The New Beverly Hills Diet is so-called because it was introduced by Judy Mazel, who ran her own weight loss clinic in Beverly Hills.
However, Judy Hazel wasn’t a nutritionist or food expert, she made the diet out of her own experience of losing 72 pounds!
How It Works
The Beverly Hills Diet has an initial 35-day induction phase. During the induction phase, you have to focus on food combinations and make sure you’re not breaking any of the “food rules” of the diet. Here are some food rules of the diet to begin with:
- You need to start each day with a fruit. You can have as much as the fruit you want. However, make sure you stick to one fruit. If you want to switch over to another fruit, you’ll have to wait for an hour after you’re done eating the first fruit!
- If you don’t want to eat the fruits anymore, you can eat something else (carbohydrates or proteins) but you need to have a minimum gap of 2 hours between your last bite of fruit and first bite of the other food group. You cannot eat a fruit again until the next day after you’ve switched over to another food group.
- You can combine proteins with proteins but you cannot combine proteins with carbohydrates. You have to eat them separately. If you’re eating carbohydrates, you can eat carbohydrates and fats but you can’t add protein to it. This means no more spaghetti with meatballs!
- If you’re eating protein, you need to spend the rest of the day on a diet that contains 80% protein. You cannot eat protein with carbohydrates, but you can add fat to protein.
- You’re not allowed any sort of artificial sweeteners, diet sodas, artificial flavors and additives.
- When it comes to alcohol, most of it is considered as carbohydrates. However, wine is considered as a “fruit” and champagne can be combined with anything!
These are the main rules of the 35-day initiation phase in the Beverly Hills diet!
After the 35 days are over, you can replace the fruits with other food groups but the combination rules stay the same! If you want to eat a fruit after the 35 days, you need to follow the fruit rules too! You can’t switch from one fruit to other without leaving a gap of an hour between them.
Pros of the Beverly Hills Diet
The pros of the Beverly Hills Diet are listed below:
- It encourages eating fruits during the 35-day induction phase! This will eliminate toxins in your body and keep it healthy.
- It’s a good diet for people belonging to agricultural countries where fresh fruits and vegetables are readily available.
- It promotes healthy eating habits by encouraging you to eat fruits. After all, how many of us think of eating fruits in our regular diet? Only a very small percentage of people do that!
- It doesn’t involve calorie tracking. Thus, you don’t need to spend hours at the aisles of grocery stores checking the calorie count for each raw material you get!
- You can eat as many fruits as you like when you’re hungry – it doesn’t involve controlling your portions! This eliminates hunger and makes sure you’re full all the time.
These are the main pros of the Beverly Hills Diet. However, like any other diet, the Beverly Hills diet also has a few cons. Let’s talk about them!
Cons of the Beverly Hills Diet
The Beverly Hills diet was not created by a nutritionist or an expert in the field, but by the personal experience of Judy Mazel, who lost 72 pounds using this diet. Thus, the diet does pose a few problems, which are listed below:
- Since you’re mostly eating fruits during the 35-day induction period, you’ll be prone to nutritional deficiencies. Your body won’t get all the protein it needs. Moreover, you’ll be deficient in the minerals not provided by your fruits.
- Not all fruits are freshly available in countries all around the world. If you live in an area where you don’t get fresh fruits and vegetables, this diet might be hard for you and may also cost a lot. Moreover, it’s best to avoid canned fruits and vegetables because they’re processed and have preservatives and other chemicals.
- This diet isn’t suitable for diabetics because you have to consume a lot of fruits in this diet, which are high in fructose and other sugars.
- The diet has strict food combination rules which can be hard to follow and difficult to keep track of. You’ll need to plan your meals way ahead, which will take a lot of time as well. This makes it a very unsuitable diet in the long run!
- There has been no scientific proof that eating food from different food groups in different combinations helps you loose weight. Therefore, the assumption is that you lose weight on this diet because it essentially causes you to consume fewer calories.
These are some of the cons of the Beverly Hills Diet!
Frequently Asked Questions
I am allergic to gluten. Can I still follow the Beverly Hills Diet?
Yes, you can still follow the Beverly Hills Diet even if you’re gluten intolerant. Make sure you use gluten-free products!
I am a vegan. Can I still follow the Beverly Hills Diet?
Yes, you can still follow the Beverly Hills Diet. Just make sure to incorporate plant-based protein sources!
What if my nutritional needs aren’t fulfilled by the diet?
You should take multivitamins along with the diet if you feel your nutritional needs aren’t being met. You should also try to incorporate more protein into your diet.
Precautions/Warning
Don’t start this diet if you’re pregnant or diabetic. If you have any metabolic disorder, make sure you consult your doctor first before going on this diet!
The Final Say
Even though the Beverly Hills Diet does not have scientific evidence to back up its claim that eating different food groups separately can help you lose weight, the diet makes sure you’re consuming fewer calories than you need, which eventually leads to weight loss.
Thus, this diet is good for short-term weight loss but it’s better to stick to other options for long-term maintenance!