The Beverly Hills Diet is the extreme diet that swept California - and is reportedly loved by celebrities such as Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, who are said to have lost weight following the plan.
This food combining, fruit-heavy diet means you don't mix food groups. It's very low-calorie too, just 800 to 1,000 calories a day,
Food doesn't cause weight gain, according to Judy Mazel, creator of The Beverly Hills Diet, it's eating food in the wrong combinations that does it. She argues it's a diet that works fast, as it encourages you to eat foods in specific combinations or orders.
She outlines the plan in The New Beverly Hills Diet book (Amazon | £1.22).
What is The Beverly Hills Diet?
Unlike most diets, The Beverly Hills Diet doesn't involve counting calories or fat grams but if you follow the plan exactly, you'll only be consuming about 800 to 1,000 calories a day. That explains why you're supposed to lose about 15 pounds in 35 days.
According to the Beverly Hills Diet, digestive problems come about when you trap foods that break down quickly behind foods that break down slowly. So you should always eat fruit, which your body digests easily, on its own. In general, proteins should be eaten with protein and carbohydrates with carbohydrates.
If you follow these rules, your body won't struggle to digest your food leading to weight loss.
Who is it good for?
People who hate counting calories and are sick of low-fat food. People who like fruit.
What are the drawbacks?
Some experts are very sceptical about whether food combining actually works. Judy Mazel, the diet's creator, has no training in nutrition and according to some doctors, her ideas about digestion and food combining have no basis in medical facts. All that fruit can cause diarrhoea. You're also likely to put weight back on again when you go back to eating normally.
The original Beverly Hills Diet told you to eat just fruit for 10 whole days but an updated version, the New Beverly Hills Diet, allows you to eat more different kinds of food.
You start the day off with fruit, as much as you like but only one type, just strawberries for example. Certain fruits are supposed to do different things to help you lose weight although this has never been proven. For example, the Beverly Hills Diet claims papaya softens fat, pineapple burns it off and watermelon washes it out of your body. After having fruit, you should wait two hours before eating food from another group. Once you've eaten something other than fruit, you don't eat fruit - even low calorie fruit - again for the rest of the day.
If the next thing you eat is a carbohydrate, you can eat unlimited carbs until you eat some protein. Then once you've had some protein (even if it's just milk in your tea), 80 percent of your food intake for the rest of the day should be protein.
Caffeine is banned and although you don't have to give up alcohol, what you can drink depends on what 'stage' of the day you're at. For example, even low-calorie beer is considered a carbohydrate while wine is considered to be suitable only during your fruit stage.
Most foods as long as they're in the right order and combination.
Typical day's diet
Breakfast: As much pineapple as you want Lunch: Baked potato Dinner: Steak
