To think that Gillian Mckieth has a point?

[toptramp]

I don't get why she is so universally vilified (aside from her jungle antics.) Ok the poo thing is a bit much and she is too skinny which isn't the best advert BUT I think she does those morbidly obese people good on You are what you eat. It is definately better to be on the thin side than morbidly obese.

When you see their diets laid out on the table and there is NO fruit and veg but tons of greasy fast food, I think she does them a great service telling them to sort their diets out. It could greatly reduce their chances of disease and even death.

I think she is vilified because people don't like to be lectured or rather they don't want to face up to or change their crap lifestyles.

I have started thinking about this recently as mum recently died of cancer so I am taking an avid interest in health and fitness and I do think that there is some sense in the notion that you are what you eat.

My favourite Ben Goldacre quote -

Gillian McKeith ? or to give her full medical title, "Gillian McKeith"

that image of nigella is so airbrushed the airbrush broke but even snaps of nigella in high street look better

it is just warped views of ideal womans body shape and what is really overweight and what is not

I'd like a tv programme that just came up with menus for you, and an exercise plan. None of this 'work it out for yourself' nonsense, just tell me what to do.

This evening: ditch the chocolate and wine, have a couple of glasses of water now and a bit of fruit.
Tomorrow morning: you'll want some muesli and fresh fruit, Tescos is still open so go and get it now while you're not in your pyjamas yet. And throw in some hummus and raw veg for lunch. Download this shopping list for your next big shop. Walk to the fecking supermarket you gert lump, as well.
Homework: find some miso, quinoa and amaranth. Next week we get hardcore.

etc.

Waltraut - I have a book called the Kitchen Revolution that does something similar but it's more about good, seasonal food on a fixed budget than dieting.

I think it's a little bit unfair to compare her looks to Nigella. I would say Nigella is a beautiful woman who would compare favourably to most women in her age group, and yes I would guess she has had some work done [at least botox, I'm not an expert on that].
A little unfair to mention her 'hump' also, I believe she was born with scoliosis, so not really down to her diet.
Will look forward to the new TV programme about nutrition, I really like programmes on this subject, even though I wouldn't always follow the advice.

But its not interesting tv is it op?

All the people without fail that she features in her programmes are hugely overweight with abnormally abysmal diets.

She completely changes what they eat - as anyone with half a brain cell could do, including some of the participants if they were motivated enough - and bingo they lose a lot of weight.

Its so not worth several tv series-worth of programmes.

I would be mildly interested if she could do something on adjusting the diets of average people with average eating habits and average weight problems - but then that wouldn't make great tv either, because they want to show dramatic weight losses and that will only happen if you are extremely overweight to begin with. There's not real news in anyone losing 10lb over the course of three months or whatever.

Of COURSE Gillian McKeither has a point, as does every other media glory hunter who wants to tackle fat people...

Of COURSE the shock tactic of showing fat people their diet on a table is erm, shocking.

However. As a fat person (soon to be ex fat person, 3/4 of stone until I can safely say I'm 'normal') I have found Gillian McKeith's eating plans to be incredibly disgusting and very hard to stick to, and haven't lost any weight on them, though its true her menu plans are healthy, they're just too 'weird' for most people.

Where I believe dieting really works is when it contains close alternatives to the usual diet. Slimming World has provided this brilliant change of direction for me. Last night I had a KFC... a home made, slimming world friendly version that honestly tasted as good (actually better as was non greasy) as the fatty version.

I love 'healthy' food, and could eat nuts and avocados all day (aha, therein lay the problem) but I found Gillian McKeith's diet plan so far removed from a simple hearty family friendly diet that it was torturous to stick to, many food she recommends, in the combination she recommends them are simply, gopping.

I'm not doubting her knowledge of nutrition, but her tastebuds.

And actually I do think its fair to compare her to Nigella, seriously I'd rather be a curvatious indulgent Nigella than Gillian. BUT, if one were to only eat Nigella food, one would be utterly fat. Fact!

Many many overweight people are real food lovers, many normal people don't really understand how many calories are in certain things or what is good fat and bad fat, so nutritional education is extremely important. This is where Slimming World (and Weightwatchers too) is really successful, it gives a simple, tasty, easy to follow plan where healthy food is vital.

Because I know a little about what's good for me and what's not, I use my 'syn' values on the good fats (which are high in syn/points in SW and WW), hey presto, a healthy, tasty, easy diet that doesn't feel like deprivation... the 2 stone I've lost easily, the happy family and the avoidance of 'weird tasteless Gillian shit' is testament to that.

But yes, she does have a point.

I agree aldi. It would be much more realistic if she went in and said 'you need to cut your portions, eat less fat and sugar and more fresh stuff' and gave them some normal, healthy meal ideas. To expect someone to go from 2 takeaways for tea to a bowl of miso soup and stick to it for life is just ridiculous. I bet they all pile the weight straight back on after a while.

Gillian McKeith is a fraud who always pushed hard-to-obtain ingredients in her show, making it look as if eating healthily was difficult. I doubt very much that she did any obese person any good at all, ever.

But I do enjoy Supersize V Superskinny. A lot of sense is talked, the people taking part are followed up so that long-term benefits are demonstrated, and those who undereat are helped as much as those who overeat.

Totally agree with aldi and sexualharassment.

My son's cooking chicken wraps and wedges this evening, all home-baked, with salad. If we ordered that 'in' it would be about a zillion calories and covered in salt, and Gillian 'Correct Title' McKeith would go fucking ape-shit. But she wouldn't say 'Cook your own better version,' she'd chuck the loathesome green smoothies at us.

I agree Line.

I find her using the fake title really awful because plenty of people still don't know it's not real. She preys on people who're the least equipped to realize she's a charlatan.

I too am interested in nutririon etc- and watched her programme for a bit. However there was one where she made one of the volunteers jump up snd down in a bath filled with cereal (equivalent apparently to the amount this poor lady ate in one week) - humiliating in itself but said bath was positioned in the front garden of McKeiths house in posh chelsea. This poor lady had to jump up and down in a bath of cereal and milk whilst being observed in some chi chi street in chelsea no doubht populated by thin people dressed in designer clothes!! She is a bully pure and simple - the point about excessive cereal eating could have been made in a more sensitive private way and have been equally as successful in delivering the message.

I actually vaguely know the woman who came up with the original idea for a programme about nutrition that morphed into McKeith and she said she was awful.

I too quite like the Jane Clarke books!

@aldiwhore. Actually, I think there are a lot of knowledgeable people who also doubt her knowledge of nutrition...

Gillian McKeith isn't underweight?? She's in great shape for her age (for any age actually!)

Definitely a lunatic though - I'm fairly sure that someone who voluntarily sniffs someone else's poo has more issues than someone who eats too much of the wrong foods.

gillian mckeith and great shape.oxymoron.surely
i wholeheartedly cannot say she looks in great shape,she looks gaunt,and bit flaky

I'll bet my bottom dollar that McKeith has osteoporosis. Being that underweight is as bad for you as being overweight.

actually being underweight is more dangerous some one whose BMI is 17 rather than 20 is in a great deal more danger of serious illness than someone whose BMI is 28 rather than 25

when I see McKeith I think she looks unhealthy and ill as if she is recovering from some serious illness i know nothing about her state of health or her BMI

I look at the curvature of her spine and think she looks like a little old lady.

She is a quack who gives nutritionists a bad name. She also has a nasty habit of suing the pants off anyone who criticises her - Ben Goldacre must have had a brilliant legal advisor.

She has scoliosis a medical condition that causes curvature of the spine.

Whatever you think of McKeith (and as I've posted already I'm no fan) poking fun at her for the way she looks due to a condition she can't help is cruel.

nutritionist isnt a protected title,so im hmmm about nutritionist as such
no issue with dietitian as registered and accountable
and yes gillian just begs to be contradicted all her quack science

The problem is she doesn't really know what she's talking about