TV Nutritionist Drops "Dr"

[Rye]

Normally, I wouldn't post something like this, but some of the images I saw posted with it on another site cracked me up, so apologies if this isn't the place to post all this. I have no idea who she actually is, but my understanding is she's a bit fixated on really thin ladies and drinking piss.

Gillian McKeith Is Not A Doctor Say Advertising Watchdogs
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 12:24 by Eliza E. Lanyard

Scat obsessed TV health guru, Gillian McKeith is going to stop using the title Doctor in adverts for her range of utterly joyless foods.

The woman, who looks as if she lives on a diet of grumpy half starved hamsters, has used the title on all her promotional literature and ranges of healthy snacks. Healthy they might be but if I want a food treat I’ll reach for toast and jam and not something that tastes like floor sweepings.

A Guardian reader (see they are useful for something other than poking fun at and being an easy stereotype) complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after reading an article which took McKeith to task over some of the claims she makes and whether or not she is qualified to make them.

Using their dictum of “Legal, Honest, Decent and Truthful” the ASA came to an initial conclusion that using the title Doctor would indeed lead people into thinking that she was a medical doctor. One who had been to medical school and studied actual medicine. Which she isn’t. Somewhere in the small print will be an acknowledgement that she isn’t a real medical doctor at all.

The ASA said this wasn’t enough to dissuage the initial impression that she was a real live doctor with a medical degree as opposed to a doctorate she obtained via a long distance learning course from the American Holistic College of Nutrition (which, apparently, at the time she took the course was not recognised or accredited by any official education body).

I cannot help but wonder if the course included faecal analysis. Surely the value of such an analysis would inevitably be compromised given the enormous distance the turds had to travel through the post.

She looks sort of like Ann Coulter, which alone justifies this .gif:



and then there was this picture that cracked me up also:

[Omeros]

I have no idea who she actually is

For an extended debunking of 'Dr' McKeith's pratings look here

The article's too long to post the whole thing but here are a few goodies:

She talks endlessly about chlorophyll, for example: how it's "high in oxygen" and will "oxygenate your blood" - but chlorophyll will only make oxygen in the presence of light. It's dark in your intestines, and even if you stuck a searchlight up your bum to prove a point, you probably wouldn't absorb much oxygen in there, because you don't have gills in your gut. In fact, forgive me, but I don't think you really want oxygen up there, because methane fart gas mixed with oxygen is a potentially explosive combination.

She even sneaked one into this very newspaper, during a profile on her: "Doubt has also been cast on the value of McKeith's certified membership of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants, especially since Guardian journalist Ben Goldacre managed to buy the same membership online for his dead cat for $60. McKeith's spokeswoman says of this membership: "Gillian has 'professional membership', which is membership designed for practising nutritional and dietary professionals, and is distinct from 'associate membership', which is open to all individuals. To gain professional membership Gillian provided proof of her degree and three professional references."

Well. My dead cat Hettie is also a "certified professional member" of the AANC. I have the certificate hanging in my loo.

[Spyder]

I get the feeling I'm going to regret asking this, but 'scat obsessed'?

[SirNitram]

I get the feeling I'm going to regret asking this, but 'scat obsessed'?

Obsessed with solid human waste. I dare not delve into the context.

[Spyder]

I get the feeling I'm going to regret asking this, but 'scat obsessed'?

Obsessed with solid human waste. I dare not delve into the context.

Yeah I know what scat is, my sense of curiosity and revolution are battling it out.

[Wyrm]

Well. My dead cat Hettie is also a "certified professional member" of the AANC. I have the certificate hanging in my loo.

The irony here is that the dead cat is probably a better nutritionist than Ol' Horseface.

[Trytostaydead]

Ugh, another person who bought a degree through the internet.

If she was a real-bonafide PhD nutritionist, fine, she can call herself Doctor until the cows come home, she earned it. But ugh, these particular stories are just becoming all too common where you know if someone goes to an online UNaccredited university for a degree, it's usually for deceptive purposes.

[FSTargetDrone]

Yet her "official website" (featuring an URL of "+www.drgillianmckeith.com") still has "Dr" prominently displayed, well, everywhere:

Welcome to the new Dr Gillian McKeith Official Website - Empowering people to improve their lives through information, food and lifestyle

Dr Gillian McKeith’s You Are What You Eat’ book is the most borrowed non-fiction book for 2005/06 from libraries across the UK. Dr Gillian McKeith’s simple advice and no nonsense attitude has proved to be a hit across the nation.

Never heard of her before this post and I'm trying hard to evacuate from my brain all memory of her and her nutty information that I have gleaned in the last 30 seconds.

[FSTargetDrone]

Ugh, another person who bought a degree through the internet.

If she was a real-bonafide PhD nutritionist, fine, she can call herself Doctor until the cows come home, she earned it. But ugh, these particular stories are just becoming all too common where you know if someone goes to an online UNaccredited university for a degree, it's usually for deceptive purposes.

Now I'm confused. Also from her website:

Gillian McKeith’s credentials and qualifications can be found on the website +www.drgillianmckeith.com

Gillian has been working in the field of Food and Holistic Nutrition for almost two decades.

Before obtaining a Doctorate in Holistic Nutrition, Gillian McKeith earned a Bachelors Degree from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and a Masters Degree from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), an Ivy League institution. After recovering from illness, she then went on to re-train in Holistic Nutrition almost 15 years ago.

Back then, there were few learning institutions which specialised in Holistic Nutrition, the discipline that Gillian wanted to study. Holistic Nutrition in those days was a pioneering field and not the fashionable topic it is today. Gillian McKeith earned a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from the American Holistic College of Nutrition, which is now known as the Clayton College of Natural Health, an off-campus learning institution with well respected graduates in the United States.

Gillian enrolled in the College because she determined, after much review, that the American Holistic College of Nutrition was the best for the specific discipline that she wanted to study. She considers it to be an excellent programme for anyone wishing to study in the field of Holistic Nutrition. The College is now accredited by the State of Alabama Department of Post-Secondary Education, a government body.

To obtain a PhD in Holistic Nutrition from the College, it is a pre-requisite that a student has must have a masters degree and then undertakes study through a number of preliminary courses and a core curriculum, including general nutrition, immune system health, detoxification, herbology, human anatomy, enzymatic nutritional therapy, vitamin and mineral studies, nutrients, relationship of diet and disease, geriatric nutrition and nutrition and mental health. Doctoral students also have to prepare an original and practical dissertation. Gillian studied and completed the PhD course and dissertation over a period of more than 4 years between 1993 and 1997.

The PhD in Holistic Nutrition is a course that is approved by the (American) National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP), a non-profit organisation which maintains the integrity of the holistic nutrition profession by establishing educational standards, a rigorous code of ethics and registration of nutrition professionals.

Gillian is constantly studying for certificates and further qualifications in the field of natural health.

She holds a certificate from the London School of Acupuncture, a Certificate from the Kailash Centre for Oriental Studies and is currently enrolled in the Australian College of Health Sciences. She is a post-graduate Member of The Centre for Nutrition Education, England. Gillian believes that practitioners should always be learning.

The nutrition information on her television programme and in her books is supported by research. People interested in further nutritional information and studies may refer to the McKeith Research Centre (powered by Health Notes) on the website [+www.drgillianmckeith.com], available to club members.

Gillian McKeith is the author of six (6) books, three of which have gone to number one bestseller status. The books are published in some 27 countries. She is currently writing two more books with one being released in Spring 2007.

Gillian points out that food is potentially an emotional issue. It can be uncomfortable for some people to have to give up certain junk foods to which they have become accustomed.

As a Holistic Nutritionist, Gillian McKeith spent almost 10 years working with clients in private practice. Although Gillian is not a medical doctor, she integrates and confers with various medical doctors for her work with clients. Her life mission is to empower people to improve their lives through information, food and lifestyle.

Well, I know the University of Pennsylvania exists, as I have been spending quite a bit of time lately at its hospital in Philadelphia visiting a sick relative, and I assume at least several the other schools and institutions are real, so is she a real PhD, or not? Anyone can put what he or wants on website, of course, official or otherwise.

[LordShaithis]

I suspect a more truthful version would have something like these additions:

Before obtaining a Doctorate in Holistic Nutrition from Billy Bob's Degree Factory, Gillian McKeith earned a Bachelors Degree in basket weaving from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and a Masters Degree in square dancing from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), an Ivy League institution.

[PainRack]

There are degrees for chiropracters too, not to mention homeopathy and accupuncture.

[Prozac the Robert]

She even sneaked one into this very newspaper, during a profile on her: "Doubt has also been cast on the value of McKeith's certified membership of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants, especially since Guardian journalist Ben Goldacre managed to buy the same membership online for his dead cat for $60. McKeith's spokeswoman says of this membership: "Gillian has 'professional membership', which is membership designed for practising nutritional and dietary professionals, and is distinct from 'associate membership', which is open to all individuals. To gain professional membership Gillian provided proof of her degree and three professional references."

Well. My dead cat Hettie is also a "certified professional member" of the AANC. I have the certificate hanging in my loo. Perhaps it didn't even occur to the journalist that McKeith could be wrong. More likely, of course, in the tradition of nervous journalists, I suspect she was hurried, on deadline, and felt she had to get McKeith's "right of reply" in, even if it cast doubts on - I'll admit my beef here - my own hard-won investigative revelations about my dead cat. I mean, I don't sign my dead cat up to bogus professional organisations for the good of my health, you know.

That pretty much destroys any credibility the PhD has. If you want to know more, have a poke around on www.badscience.net

[Faram]

Well fake doctor or not, from what I have seen of her in TV. All the people she wisits badly needs a change of diet.

More vegtables is a good recomendation for allmost all of us, and most certenaly for those that appears in her show.

And checking the stool for signs of dicease is a valid vay to find out about your health.

[General Zod]

There are degrees for chiropracters too, not to mention homeopathy and accupuncture.

Chiropractitioners have actual proven benefits in niche areas of medicine. Homeopathy and acupuncture, not so much.

And I found the grumpy hamster line in the article amusing.

[Spyder]

There are degrees for chiropracters too, not to mention homeopathy and accupuncture.

Chiropractitioners have actual proven benefits in niche areas of medicine.

Such as?

[weemadando]

There are degrees for chiropracters too, not to mention homeopathy and accupuncture.

Chiropractitioners have actual proven benefits in niche areas of medicine.

Such as?

Some forms of musculo-skeletal injury/disfunction can be treated by a chiropractor. And indeed, most physiotherapists I know agree that chiropractor treatment for some of these cases may be helped by chiropractic work. But I'm not going to go to a chiropractor to cure my athletes foot.

[Dark Hellion]

Chiropractice tests are also extremely grueling multi-day test-a-thons. They also REQUIRE the chiropractor to advise patients to see medical professionals in numerous testing stations throughout the day. Certified Chiropractors are great for preventive medicine in the areas of injury avoidance for sports or strenuous physical professions, as well as the treatment of minor muscular injuries. But they are never meant to replace real medicine at all. Unfortunately the Board of Chiropractic is terrible at weeding out quacks, and seems to have a huge boner for fighting with the AMA instead of working together.
And yes, the majority of chiropractors I have ever encountered (I have worked at Palmer School of Chiropractic on numerous occasions) are completely fuck-nut quacks. I have had chiropractors claim that Chiropractic medicine can cure schizophenia.

[Spyder]

Are there any independent studies on the subject? I'm a little skeptical of the practice in general.

[Dark Hellion]

I can't really search for them right no (it's finals week) but insurance companies in the U.S. have done a lot of studies showing that chiropractic visits can lower work related injuries, which is why some corporations will pay for 2 or 3 visits a year.
It's not a problem with the medicine per se, its a problem of the practitioners, who refuse to work with normal medicine and instead fight it at every turn.

[PainRack]

Chiropractitioners have actual proven benefits in niche areas of medicine. Homeopathy and acupuncture, not so much.

And I found the grumpy hamster line in the article amusing.

So does nutrition.

Certification doesn't mean that the person in question isn't a quack. There are M.Ds out there who are quacks, why would it be different for anyone else?