You are what you eat? Popular media Nutritionists not qualified: "Dr" Gillian McKeith.

I was always a big fan of Dr Gillian McKeith and her British "You are what you eat" TV show.
McKeith was known for her uncompromising lectures and shock-tactics, and her examination of poo.
She offered a "detox' diet for the obese and unhealthy on reality TV, although few of her cases received long-term monitoring.
For me, what was most shocking were her instant diagnoses: apparent lacks of minerals and vitamins she could diagnose at a glance.
I think her overall impact was good.
Or was it?

Whatever the case, she was not a qualified nutritionist.
www.guardian.co.uk...

Is it OK to use misleading qualifications to encourage people to eat veggies and exercise?
The point with McKeith is that her strict diet was never meant to be permanent in any case.
What qualifies a real nutritionist in any case?

Well, she is called a nutritionist...anyone can call themselves that, you don't need qualifications to do so as opposed to a dietitian. Good reason to ignore nutritionists....or at least be very skeptical of them.

A typical Gillian McKeith program.
www.youtube.com...

I remain a fan, and don't see the major sudden major "scientific" disgust with her methods.

Perhaps they are not sustainable?
I'm not sure what the problem is.

reply to post by halfoldman

Gillian makes a "snout and ear hot dog".
I'm sure that brutal honesty didn't win her any friends in the meat conglomerates.

But Kraft cares what they feed you?

Corporations have the resources to debunk and defame anyone that cause their profits to suffer.

Have you seen the state of that women, believe me you would not want to follow any diet she has ever been on, She looks like the walking dead. she looks like she could do with a good steak and chips.

reply to post by halfoldman

What qualifies a real nutritionist in any case?

In some places, the title of nutritionist is not a legally protected title, meaning there is nothing stopping someone from claiming they're an expert nutritionist and opening up a store of some sort. On the other hand, in most places, the title of dietitian is legally protected and if you are practicing without the necessary qualifications, I'd imagine you could and would be prosecuted.

The main difference in my opinion, is that all of these pseudoscience / junk peddling people that label themselves nutritionist and pretend that they know what they're talking about and sound like they're getting their talking points from naturalnews.com

God I hate that site...

reply to post by halfoldman


False civility, false civility, false civility.
Modern culture is so damned backwards.

There is nutrition in those pieces of food and not only are they tasty, but an animal's life was taken. It is a shame to look upon healthy food with disgust simply because of our own ignorance.

reply to post by Dasher


In SA "snout and ear" would probably be a delicacy in a street situation.

I'm not sure why meat-eaters would be squeamish about that?

reply to post by woodwardjnr
Funny you should say that, ive always thought that, she looks REALLY unhealthy, pale skin, wrinkles, and as for that debacle in the jungle, sneaking in salt, pretending to faint, and not eating kangaroo anus etc, why on earth did she enter the competition, i dont like her, she ANNOYS me.

reply to post by Dasher


I agree with that. If your going to kill an animal you should eat as much of it as you can.
I wouldn't mind chowing down on a plate of snouts!

As for Gillian McKeith, she really gave the game away when she appeared on the British reality show "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" as people realised that in real life she looked absolutely awful, I don't mean "ugly" I mean sickly and unhealthy and pale.

Not qualified by whose standards? I know nothing about the women but I don't look to government approval as any reliable means of qualifications.

I am not a Doctor or an academic. I am a mortician by trade.


This sentence stuck me from that article about "fake" experts....

" We scientists have a noble tradition of formally withdrawing our publications if subsequent research shows the results are not reproducible - don't we?"

I so wish this was true. My industry ( Vibration Training ) has been plagued for 10 years by academics forgetting to tests machines before research is started. It is almost like they believed certain retail companies hype that " if it vibrates its vibration training " All their figures and conclusions are based on Fq x Amplitude of the machine. But because the companies lied about what the machines were really doing, the conclusions are statistically invalid. They can not be replicated.

I walked out of a very lucrative job as Power Plates Product Manager in my country because after I had the machines independently tested, they showed a massive 30% error in specs, and that was unload ( no-one on it ) It dropped sharply off at only 60kg. Basically useless for an average sized person. They took me to court to try and shut me up, but failed and I know spend considerable time trying to educate and protect the consumer from people just like them. .

A group of academics are only now making recommendations www.ismni.org... to fix the problem. Even though I have been trying to set guidelines in place since 2003, but because I am not an "academic" I was ignored. Note: Some of those involved in the recommendations were the exact same people who "forgot" to tests the machines specs before starting their research.

( This is right up there with not testing how much vitamin C is in a dose, before you start trials on what dose you should take. An impossibly stupid mistake to make. )

None of the old research had been pulled, and no apologies have been made. Apparently you can stuff up as much as you want and still get called an "expert" just as long as you have some letters after your name.

Witness the fight to make our industry honest here, and it will show you how rife fake experts and lazy academic are in a lot of industries. And the damage they do to science...
www.vibration-training-advice.com...

Lol, some people also believe "dr phil" is a real psychologist as well. Turn off the tv, bring it out back, and shoot it. You will thank me someday for that advice, I guarantee it.

All good and fair.
But from McKeith's specific "diet" or tips, I'm yet to find anything wrong.
I suppose she left people hungry ... there were starving people on "You are what you eat".

I think the biggest issue was her placing certain supplements in the "miracle wonder food" bracket with not only no evidence, but completely false theories to back them up.

A bit on knowledge and common sense can pull most of those recommendations to pieces.

reply to post by hawkiye


I think the point is that it is possible that someone calling themselves a nutritionist and getting paid for their work may well have read up and knows their stuff, gives good advice etc But the fact that it is not a legally protected term means someone like me who really has no in depth knowledge could advertise themselves as a 'nutritionist' and give them terrible advice...many people fall for the term nutritionists and would gladly follow their tips even though they don't have a clue.

What I wonder:
In every "You are what you" episode they show a table of everything each fat person eats and drinks in a week.

There's always a lot of junkfood, and often several beer pints and other drinks.
There are people in the world who need those calories.
Do they throw it all away?
That would be perverse.
They probably throw most of it out.

An example:


I hate to see food go to waste.
Western TV (even cooking programs) still treats food like a never-ending resource.

You can eat or drink whatever junkfood you want, just not all the time! Unhealthy people eat crap food daily, some it is even a main portion of their diet. I still drink beer, once or twice a week if I feel like it. Junkfood was never really my thing, on thanksgiving or christmas dinner I will usually eat some candied yams and a slice of pie though. The one junk thing that used to be a usual daily thing that I cut out altogether was soda. A whole lot of people actually do drink that crap every day, as I used to. It is not good for you, and not even diet. If you ask me diet is probably worse, damn artificial sweeteners....