The New Beverly Hills Diet, by Judy Mazel and Michael Wyatt
Ms. Mazel has no health or nutrition credentials. Her "New Beverly Hills Diet" is fundamentally flawed, which curtails any potential long-term effectiveness and even gives rise to certain risks. Specifically, two of Ms. Mazel's theories about digestion are wrong. The premise of her diet is that enzymes found in food "activate" the human body. Each of the three food groups proteins, carbohydrates and fats contain their own set of enzymes to break down food so that the body can properly digest it. Mazel advocates a practice she terms "Cautious Combining." "It is when you eat and what foods you eat together that matters," she claims. Fruits, for example, contain all of the enzymes necessary to break themselves down into nutrients, and move quickly through the system. Proteins and carbohydrates, however, require special enzymes that slow down the process. Furthermore, enzymes from one food can't "cross over" to work on other food groups. These suppositions are incorrect. The enzymes necessary for digestion are found within the body, not in the foods we eat. Mazel also states that fat is just another symptom of indigestion, that when food is not properly digested, it "causes fatness." In fact, quite the opposite is true if foods are not properly digested they cannot be absorbed. If they are not absorbed, they cannot be metabolized into fat or anything else. On a more practical level, Mazel encourages consuming a single food grapes for example for an entire day. This is not only nutritionally inadequate, it is also boring. Thus, it is not a strategy likely to be sustained. Mazel's plan ends up promoting a wide range of fundamentally unhealthy habits. Of equal concern, however, are the healthy habits it doesn't mention. Mazel, like Atkins, neglects to address portion control and serving sizes, concepts central to any serious program of long-term weight management. Perhaps most puzzling, however, is Mazel's silence on the subject of exercise. Regular physical activity it crucial for losing and maintaining weight, but the closest Mazel gets to this topic is her admonition to chew food thoroughly.
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