Judy Mazel says that she was always an overweight child, and beginning when she was nine years old, she went to see doctor after doctor trying to find out why she could not be thin. For 20 years she continued to struggle with her weight and was finally told by a doctor that she was destined to always be fat. Six months after this pronouncement, she went skiing and broke her leg. While she was recuperating, she read a book on nutrition that a friend had given her. From this she developed her ideas about how the body works and what is needed to lose weight and stay thin.
Mazel reports that she used her new theories to lose 72 lb (29 kg), and has kept off the weight ever since. In 1981, she published her diet in a book The Beverley Hills Diet. The original book reportedly sold more than a million copies, and in 1996 Mazel published a revised and updated version of the diet calledThe New Beverly Hills Diet. Mazel has also written a cookbook designed to go with the diet and The New Beverly Hills Diet Skinny Little Companion, a slim volume designed to provide inspiration and tips to help dieters through their first 35 days on the diet.
The Beverly Hills diet is a food combination diet. It is based on the idea that it is not what a person eats, or even how much food is eaten that causes a person to gain weight. Mazel believes the combinations in which foods are eaten and the order in which they are eaten causes weight gain. She says that eating foods in the wrong order can stop some foods from being digested, and it is the undigested foods that cause fat build-up.
The groups into which Mazel divides foods are carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, and fats. She believes that fruit must be eaten alone and must be eaten before anything else is consumed during the day. She also says that for correct digestion, each type of fruit must be eaten alone. This means that if a dieter eats an orange, the dieter must wait at least one full hour before eating another type of fruit, such as a pear. If the dieter eats a different type of food, such as a protein, the dieter must wait until the next day to eat fruit again.
On the Beverly Hills diet, protein and carbohydrates cannot be eaten together. Most dairy products go into the protein group for purposes of categorization. This means that dieters can drink milk with protein meals, but not with carbohydrate meals. Fat is allowed to be eaten with either group, but may not be eaten with fruit The order throughout the day in which food is eaten is very important on the Beverly Hills diet. Mazel says that each day fruit should be eaten first. After fruit, the carbohydrate group can be eaten. After carbohydrates comes food from the protein group. Once a dieter has changed food groups, he or she cannot eat from the previous groups again until the next day. Dieters must wait two hours between eating foods from different food groups.
During the diet, Mazel says that dieters must not consume diet sodas or anything with artificial sweeteners. Because milk is considered a protein, the dieter is very limited in when it can be consumed. Unlike many other diets, alcohol is not as restricted on the Beverly Hills diet. Mazel categorizes most alcoholic drinks, such as beer, vodka, and rum, as carbohydrates, and says they must only be consumed with carbohydrates. Wine is categorized as a fruit, and unlike the rules for eating other fruits, wine does not have to be consumed alone but can be drunk with another fruit. Mazel says that champagne is a neutral food and can be drunk with anything.
Mazel provides dieters with a 35-day plan for losing weight. Every day dieters are told what foods are allowed, and in what order they must be eaten. Most foods do not have a quantity limit. Instead, dieters may consume as much of a given food as desired until they move on to the next food. Dieters must eat the foods in the order listed and cannot go back or make substitutions. The diet is very restrictive, with most days allowing no more than two or three types of foods.
For example, on the first day of the diet, dieters are instructed to eat pineapple, corn on the cob, and a salad made of lettuce, tomatoes, and onions with Mazel dressing. (Mazel dressing is a recipe included in the book, and shows up frequently throughout the 35-day diet.) This means that dieters may eat as much pineapple as desired in the morning, but once they beginning eating corn on the cob they cannot go back and eat more pineapple. Once the salad is eaten, both corn on the cob and pineapple are no longer allowed. Dieters are instructed to wait between changing foods to ensure proper digestion.
Some days on the diet only one type of food is permitted during the entire day. Day three of the diet allows the dieter only to consume grapes. On other days the dieter is only allowed to eat watermelon. Although these rules are extremely restrictive, they are not as restrictive as the rules set out in the original Beverly Hills diet. On that diet, dieters were only allowed to eat fruit for the first 10 days of the diet. No animal protein was allowed at all until the 19th day. The New Beverly Hills diet includes vegetables and carbohydrates occasionally during the first week, and includes lamb chops and shrimp on the sixth day.
