Judy Mazel

Who was Judy Mazel?

Judy Mazel was the American weight loss advocate and author of the "The Beverly Hills Diet", which became a 1981 best seller and a nationwide diet craze. Judy Mazel was a devout practicing Jew and was raised in a conservative Ashkenazi Jewish home.

Mazel was born in Chicago on December 20, 1943 as the youngest of three sisters. She moved to California but failed to become a professional actor. She began to struggle with her weight and began writing several diet books.

Mazel had no formal training in either medicine or nutrition when she invented The Beverly Hills Diet. Her weight loss diet advocated that dieters eat only one type of food at a time. The Beverly Hills Diet advised that dieters never eat carbohydrates and proteins in the same meal. The first 10 days of the diet consisted only of fruit. On Day 11, bagels and corn on the cob were added to the fruit. No complete protein was added until Day 19 when you could either have steak or lobster. .

Mazel opened a clinic in Beverly Hills, following the success of her book. She worked with as many as 250 dieters a week. Mazel, herself, claimed to have lost 72 pounds by following her own advice.