membership, food (e.g. Goji berries, hemp seeds, "Living Food Energy Powder", "Immune Defence" pills, weight loss pills, "Raw and unprocessed wild blue green algae", etc.), and accessory equipment (blender, juicers, sprouters, and a mini-trampoline).
In November 2006 McKeith was censured by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for selling unproven herbal sex aids. The products, "Fast Formula Wild Pink Yam Complex" and "Fast Formula Horny Goat Weed Complex" were both advertised as having been shown to promote sexual satisfaction in a controlled "study". The MHRA found that McKeith was guilty of "selling goods without legal authorisation whilst making medicinal claims about their efficacy" i.e. advertising and selling unlicensed medicines. The products have since been withdrawn.
McKeith's website suggested the sex aids had been withdrawn "ue to the new EU licensing laws regarding herbal products". According to McKeith, "the EU bureaucrats are clearly concerned that people in the UK are having too much good sex." The MHRA disagreed, according to Ben Goldacre: "The press office were very helpful and told me: 'This has nothing to do with new EU regulations.' And just to be absolutely clear: 'They were never legal for sale in the UK.' They also point out that there's no excuse for not knowing about the regulations, and that … the MHRA’s Medicines Borderline Section offers free advice on the phone." The MHRA said that "As Dr McKeith’s organisation had already been made aware of the requirements of medicines legislation in previous years there was no reason for all the products not to be compliant with the law."
Television shows
McKeith was the presenter of You Are What You Eat , a Celador-produced television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4 until it was cancelled in 2007 in which she attempted to motivate the people featured in the programme to lose weight and change their lifestyle. Ian Marber, a nutritionist, describes her as very fervent in her beliefs and thinks of her as a sort of health televangelist. In each episode of the fourth series, called Gillian Moves In: You Are What You Eat , two people are chosen to stay with McKeith at a house in London "with no escape". She first shows each of the subjects a display of their typical week's food consumption. The food is laid out on a table in a cold, congealed and unplea
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