The original Beverly Hills Diet was published in 1981. The diet starts with a 42-day initiation phase, which was based mainly on fruit. Judy Mazel stated that this diet meets the recommended standards for a nutritionally balanced diet.
Dieters could expect a weight loss of 10-15 pounds in the initial 35 days of the program.
The New Beverly Hills Diet Basics
The New Beverly Hills Diet is based on the concept of "conscious food combining". Mazel states that it is not what or how much food you eat that causes weight gain, but rather when and in what combinations the food is eaten. The author claims that eating poor combinations of food will result in improper digestion, and that can lead to weight gain.
The main rules for food combination in this plan are:
1. Proteins can be combined with fats
2. Carbohydrates can be eaten with fats
3. Fruit must be eaten alone
4. Champagne goes with everything
Fruits can be eaten during breakfast in unlimited amounts, but only one type of fruit is to be eaten at a time. Dieters are advised to wait 1 hour before switching from 1 fruit to another and 2 hours before eating any other foods. There are many days in the plan where fruit is the only food eaten.
When the meal is based on carbohydrates, or protein and fat is consumed, dieters are not allowed to eat fruit for rest of the day. If the next meal is based on carbohydrates dieters can continue to eat carbohydrates without any problem until protein gets consumed.
Dieters are allowed to eat one free meal per day, where they can combine carbohydrates and protein. Following this, all meals eaten must follow the rule of having at least 80% protein.
Recommended Foods
Fruits form the basis of this plan. Papaya softens fat in the body, pineapple helps to burn the fat and watermelon helps in flushing 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 required, but the author states its importance for cardiovascular health and emotional balance.
Pros
- Promotes eating fruits and vegetables
- ood for fruit lovers
- Food preparation is easy and simple
- Contains a 35-day meal plan with recipes
- No need for calorie counting
Cons
- There are many days where dieters have to eat only fruit for the whole day
- Some of the recommended fruits may be difficult to find in some areas
- Initiation phase is very low in calories, and also very deficient in protein, essential fats and minerals
- Contains many rules in which dieters have to keep track of foods eaten
- Based on a food-combining rule, which has not been proven for affective weight loss
- Not based on scientific principles
- Does not recommend exercise
Conclusions
Restriction of calories is the main reason people lose weight on this diet, rather than the fat burning qualities of specific fruits, or the effects of food combination.
The diet is still low in calories and protein, which will increase the risk of dieters losing muscle mass, and it will reduce metabolism. It increases the chance of dieters regaining weight when they resume normal eating. |
