Gillian McKeith

The author may have got some good recipes in here, but - hell's teeth - she can be irritating! This really is bossy American therapist writes cookbook: "I can utterly transform your life, but follow my plan to the letter or stop wasting my time"! The store cupboard essentials include such everyday basics as organic dried fenugreek, agar-agar, nori flakes, brown rice syrup, flax seeds, tempeh, and miso - well, that may be fine in the posher parts of California, but in my kitchen, you've got show more to be joking (and no way is my picky 8-year-old going to eat any of that!). She may well be right about a lot of the guidance on healthy eating, but I haven't cooked anything yet, because I have to wade through too many recipes in which a key ingredient turns out to be something Japanese and unpronounceable (and, no doubt, eye-wateringly expensive and probably unpalatable). I'd love to try her pears with star anise, but what the blazes is "barley malt syrup" and what can non-Californian-health-gurus use as a substitute? And if she says "organic wheat-free vegetable bouillon powder" once more I shall scream! I haven't chucked this book out yet, but it's on probation. MB 17-x-2015 show less

Gillian McKeith is a British TV star -- on her reality show, she makes fat Brits confront how much horrible food they eat, and then berates them into getting healthy. This book shares a title with that show, true, but it's light on the abuse. Instead we get lots of pretty pictures of vegetables and love-based encouragement. McKeith gives the usual advice: eat greens instead of meat, skip processed foods, avoid alcohol and caffeine, et cetera. She's also hostile to bread and fond of show more algae...why does every diet book I read contain a passage condemning diets? It's quite an amusing authorial tic. Anyway, McKeith seems sane, so you could do worse than to read this book. Or you could just remember Michael Pollan's concise advice ("Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much") and watch McKeith on BBC America. She's more fun when she's hectoring. show less

Gillian McKeith (I think she had to drop the doctor bit?) at here most preachy. It's a useful reference book for some ailments, but I don't think it will cure cancer.

I really enjoyed reading the tips (some closely, others skimmed) in this book, though I thought the layout and design were overbearing and distracting at times. A lot of the nutritional tips seem good, though some seem "different" (over-the-top or just different? not sure), so I doubt I'll try them all, but it's good to have some things to work on.