This is an accepted version of this page Gillian McKeith (born 28 September 1959) is a Scottish television personality and writer.

[2][3][4] McKeith has no qualifications in nutrition or medicine from accredited institutions, and in 2007 agreed with the Advertising Standards Authority to stop using the title "Doctor".

[9] She obtained a degree in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in 1981, before moving to the United States, where she worked in marketing and international business.

[12] Responding to criticism that her use of her qualifications in linguistics and language and international relations, subjects entirely unrelated to diet and nutrition, are misleading to the public, McKeith said she was challenging orthodox medical opinions.

[8] Prior to the 2002 United Kingdom local elections, McKeith applied to become a Conservative Party candidate in the London Borough of Camden.

[21] The book derived from the Channel 4 show she presented, You Are What You Eat, broadcast until 2007, in which she attempted to motivate people to lose weight and change their lifestyle.

[23] In each episode of the fourth series, called Gillian Moves In: You Are What You Eat, two people were chosen to stay with McKeith at a house in London "with no escape".

According to Jan Moir in The Daily Telegraph, she was seen "shouting at sobbing, fat women while forcing them to eat quinoa and undergo frequent sessions of colonic irrigation enthusiastically administered by her good self.

"[13] In her book You Are What You Eat, McKeith advocates examination of the tongue, the mapping of pimples, and detailed scrutiny of faecal matter and urine as indicators of health.

[29] She also attributes the presence of depression or PMS to mineral deficiencies, and maintains that the location of pimples can suggest the source of health problems.

[31] She frequently took up this practice during her television shows, a technique that led Ben Goldacre, a physician who wrote for The Guardian at the time, to dub her "the awful poo lady".

[32] McKeith advocates a pescetarian—sea foods—diet high in fruits and vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, and tofu, and the avoidance of processed and high-calorie foods, sugar and fat, red meat, alcohol, caffeine, white flour, and additives.

[8] Goldacre writes that he finds it offensive that the British media is "filled with people who adopt a cloak of scientific authority while apparently misunderstanding the most basic aspects of biology."

He offers as an example McKeith's recommendation to eat darker leaves because they are rich in chlorophyll, writing that her claim that it will "really oxygenate your blood" is erroneous as sunlight usually is absent inside the human bowel.

Jan Krokowski of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency wrote a letter to New Scientist, as a private individual, saying "blue-green algae—properly called cyanobacteria—are able to produce a range of very powerful toxins, which pose health hazards to humans and animals and can result in illness and death.

"[13] McKeith's website 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.

[35] She was censured in November 2006 by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for selling unproven herbal sex aids.

The MHRA found McKeith had been "selling goods without legal authorisation whilst making medicinal claims about their efficacy."