New Beverly Hills Diet

Background

The original Beverly Hills diet was published in 1981 and is regarded by many as being the first fad diet. After losing 72 pounds on the original Beverly Hills Diet, the author Judy Mazel maintained her weight loss. Mazel died at the age of 63 from complications related to peripheral vascular disease.
The original diet commenced with a 42-day initiation phase, which was based largely on fruit. The New Beverly Hills diet is less extreme and Mazel stated that it now meets the recommended standards for a nutritionally balanced diet.
Dieters are told that they can expect a weight loss of 10-15 pounds in the initial 35 days of the program

The New Beverly Hills Diet Basics

As with the original diet, the New Beverly Hills Diet is based on the concept of ‘conscious food combining’ . Mazel states that it is not what or how much you eat that causes weight gain but rather when and in what combinations the food is eaten. She claims that poor combinations lead to inefficient digestion that triggers weight gain.

The main rules for food combining according to this plan is that proteins can be combined with fats, carbohydrates can be eaten with fats, fruit must be eaten alone and champagne goes with everything.
Breakfast each day consists of fruit, which may be eaten, in unlimited amounts. However, only one fruit is to be eaten at a time. Dieters must wait one hour before switching from one fruit to another and two hours before eating any other types of foods. There are many days in the 35-day initiation plan where fruit is the only food consumed all day.

Once a meal based on carbohydrates, fats or protein is consumed dieters are not permitted to eat fruit for the remainder of the day. If the next meal is based on carbohydrates dieters may continue to eat carbohydrates without restriction until protein is consumed. As soon as any protein is eaten all the remaining meals must consist of at least 80% protein.

Dieters are permitted one free meal per day where they can combine carbs and protein however following this all meals eaten must follow the rule of containing at least 80% protein.

Recommended Foods

Fruits form the basis of this plan. Papaya is said to soften fat in the body, pineapple burns off the fat and watermelon flushes it out of the body.

Sample Diet Plan

Breakfast Dried Apricots

Lunch Sandwich with avocado, tomato, lettuce and sprouts

Dinner Three veggies with rice

Exercise Recommendations

Exercise is not a requirement however Mazel does acknowledge its importance for cardiovascular health and emotional balance.

Pros

• Promotes the intake of fruit and vegetables.
• Good for people who like eating fruit.
• Food preparation is simple.
• Includes a 35-day meal plan with recipes.
• No need for portion control or calorie counting.
• No foods are forbidden.
• Author is very positive and motivational.

Cons

• The plan involves many days where dieters eat fruit only.
• Some of the suggested tropical fruits may be difficult to find in some areas.
• Initiation phase is very low in calories, deficient in many nutrients as well as being extremely deficient in protein, essential fats and minerals.
• Includes many rules, which require dieters to keep track of foods eaten and which may be confusing.
• Based on food combining which has not been proven to affect weight loss.
• Does not teach dieters how to eat balanced meals for long-term weight loss.
• Not based on established scientific principles.
• Does not encourage exercise.

Conclusions

The reason people lose weight on this diet is probably due to restricting calories rather than the fat burning qualities that are attributed to specific fruits or the effects of food combining.
This diet is slightly more balanced than the original Beverly Hills diet as it includes animal protein whereas the original plan was based on fruit only for the first ten days.
However The New Beverly Hills Diet is still is a low calorie diet that is also very low in protein, which will increase the risk of dieters losing muscle mass. The result of this will be a reduced metabolism that will make it highly likely that dieters will regain the weight when they resume normal eating.