Gillian McKeith interview: Fighting fit

GILLIAN McKEITH is bopping around the room to the Ting Tings. They're her latest favourite band and we're talking music because the Scots-born holistic nutritionist is about to launch yet another assault on the nation's food abusers – and this time it comes with a dance beat.

Apparently, her 14-year-old daughter Skylar keeps her up to date with the latest sounds, and along with eight-year-old Afton, they like nothing better than to dance about McKeith's London home. "We put on the iPod and dance like crazy, jumping on the units. It's brilliant. I love dancing," says McKeith. "As well as the Ting Tings, I like Katie Melua, Take That, the Jonas Brothers, Girls Aloud and Paolo Nutini. Well, my daughter uploads them, so they're her choices, really."

With best-selling books and TV shows including Channel 4's You Are What You Eat, it's perhaps no surprise that the evangelical McKeith has hit on the medium of music to help spread her healthy-living message. That said, it's not immediately obvious how funky beats will help promote a regime of exercise, fruit, veg and fish, not to mention detoxing and colonic irrigation.

Her 30-minute Walking Workout downloads come in a choice of 1970s disco, 1980s Top 40 and Girl Power hits. All very easy on the ear, but just when you think she might have gone soft, she points out the name of her latest book – The Boot Camp Diet: 14 Days to a New You. And then you hear that familiar voice, breaking into Madonna's 'Give it 2 Me', barking instructions and dispensing nutritional advice and encouragement like a martinet. "My daughter said, "You're not going to talk through the songs, are you?' But I am. I say things like, 'Did you know that keeping moving moves your bowels?' and 'Left, right, one, two, no slacking!'." The songs are peppered with Gillianisms, such as "Get that bahookie moving." The tone is somewhere between encouragement and warning.