Gillian McKeith - Controversy Over Qualifications

Controversy Over Qualifications

One of the earliest criticisms focuses on McKeith's diploma in nutrition from American Association of Nutritional Consultants. In 2004, the same diploma was also awarded (upon application & payment) to Ben Goldacre's dead cat Henrietta.

On her website McKeith claimed to have a PhD, degree or certificate from the American College of Nutrition. In the book Dr Gillian McKeith's Living Food for Health McKeith also claimed to have a PhD from the American College of Nutrition. She does not. Both her PhD and her Masters degree are from the non-accredited diploma mill Clayton College of Natural Health.

In February 2007 she agreed not to use the academic title "Dr" in advertisements, after a complaint to the British Advertising Standards Authority. The Authority ruled that her use of the title broke two clauses of the Committee of Advertising Practice's code, regarding "substantiation" and "truthfulness", and was "likely to mislead" the public into thinking she is a medical doctor.

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 she said she was challenging orthodox medical opinions. She denied that using the title to promote her theories on nutrition was unethical.

McKeith has threatened legal action against a number of critics, including nutrition professor John Garrow, who questioned her credentials in 2004. Ben Goldacre speculated that parts of her PhD thesis may have been published as a 48-page pamphlet entitled "Miracle Superfood: Wild Blue-Green Algae"; he called the pamphlet cargo cult science, describing it as full of "anecdote, but no data." His book Bad Science (2008) Goldacre dedicates a chapter to an analysis of her scientific credibility. In this book, he refers to her as "Gillian McKeith (or, to give her full medical title: Gillian McKeith)" – by implication referring to the controversial manner in which she attained her Doctor of Philosophy degree.

In July 2010, McKeith's Twitter account, @gillianmckeith, described the book as "lies"; Goldacre requested a correction.