Have to wonder when it stopped working for her, though. The review by Publisher's Weekly says she had maintained her rice diet weight loss for six years at the time of her writing that second book. Some nutritional deficiencies can take quite a while to develop. Or her nutritional needs might have changed with age. The People magazine article is from 1986.

http://www.people.com/people/archiv...0093829,00.html

a lot of water under the bridge since then. She was 44 then, now she's 73. Ability to absorb some nutrients gets worse as we age, that could make nutrients that were borderline to begin with downright deficient.