OriginsJudy Mazel says that she was always an over-
weight 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 con-
tinued 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 bookThe
Beverley Hills Diet. The original book reportedly sold
more than a million copies, and in 1996 Mazel pub-
lished a revised and updated version of the diet called
The New Beverly Hills Diet.Mazel has also written a
cookbook designed to go with the diet andThe 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.
DescriptionThe 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, andfats. 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 carbohy-
drates cannot be eaten together. Most dairy products
go into the protein group for purposes of categoriza-
tion. 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 withartificial sweet-
eners. 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 carbohy-
drates, 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,KEY TERMS
Dietary supplement—A product, such as a vitamin,
mineral, herb, amino acid, or enzyme, that is
intended to be consumed in addition to an individ-
ual’s diet with the expectation that it will improve
health.
Mineral—An inorganic substance found in the
earth that is necessary in small quantities for the
body to maintain a health. Examples: zinc, copper,
iron.
Type 2 diabetes—sometime called adult-onset dia-
betes, this disease prevents the body from properly
using glucose (sugar), but can often be controlled
with diet and exercise.
Vitamin—A nutrient that the body needs in small
amounts to remain healthy but that the body cannot
manufacture for itself and must acquire through
diet.Beverly Hills diet