Gillian McKeith's diet

"People make fun of the amount I eat!"

So what does the Gillian McKeith diet involve exactly? Once a die-hard macrobiotic à la Madonna and Gwyneth, Gillian admits she’s no longer strict about following the grain-based diet: “I used to be strictly macrobiotic. I’ve probably been everything at different times, but I don’t really like to label myself. If I go to Iceland and I can’t find a single vegetable and so I eat a piece of fish it knocks out that label, doesn’t it? If you saw what I eat every day you’d probably say I eat vegan. But I create recipes for all kinds of things – if I make a fish dish I always taste it to see if it’s up to snuff!”

While mung beans may not be everyone's cup of tea, one advantage of Gillian’s diet is that, despite what you might think, it's doesn't involve starvation: quite the opposite. She eats six meals a day to keep her blood sugar and energy levels up, loves to cook and is never without her ready-prepared food trolley on set. "If you’re living a kind of vegan lifestyle you will eat a lot more food. If you’re eating chicken or fish you don’t need to eat so much to feel full." 

All seems pretty logical. And what do her meals consist of?  

“I eat breakfast like a queen: I always have a big smoothie with my own herbal energy powder. I have a snack mid-morning which could be anything from mashed avocado with raw shelled hemp seeds and maybe some vegetable crudités, veggie juice or  soup. For lunch, yesterday I had an aduki bean bake, raw salad and cheese-free pesto basil sauce. Then I had chickpeas and beetroot (afternoon snack) and at night time I made marinated tofu with vegetables and this amazing aduki bean and corn salsa salad. Tonight I’m going to have avocado sushi. I do eat a lot of food – people make fun of the amount I eat!”


An average day's food intake for Gillian:
Breakfast:
Smoothie with herbal energy powder

Morning snack:
Mashed avocado with raw shelled hemp seeds

Lunch:
Aduki bean bake, raw salad and cheese-free pesto basil sauce

Afternoon snack:
Chickpeas and beetroot

Dinner:
Marinated tofu, vegetables, aduki bean and corn salsa salad