Beverly Hills Diet Review

BACKGROUND

The desire for weight loss and miracle diet regimens has been of abiding interest to people across cultures and continents, affecting their lives dramatically. Looking good and feeling slender has been an integral part of people’s psyche resulting in diets and fitness programs of various descriptions. One such fitness program is the Beverly Hills diet.

The Beverly Hills diet was a regimen designed by Judy Manzel in her book ‘The Beverly Hills Diet’ published in 1981. In this book Judy, raised in a conservative home in Chicago, described a diet plan which she devised after a difficult struggle with weight loss. The book and the diet became international bestsellers and led to many adaptations and diet programs.

The Beverly Hills Diet is based on the belief that fruits, carbohydrates and proteins should not be eaten in a single meal. It is based on the theory that chemical reactions within the body are governed by the food we eat and that the body needs specific enzymes found in certain foods in order to digest that item of food properly; when digestion is disrupted the food turns to fat.

The diet is designed for a period of 6 weeks and during the programme only fruit is eaten for the first 10 days after which carbohydrates are allowed till day 19, and then proteins are included. Fruits, said to create specific reactions in the body, are not allowed beyond day 10.

PROS

1. Initial weight loss is rapid

2. There is no calorie count

3. It follows a structured menu

4. Exercise is not required bit it acknowledges that exercise stimulates the circulatory system

CONS

1. The menu is highly restrictive

2. The program is not based on any scientific evidence

3. It is tough to remember what foods should be eaten in combination and what should be left out.

4. Judy Manzel did not have any formal education in health studies

CONCLUSION

Advocates of this diet, including many celebrities, claimed that it led to significant weight loss and Judy Mazel herself lost considerable weight on this regimen.

Judy collaborated with a trained nutritionist to design the diet and to write the book. While Judy’s work therefore cannot be passed off merely as a personal response to a weight problem, it is nevertheless open to criticism as it did not involve in-depth research or academic training. Judy produced this diet at the end of a six month personal trial and it exemplified a method that was new and innovative.

Critics claimed that this was a ‘fad’ diet with no basis for standard measurement and that weight loss occurred because of a low calorific count rather than the theory about conscious selection of food. The latter in fact actually described meals of just one food class consumed at regularly spaced intervals during the day.

Medical professionals have been skeptical and apprehensive, stating that the diet goes against the general notion of nutrition. They are critical about the idea of undigested food being stored in the body and also feel that the amount of calories consumed per day is too little and could led to weakness and fatigue.

Traditional eating patterns in most countries includes a balanced meal of carbohydrates, proteins and fruit in moderate portions but this diet plan disallows such a mix, alternately creating doubt and interest! Nevertheless, The Beverly Hills Diet has remained popular, for almost 25 years now more specially with celebrities and has given rise to the equally popular, The New Beverly Hills Diet. This new diet involves ‘conscious combining’ and eating the right foods in the right mix.

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