I’ve long despised Gillian McKeith. She is at the apex of the dreadful snobbish TV shows that scream "You there! On the couch! Your life is rubbish! You are hideous! Let me help… and no, you have no choice in the matter". Well, even by Gillian’s standards, she’s reached new levels of hideousness in last night’s You Are What You Eat: Gillian Moves In (Channel 4, Tuesday, 8pm)
People have tried to tell me in the past that Gillian is lovable because she is high camp. Hmmm. Now, when I think of camp, I think of Kim & Aggie from How Clean is Your House? Gillian McKeith is not camp fun. She’s a mean spirited moron with a snobbishness that warrants all the bile I can muster. Last night, McKeith sank to new TV lows in an attempt to show her ‘tough love’. Well, there is a fine line between tough love and bullying. McKeith’s camp is firmly pitched in the latter.
The show began with McKeith abusing the people of Castleford. Now, when someone signs up for this godforsaken show, I can acknowledge that they have at least volunteered for some abuse. However, McKeith stood in the middle of a shopping centre with a megaphone, shouting abuse to anyone who was overweight. Why, I’d be inclined to get her arrested on grounds of creating a breach of the peace and being abusive. If overeating is a sickness, then shouting at strangers with a megaphone… just so every single person within a mile radius can hear the abuse… is hardly going to help is it? Imagine me, going into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and screaming "YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF HOPELESS SOAKS! YOU MAKE ME ILL! URGH! AND YOU SMELL LIKE A DRIP TRAY!" I’d hope that someone would smack me in the mouth and then boot me out into the street in front of the next passing bus. You see, it’s this hate filled ‘help’ that drives me mad about McKeith. She’s so unpleasant that surely no-one watching at home will want to buy into her woolly worded tripe. Look at Jamie Oliver. Some people like him, and so, when he preaches to people on telly about school dinners, then fans of his will probably try and act out his wishes. McKeith’s show is so self-serving that no-one at home will take her advice. They merely tune in to watch some poor sods getting abused. Hurrah for Britain!
To the show: the amount of times I raised an angry fist at the TV was quite possibly a record. First, McKeith demands poo from her subjects. This, for the record, is the only time we see a genuinely happy McKeith as she skips (literally) up the stairs, grinning inanely, at the promise of dung. Now, Gillian’s infatuation with poo is something that worries me greatly. Why, it wouldn’t surprise me if she sat at home with a scrapbook of all the stools she’s deposited and snapped for posterity. "Aahh… I remember that one… it was conker coloured and sausage shaped… I’m so brilliant." Brilliantly, the gentleman taking part in the show gave her a poo that made the sham doctor retch and nearly collapse under the stench. It was the only time I smiled throughout the whole programme.
Then, to another McKeith trademark. Getting a table full of rubbish food and standing the participants next to it. She then did something which I could barely believe. She began to throw chocolate and crisps at the fatties. AT THEM!?! All the time firing off insult after insult ("you’re disgusting" et cetera). Then, when all the food hit the floor, she threw a dust-pan and brush at them and made them clean it up. Absolutely horrible. This throwing of food around brings me neatly to another gripe I have with McKeith. For a paragon of virtue, she’s incredibly wasteful. She throws food all over the floor and then, in one of her surreal props (like the chocolate gravestone or the human made from minced beef) she got 22 pints of milk in a giant milk carton, threw some steaks in it and stirred it all up with a giant bone. I really wish I was making that up, but sadly, it happened. Now, for someone who preaches a correct way to live, she didn’t half ruin a lot of perfectly good food in the name of shock tactics. How would she feel if I wiped my arse on a thousand spinach leaves just to ram home a flaky point? She’d probably cry her sorry little frame to sleep forever and take her anguish out on the nations obese.
McKeith is also cruel in the food she offers to the fatties. She makes them beetroot and celery juice. Now, even the most hardened veg lover would probably find that hard to swallow… but not McKeith. You see, a bit of sweetness always helped the medicine go down… and obviously, I don’t mean a spoonful of sugar. When making beetroot and celery juice, why not throw an apple in to make it taste reasonably nice? Surely apples aren’t off limits are they? Maybe that’s the whole point of this completely pointless show. This show is obviously about self flagellation. You can’t earn your health unless you’ve paid for your culinary sins. In McKeith’s eyes, you lose the right to any humanity. You’re fat, so shut up. This horrible drink is all your fault you lardy knacker. In my experience, tough love only works when you mix it up with a loving arm around a shoulder from time to time. I say this without fear. I long for the day when Gillian McKeith has some kind of addiction and someone literally bullies it out of her and breaks her spirit forever. It’s what she deserves. The liberal in me dies at the mere mention of this woman’s name, and I long for her to suffer in the same way her victims do. If her existence isn’t bad enough, she’s appealing for people to come forward and take part in wedding special in the summer. My advice? Run a mile in the opposite direction. Running makes you lose weight and you won’t have to endure the most evil woman on TV. [Mof Gimmers]
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Thanks for watching this sanctimonious c*w – it means I didn’t have to!
BTW back in the summer on the front page of a health magazine was the headline:
“Why sex is good for you with Gillian McKeith”
Damn nearly put me off my lard sandwich!
I would like to get copies of Gillian’s Diets to use with my family. How can I do that?
Gina
Thanks for speaking what I’ve been thinking! The way to get people to eat healthily and exercise is NOT to abuse them. I hate to tell Gillian but fat people already know they are fat. It’s not like it’s a surprise. People who are emotional eaters need kindness and compassion, not abuse. Making people eat disgusting food is also wrong. Gillian seems to feel that eating is a necessary evil and should never be enjoyed. If you want to lose weight sensibly, go to Weight Watchers!
I saw this show for the first time today and thought it was awful. Do you know her “doctorate” is from an online school in The USA…In most states in America degrees from said school are not legitimate academic credentials. She is scientifically incorrect in many of the things she teaches her subjects…what a scam. Do a google search for “American Holistic College of Nutrition” and you will see.
I saw this show for the first time today and thought it was awful. Do you know her “doctorate” is from an online school in The USA…In most states in America degrees from said school are not legitimate academic credentials. She is scientifically incorrect in many of the things she teaches her subjects…what a scam.
I saw this show for the first time today and thought it was awful. Do you know her “doctorate” is from an online school in The USA…In most states in America degrees from said school are not legitimate academic credentials. She is scientifically incorrect in many of the things she teaches her subjects…what a scam.
Oh My God! Get a Life! You talk about how she wastes food but it’s all disgustingly unhealthy stuff anyways. Alot of the people on her show have eaten themselves into Diabetes- that’s an aweful disease to live with and they gave it to themselves!
anyways, before you go trashing the show, shouldn’t you take into consideration the people actually on it. How much have their lives improved after being on the show? what do they think? it’s their opinions that matter- not your or mine.
P.S. have you ever actually tried beetroot or celery juice? if you have I will accept you opinion of making people drink them but if not you shouldn’t express an opinion. Don’t know it before you’ve tried it!!!
nobody likes opinionated idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about
Oh My God! Get a Life! You talk about how she wastes food but it’s all disgustingly unhealthy stuff anyways. Alot of the people on her show have eaten themselves into Diabetes- that’s an aweful disease to live with and they gave it to themselves!
anyways, before you go trashing the show, shouldn’t you take into consideration the people actually on it. How much have their lives improved after being on the show? what do they think? it’s their opinions that matter- not your or mine.
P.S. have you ever actually tried beetroot or celery juice? if you have I will accept you opinion of making people drink them but if not you shouldn’t express an opinion. Don’t knock it before you’ve tried it!!!
nobody likes opinionated idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about
Oh My God! Get a Life! You talk about how she wastes food but it’s all disgustingly unhealthy stuff anyways. Alot of the people on her show have eaten themselves into Diabetes- that’s an aweful disease to live with and they gave it to themselves!
anyways, before you go trashing the show, shouldn’t you take into consideration the people actually on it. How much have their lives improved after being on the show? what do they think? it’s their opinions that matter- not yours or mine.
P.S. have you ever actually tried beetroot or celery juice? if you have I will accept you opinion of making people drink them but if not you shouldn’t express an opinion. Don’t knock it before you’ve tried it!!!
nobody likes opinionated idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about
Hi Ali.
I’ll address each of your puzzling points in turn.
“Alot [sic] of the people on her show have eaten themselves into Diabetes…”
To be clear, nearly every person who has appeared on You Are What You Eat hasn’t had Diabetes. ‘Doctor’ McKeith has said that they MIGHT get it if they carry on. Quite how she got that from looking at their stools is beyond me…
“Anyways, before you go trashing the show, shouldn’t you take into consideration the people actually on it. How much have their lives improved after being on the show? what do they think? it’s their opinions that matter- not yours or mine.”
Not yours or mine? Quite. However, at what cost are these people helped? What happens long term on the McKeith diet? When we’ve seen her go back to participants, they’ve often let themselves go again because McKeith’s advice is so impractical and unrelenting. I’d like to know the psychological effects of a ‘McKeithing’.
“P.S. have you ever actually tried beetroot or celery juice?”
Yes I have. It’s horrendous without a bit of sweetness in it. That’s why I suggested the inclusion of an apple. Uncooked beetroot is one of the vilest things you can eat.
“nobody likes opinionated idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about”
Whether you’re talking about your ill informed diabtribe or McKeith, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Is it pure coincidence that our Gillian has been forced to drop the ‘doctor’ from her name?
Mof Gimmers
TVScoop Rent-a-Grump
“Anyways, before you go trashing the show, shouldn’t you take into consideration the people actually on it. How much have their lives improved after being on the show? what do they think? it’s their opinions that matter- not yours or mine.”
To be quite honest, as much as the main focus of the show should be the improvement of the health of the participants it doesn’t seem to really be the first priority of McKeith. She wouldn’t be so unsympathetic as to show someone a fully dressed coffin full of organs now, would she?
Besides that point, Mof’s opinion, my own, and yours are all very much valid. Why? Because this is a TV programme, not a science experiment or rehabilitation course, that is made solely for one purpose…Entertainment.
Orla
McKeith is a hectoring bully. She is in it for the money. Anyone seen the expensive ” Life Powder ” she pushes? Her website is littered with vague terms such as “Energy Levels” and “Detoxing”. One particularly scary timetable ibncluded meditation, with the ominuous command ” I will teach you this”! The mind boggles.I’m off for some “Gland Balancing Meditation” now, the whole thing has made me feel quite sick…
I have watched a lot of “You are what you eat”. This program made me feel bad about myself, because I actually believed what she was saying.
It turns out that Gill is just a saleswoman promoting a line of health foods, and that she has no medical qualifications. The punters on her show certainly lost weight and looked better, but how do they look and feel a year later?
I would be happy to run a TV show on her show “Clients” as a follow up. I would like to interview the people and have some films made of their current lives. Maybe I am just an old cynic, but I bet it would make good entertainment!