Gillian McKeith

*Sally Cinnamon*

Full Member
Hi Guys, I am wondering if anybody has adopted her principles into their SW plan... I like the idea of my food being as natural as possible and feel that it may be possible on this plan.... my pre SW diet did not contain a lot of dairy or sugar and I feel that I could easily fall into this trap on SW... muller lights, alpen light and LC triangles... (alcohol and takeaways were my downfall).... over to you guys xx
 
I try not to eat too much processed food, but that's more because I prefer to know what's gone into something and find it tastes so much better, rather than adopting a different plan.

I think with most things, everything in moderation, which applies to processed food as well as treats.

On a slight tangent- I don't think Gillian looks at all healthy. She is the same age as Nigella Lawson. Who looks healthier?!
 
In all honesty the reason that I love SW is that I don't have to bother with all of that... each to their own, some of what she says is common sense but an awful lot of it is pseudo-science or mumbo jumbo IMHO. I have to see a gastro/colo doctor regularly because of a health condition. I nattered to him about her when I'm a Celebrity was on (these can otherwise be long, embarrassing appointments!) He put it brilliantly. He said he looks up people's backsides for a living and she's still more full of s*** than anyone else he's ever heard of.

No offense to anyone, I would just do a little bit of my own research before taking any of her theories as gospel.
 
Shes not the best advert for healthy eating is she?!!

I try not to eat too much processed food anyway - and SW has put paid to any ready meals I may have eaten

As for her age I read on FB a great status recently

"Gillian McKeith is the same age as Nigella Lawson - so if you really are what you eat pass me the double chocolate mousse"!!!!
 
Ha ha Nigella is a much better advert... It was more the eat more pulses and new forms of 'carbs' that intrigued me xx
 
I have her books and tbh her diet is food combining and very strict food combination thing is theres nothing wrong with that as hello slimming world LOL. But she doesnt look healthy and also promotes the use of supplements. As long as you are eating a healthy balanced diet (and also not taking any meds which can effect it) you shouldnt need supplements. Plus some of her advice i;d take with a pinch of salt.
 
Have you heard about her qualifications being discredited? I can't remember the details but she bought her degree from an online American website instead of actually going to college! The advertising standards agency are always telling her off for calling herself a 'doctor' when she's no such thing!

I could go into a long rant about how much I hate her, but instead I'll try and stick to the topic! ;-) From what I know she advocates lots of low GI foods like rice and grains, which would be really easy to incorporate into SW. On the other hand she loves nuts and seeds because of all the good fats in them, which would be a nightmare on SW. I think you get like a spoonful of walnuts for a HEXB or something, huge amount of syns! I would love to eat more nuts as I'm not a big fish eater and I worry about my omega oil intake but SW makes it pretty tricky.

I like to use my syns for other things (margarine on a jacket potato, ketchup on SW chips etc) and I find I don't have a lot left for snack foods.
 
I think the core of the Slimming World plan is very "pure" in terms of the foods

I'm really impressed the by way that new and different foods are encouraged e.g.

Cutting edge veg
fabulous fruit

and the use of things like cous cous, quinoa and qourn - which most of us would never have tried pre-SW mean that even after the active phase of weightloss, most people's diet will be slightly different post SW

you can easily follow the plan and not eat the processed foods like cheese triangles, sweetener drinks or yoghurts

I like the ideas that Michael Pollan has - about avoiding food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry or that a third-grader cannot pronounce, avoiding heavily processed foods—which he calls “edible foodlike substances.”

I'm not very successful at keeping to his rules, - but they make a good rule of thumb!

Eat food, mostly plants, not too much
 
Great post hazysummer.

I don't really have muller lights, LC triangles or Alpen Lights, predominately because they are so expensive! A lot of SW members have these as their staples but there are so many more things to have.
 
Have you heard about her qualifications being discredited? I can't remember the details but she bought her degree from an online American website instead of actually going to college! The advertising standards agency are always telling her off for calling herself a 'doctor' when she's no such thing!

Her undergrad degree is from Edinburgh uni I think, and it's in linguistics. However, her phd in holistic nutrition is from a US institution (which has since shut down) and she got it via a correspondence course. She is no longer allowed to use the title doctor on any of her products, firstly because the college she got her phd from is not an accredited institution and secondly because the ASA believe that by using the title "Dr", particularly when accompanied by pictures of her in a white lab coat as on some of her books, she is implying she is a medical doctor when she is a phd, not an MD.

Ben Goldacre's book "Bad Science" is well worth a read, particularly the chapter on McKeith's unscientific claims about nutrition.

Perhaps we should all be careful what we say though: apparently she has a record of threatening libel suits against anyone critical of her!
 
Personally I think Gillian McKeith is a complete waste of time (and not because of her appearence in the jungle) Ive never liked what the woman goes on about and I just dont think she is a great advert for a healthy life style. The SW plan can be, if you want it to be, as natural as possible as it is, I have muller lights every morning for brekkie (2) as this suits my lifestyle, but everything else I have is as natural as possible. Your body needs natural and not so natural ingredients as it is to keep up its barriers etc, without them we would all be as sick as dogs all the time (thats my belief anyway) x
 
Really interesting thread. Personally I don't like GM or her methods, and can't see that she looks well on it herself. I think the real beauty of SW is that you can make it what you need it to be for you. At its core I believe is a foundation of pure unrefined foods but the mugshots, mullers and pasta n sauce etc are also there to choose from when you want them (or when time dictates them!) - for me this is the perfect balance.
I do think that Michael Pollen had it right though, and that too many foods with ingredients that are better suited to a lab than a pantry should be avoided where possible - but also accept that in a modern lifestyle they have a place (just hopefully as a sideline, not as the basis of every meal every day).
 
Oooh i hate that woman! Even before she went in the jungle!

SHe looks so unhealthy, so haggered, so ill....yet i will never forget watching a programme where she went into a shopping mall, went up to a girl who said she was a size 16 and went "your absolutly disgusting. look at how fat you are. Do you want to get married? No one will ever marry you when your so fat".

I nearly fell off the sofa...talk about trying to promote crash dieting and body issues!! A size 16 is normal! I never watched her after that, the woman is a complete fraud.
 
Had never bought sweetener pre-SW - now I'm eating it everyday! I'm trying not to think about it and will reign it in by eating more natural yoghurt. But I do like to bake cakes etc so Splendais becoming a regular feature. Trying not to think about the health implications too much - that BBC series about E numbers was a bit reassuring I guess....
 
I think she's a nasty bully. I remember seeing her series where she was doing things like that to people in the street - If they don't ask for your opinion, then don't give it! I also remember one episode where she rocked up at someone's house and told them she was going to stay, then proceeded to get her own sleeping bag out to sleep on top of the perfectly nice, well made bed, and she also wouldn't touch anything unless it was with a tissue. It really annoyed me how her behaviour and comments suggested that the overweight person was dirty, when it was obvious from their home that they weren't.

Ooh, I'd forgotten how much that annoyed me when I saw it.
 
Ah, here we go. This was [Dr] Ben Goldacre's blog post on the ASA ruling about McKeith's phd.

What’s wrong with Dr Gillian McKeith PhD?

Thanks for the link Tinsel, it makes excellent reading. The woman is clearly a fraud and deserves to be exposed. She's also a bully. Not a nice character at all and what she says has to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
 
I used to watch you are what you eat out of interest and it was always good seeing the before and after. It did make me think about what I put into my body and how a lot of beige food was in my diet BUT Gillian was so bullish. Some of the drinks she suggested didn't look great either.

It was only starting SW that helped me make a change, not her ways
 
In all honesty the reason that I love SW is that I don't have to bother with all of that... each to their own, some of what she says is common sense but an awful lot of it is pseudo-science or mumbo jumbo IMHO. I have to see a gastro/colo doctor regularly because of a health condition. I nattered to him about her when I'm a Celebrity was on (these can otherwise be long, embarrassing appointments!) He put it brilliantly. He said he looks up people's backsides for a living and she's still more full of s*** than anyone else he's ever heard of.

:8855::8855::8855: Love it!
 
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