The Beverly Hills Medical Diet

The Beverly Hills Diet is a weight loss regimen developed by author Judy Mazel (1943-2007) in her 1981 bestseller, The Beverly Hills Diet. The six-week long program, which begins with 10 days of eating fruit exclusively, has been the target of criticism from the medical community. Mazel had tried and failed to lose weight with existing programs, and developed the diet plan after spending six months working together with a nutritionist in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Under her program, she was able to trim down from a weight of 180 pounds (82 kg) to 108 pounds (49 kg), having struggled with her weight since childhood. After completing development of the program and returning to Los Angeles, she opened a weight-loss clinic whose clients included a number of celebrities.[1] The Beverly Hills Diet is predicated on the enzymatic actions of foods in the digestive process, and controlled weight by controlling when foods were eaten and in what combinations. The plan begins with the consumption of a series of specified fruits in a designated order for the initial ten days of the program. On Days 11 to 18, the dieter can add bread, two tablespoons of butter and three cobs of corn. Sources of complete protein, such as steak or lobster, cannot be consumed until Day 19 of the plan.[1] The book, published by Macmillan Publishing spent 30 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and sold more than one million copies. The book featured endorsements from Linda Gray, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sally Kellerman and Mary Ann Mobley.[1]