Gillian McKeith's PhD thesis

[LesMTS]

Brilliant. Just......brilliant.

Originally Posted by badscience.net

As the awful poo lady goes into her fourth series on Channel 4, I can’t stop thinking about that PhD. I’m talking about Dr Gillian McKeith PhD, of course. It’s from a non-accredited correspondence college in the US, so no trustworthy government body attests to their standards. But I’m open minded, and it was always perfectly possible that she’d done a meaningful piece of work, on top of paying those correspondence course fees.

For many years now I have wanted to read her thesis for myself, just to satisfy my curiosity. This should have been a pretty straightforward affair: PhDs are, by convention, always lodged in a library, in an archive, where they can be seen. Sadly, Clayton College of Natural Health - who also sell their own range of vitamin supplements - refused to show me McKeith’s thesis. Or anybody’s. I drew a blank.

But then came a breakthrough: I was contacted by a rogue nutritionist. She had been told that McKeith’s PhD had been published as “Miracle Superfood: Wild Blue-Green Algae, the nutrient powerhouse that stimulates the immune system, boosts brain power, and guards against disease”. I emailed McKeith Research (under a James Bond assumed name, of course) and they confirmed that this book was, indeed, McKeith’s PhD.

I say book. It’s more like a stapled pamphlet, available at only £1.99, because it’s only 48 pages. Which is quite short for a PhD. And that’s including recipes, title plates, and contents pages.
Maybe this pamphlet is just a shortened and simplified version of the PhD text, but if it is at all based on her thesis it is not a good advert for that as a scholarly work. Inside is what I could only describe as Cargo Cult science: she’s going through the motions, but the content, only closer inspection, is like an eerie parody of an academic text.

There are lots of grand statements about research, with nice superscript numbers relating to references in the back. But when you chase to the back of the book to see what these academic documents are, they include such august periodicals as Delicious, Creative Living, Healthy Eating, and my favourite: Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet.

Some of it is plainly absurd. As we get older, she explains, “the levels of RNA/DNA decrease.” Okay. “If you do not have enough RNA/DNA,” she goes on, you “may ultimately age prematurely”. Stress can deplete your DNA, but algae will increase it. And that’s not all. “Chlorophyll within the algae is a powerful oxygen generator for human beings.” Back to GCSE Biology: it’ll only make oxygen if there’s light inside me, Gillian …

She expands grandly and uncritically - with anecdote, but no data - about her many dramatic treatment successes, like a physician from the dark ages. She talks about her own “clinical research”, with huge claims for its findings, but wherever this clinical research is, all you can find here are her anecdotes.

Sometimes you think you’ve hit some data, but then, like a chimera, it disappears. Only 20% of calcium in supplements is absorbed, she explains, whereas all the calcium in algae is absorbable: there’s a superscript number, go to the references, in the back, number 31 … “Studies with author’s own patients”. That’s all it says.

And that’s just the start of the reference fun. “In laboratory experiments with anaemic animals, red blood cell counts have returned to normal within four or five days when chlorophyll was given,” she says. Her reference for this experimental data is a magazine called Health Store News. “In the heart,” she explains, “chlorophyll aids in the transmission of nerve impulses that control contraction.” A statement which is referenced to the second issue of a magazine called Earthletter.

Scientific terminology is wilfully conflated with fanciful new age waffle and, perhaps worryingly, she talks about blood tests, urine tests, chemicals, stool tests, treatments and diagnoses, with endless scientific terminology, frequently referencing her clinic and her patients, many of them children.

Channel 4 once styled this woman as a clinical nutritionist: she performed in a white coat, surrounded by laboratory equipment. Since people like me started digging, the McKeith industry - worth millions - describes her as a holistic nutritionist. There is no such thing as “holistic nutrition”: if you make statements about food which you suggest are backed up by academic/scientific research, as McKeith does, repeatedly, in her books, her shows, her semi-academic work, and products … then that’s just nutrition. The word “holistic” is at best a piece of branding; but at worst, it’s a cloak for accepting inadequate standards of referencing and evidence.

(emphasis mine)

[djbarry]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha "if you don't have enough RNA/DNA" hahahahahahahahahahaha

This should be in the science forum.

because it’s only 48 pages. Which is quite short for a PhD.

In most of the PhD's I've read the references section is longer than 48 pages.

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by djbarry

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha "if you don't have enough RNA/DNA" hahahahahahahahahahaha

This should be in the science forum.

People still listen to this woman!! She commands five-figure fees!!!!! People read her books and let her into their homes to do things to them and their lifestyles!!!!

[djbarry]

Do you have a link to Clayton College of Natural Health, I could write more than 48 pages on some made up subject and fill it with hundreds of recipes then get my own tv shows etc.

[Charlicat]

So really all her PhD is useful for is to wipe the arse of one of her fatty fatty ming ming patients.

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by djbarry

Do you have a link to Clayton College of Natural Health, I could write more than 48 pages on some made up subject and fill it with hundreds of recipes then get my own tv shows etc.

I think it costs a few thousand.

[djbarry]

Maybe it comes printed on a perforated absorbent paper.

Originally Posted by LesMTS

I think it costs a few thousand.

So does a normal PhD, this sounds an easier and quicker route

[LesMTS]

I wish I was allowed to reference "Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet" magazine.
Actually, I guess I am allowed to reference it if I really wanted to, I'd be looking for a new job pretty shortly afterwards though.

[Purplerose]

Originally Posted by LesMTS

People still listen to this woman!! She commands five-figure fees!!!!! People read her books and let her into their homes to do things to them and their lifestyles!!!!

Your doctor will tell you how to lose weight for free. It's more good marketing than anything else, give someone a white coat who will peer over their glasses into a tub of poo and tell folk that they are disgusting on tv and you are onto a winner.

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by djbarry

So does a normal PhD, this sounds an easier and quicker route

Not out of your own pocket though.

Originally Posted by Purplerose

Your doctor will tell you how to lose weight for free. It's more good marketing than anything else, give someone a white coat who will peer over their glasses into a tub of poo and tell folk that they are disgusting on tv and you are onto a winner.

I'll tell you how to lose weight for free right now.
Eat less calories than you use.

[djbarry]

Originally Posted by LesMTS

Not out of your own pocket though.

Oh I don't know, all those pub lunches to 'discuss research', then all the trips to the pub after work to 'discuss research' those aren't funded, we all know the most important research work is done in the pub. Or that is what I have been told be many eminent scientists.

[djtoast]

My sister's PhD is 270 pages in its published version. The texts it concerns are a mixture of English, ancient Greek, medieval French, and also Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac.

It's full of phrases like

The influence of postmodernism and poststructuralism has become strong in the field of literary-synchronic approaches, and inherent in many postmodern and poststructuralist theories is a concern with political subversion and denaturalization of the material of rhetorical exchanges. Bar-Efrat comments on the tendency of the "avowedly historical approach" to "regard the narratives as a means of uncovering the historico-cultural reality, such as the 'setting/function in life' (Sitz inm Leben) or the changing views, institutions and religious customs".

It gets harder after that because it frequently stops being in a language or even an alphabet I can read.

Admittedly I haven't read many other PhDs but there does seem to be a leedle teeny bit of a gap in standards and rigour between my sister's thesis and our poo-doctors ramblings.

[Krocktopus]

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_mckeith

Gillian McKeith (also known as Dr Gillian McKeith although she does not have an accredited doctorate)

she claims that yeast is harmful and that the colours of foods are nutritionally significant

Many of her claims have been strongly disputed by members of the scientific community.

Asked about McKeith's advice, Amanda Wynne, Senior Dietician of the British Dietetic Association, said “We are appalled. I think it is obvious she hasn't a clue about nutrition. In fact her advice, if followed to the limit, could be dangerous.”

McKeith originally attended the University of Edinburgh and gained a degree in languages and business. Later she moved to the United States, where she worked in marketing and international business.

McKeith received a Master's degree and PhD via a distance learning programme from the American Holistic College of Nutrition, Alabama — now the Clayton College of Natural Health. Clayton College states that it is "accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and the American Naturopathic Medical Accreditation Board",[6] but this accreditation is not recognised by the United States Secretary of Education.[7] McKeith originally claimed, both on her website and in her book Dr Gillian McKeith's Living Food for Health, to have a PhD from the American College of Nutrition — by implication, the Florida-based institution of that name, rather than the unaccredited Clayton College of Natural Health. This claim has since been withdrawn. McKeith told The Sun she believed "a Spanish Guy on work assignment" had supplied the wrong qualifications data.

McKeith says she is a member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants (AANC). This organisation has been criticised by Quackwatch for selling membership certificates to unqualified individuals.[10] In 2004, Ben Goldacre revealed that upon payment of $60 he had obtained a certificate showing his dead cat was a member.[11] Quackwatch claims that hamsters and poodles are also members

here's her homepage http://www.drgillianmckeith.com/



ive got a science GCSE, i think that actually makes me more qualified then her

[StuntGirl]

I've got standard grade biology and home economics...I'm going to set myself up as a self styled holistic nutrition guru

[djtoast]

Originally Posted by Krocktopus

ive got a science GCSE, i think that actually makes me more qualified then her

I know practically nothing about diet/nutrition, so I keep my mouth shut. Making me more qualified than her, on the assumption that no advice is better than bad advice.

12) How do people go about adding themselves onto the 2 year waiting list for a consultation? Info and prices etc please?
Please understand that the Waiting List was at 2-years before the television show started. Now that the TV and book are out, the response is overwhelming with literally hundreds of calls and emails every day requesting consultations with Dr McKeith. As you can imagine, it is not possible for one person to see everyone. But that was the reason that she wanted to write the book, You Are What You Eat. In this way the book will provide you with many years of her scientific and clinical research.
Even if you came to consult with her at the Clinic, much of what she would do with you, perhaps 80% to 90% is now available online by using Dr Gillian's Personal Health Profiles. This is Gillian’s best personalised advice to you based on a detailed questionnaire. VIsit the website, www.drgillian.com, for further support. Keep watching the television show on Channel 4 for inspiration. Get her other book, Living Food For Health, for further guidance and more information, more recipes, more help.

*shudder*

"Roll up, roll up, get your magic beans. One a day and you'll be able to make yourself invisible, turn rabbits into goats, and live to be 400. One for you sir? Good, three guineas. madam?"

"Health" care for profit, wonderful. We need a law specifically banning her.