The Beverly Hills Diet

by Judy Mazel

The Beverly Hills Diet

Genres: Nonfiction

246 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judy Mazel was growing up overweight and unhealthy. Her mother took her to many diet doctors but nothing worked. Being smart and entrepreneurial Judy decided to take it in her own hands. She read everything she could find on the subject of healthy eating (and of course this was before the internet), and started experimenting on herself and making notes. Later she created a successful practice and published her 'original' version of the diet. There was a lot of controversy around it, mainly because of 'no protein' during the first 10 days.

There are several aspects of the book that make it valuable:

1. It is based on the original (at that time) idea on proper food combining by one of the founders of the 'Natural Hygiene' movement, Herbert M. Shelton who wrote 'Food Combining Made Easy'. Today there are dozens of books on the subject but Shelton was the pioneer.
2. The second idea is that certain enzymes in uncooked produce (pineapple is an example) prep the way for other foods to be properly digested and assimilated.
3. And the third idea is that raw fruit eaten exclusively and in the right order eliminates the toxins.

An average expected weight loss is around 10 lb in the first 10 days.

Because of the criticism and controversy, she later reworked the diet to a more 'middle of the road' version which in my opinion negated it's usefulness.

[Merry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious to read about a fad diet. This one (if this is actually the one I read) was ridiculous. But it had one good idea, which was that if you are having trouble resisting eating something, remember that the food is not leaving the planet.

[Roxanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a silly diet book hoping to make money on the name of the book. The main theme seems to be put food away.