DIET PLUMPS YOU UP FOR POTENTIAL `Y2K' FAMINE

DIET PLUMPS YOU UP FOR POTENTIAL `Y2K' FAMINE

NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) -- Are worried the "Y2K" problem will make it impossible to buy food or groceries after January 1, 2000? Well, help -- and health -- is on the way thanks to the "Y2K Diet," which adds five pounds of fat for your body to live off while the experts fix the computers. New York-based nutritionist Joy Bauer says one way to add a few pounds right before the millennium would be to start munching on cheese, nuts and seeds a few weeks before New Year's Day. They're nutritious and calorically dense. Although the extra eating should help you gain enough blubber to live through a five-day famine, Bauer doesn't recommends the Y2K Diet unless you're absolutely convinced the computer bug will hit. If it does, she says you should also drink lots of bottled water and Gatorade to prevent dehydration. Bauer is the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Total Nutrition" (McMillan), which will hit stores in May.

CONTACT: Joy Bauer, ***1/2; Arrange thru Tom Brennan; LA; (310) 207-6615