The Beverly Hills DIEt:
Dead on Arrival

What is The Beverly Hills Diet?

A very low calorie, nutritionally unbalanced, fad diet based on lousy science.

In other words, proof that freedom of speech isn't always a good thing!

This outlandish diet is evidence that anybody can write anything and get people to believe it and buy it.

The Beverly Hills Diet was a diet book originally published in 1981 by Judy Mazel, an actress who had no credentials except struggling with her weight for much of her life. The book was "revised" and re-released in 1996 as "The New Beverly Hills Diet."

Judy Mazel died in 2007 from complications from a stroke (according to an account from her sister). Does it make you stop and think when a supposed diet "guru" dies of an ailment caused by atherosclerosis...

In case you think I'm making this stuff up...

I just visited the website of The New Beverly Hills Diet. Here's an actual quote:

"The New Beverly Hills Diet is not a diet. It's a lifestyle eating plan...On the original diet, the dieter had 10 days of nothing but fruit to start-off the program. Not so on The New Beverly Hills Diet! Here are just some of the foods you will eat on the first 35 days of the diet..."

Did you follow that? First they tell you it's called a diet, but it's not a diet. Then they go on to call it a diet 4 more times.

I think they're just making this stuff up as they go along!

What are The Beverly Hills Diet "Rules?"

The diet focuses on a food-combining philosophy the author calls "conscious combining." She maintains that you must eat foods in a particular combination and at specific times in order to lose weight.

LOL...sorry, I couldn't help myself. It's just not true!

The diet recommends eating fruit by itself and never eating protein with carbohydrates because the body supposedly can't digest the two together. (Wow, I must have a lot of undigested food in my system and should weigh 500 pounds.)

You see, the author believes that when food isn't digested, it turns to body fat.

LOL...sorry, couldn't help myself again. That's an outlandish statement unsupported by science. Actually, not just unsupported, but made up! Remember, this is diet "science" from an actress.

(I guess that's why she called it the Beverly Hills Diet.)

The diet's exact regimen calls for eating only particular fruits for 10 days. On day 11 you can finally eat bread, 2 tbsp. butter and 3 cobs of corn. Then, finally, a week later you're allowed to eat some protein.

The Beverly Hills Diet PROS

I'm stumped. Can't think of any unless you're someone benefitting from the book sales. And please notice that I'm not putting an Amazon link to the book on this page.

The Beverly Hills Diet CONS

• Full of medical inaccuracies
• Dangerously low in calories
• Too low in protein
• Nutritionally unbalanced
• Difficult to follow
• Impossible to mainatin

The Beverly Hills Diet: My Professional Opinion

It just makes my blood boil to see nonsense like this in print and selling like hotcakes!

Rather than providing the recipe for weight loss success, I believe the author provided the recipe for diet book sales success. The recipe looks like this:

Take some scientific sounding theories, add in a few celebrity testimonials, and slap on a title named after a sexy city (Beverly Hills, South Beach, Sonoma...).

The Beverly Hills Diet made the New York Times best-seller list on May 24, 1981, and remained on the list for 30 weeks. It sold nearly one million copies, topping even Richard Simmons’ Never-Say-Diet Book on a list heavy with nutrition and self-help books.

People...that is scary!

I've always heard that if you want to leave a piece of yourself behind after you die, you need to have a child, plant a tree, or write a book.

Maybe that's what Mazel was thinking. I'm befuddled that there is still interest in The Bevely Hills Plan to this day.

Need help determining the best diet for you? Let me help you! Contact me for professional help.

More diet reviews.

Back to Personal Nutrition Guide Home.