Blood Type Diets: A Controversial Dieting Phenomena

If you’re looking to a diet for weight-loss solutions you may have recently stumbled across the ‘Eat Right for Your Type’ diet, otherwise known as the ‘Blood-type’ diet which encourages people to eat certain foods and avoid others based on their A, B, AB, or O blood type. Scottsdale, AZ based celebrity trainer Lucas James shed some light on the ‘Blood-type’ diet plan.

The ‘blood-type’ diet was created by naturopathic doctor Peter J. D’Adamo the author of Eat Right for Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight.  D’Adamo proposed the diet under the notion that an individual’s blood type affects digestive function, where some foods are good for people of one blood type, and bad for others.

D’Adamo’s diet is based on the idea that lectins, or sugar binding proteins, react differently each different human blood-type.  Lectins in general have a role in the biological recognition of cells. For example, some viruses use lectin proteins to attach themselves to host cells during infection.  Dr. D’Adamo believes if you eat foods containing lectins incompatible with your blood type, you may experience inflammation, bloating, a slower metabolism, even diseases such as cancer.  However, such health claims have yet to be substantiated by the scientific and medical communities. The established biochemical research available, has yet to have found any difference in how the lectins react with a given human ABO blood type.  On the contrary, research shows that blood-type specific lectins are not found in foods (aside from two rare cases but occur more frequently in non-food plants or animals.

In term of nutrition, the ‘blood-type’ diet may suit enthusiastic dieters who don’t want to be involved in tracking calories or fat, but may restrict others looking for variety in their diets. This challenge can be made greater if there are more than one person in the same household with different blood types trying to follow the diet.  While aside from the science, there is nothing inherently wrong with the dietary recommendations for the diet, it can be difficult to maintain due to the strict guidelines.

For those interested, Dr. D’Adamo’s recommendations for each blood type are as follows:

Type O-People with type O blood fare best on intense physical exercise and animal proteins and less well on dairy products and grains, says Dr. D’Adamo. The leading reason for weight gain among Type O’s is the gluten found in wheat products and, to a lesser extent, lentils, corn, kidney beans, and cabbage, Dr. D’Adamo explains. Ideal exercises for Type O’s include aerobics, martial arts, contact sports, and running.

Type A-Those with blood type A, however, are more naturally suited to a vegetarian diet and foods that are fresh, pure, and organic. As Type A’s are predisposed to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, “I can’t emphasize how critical this dietary adjustment can be to the sensitive immune system of Type A,” says Dr. D’Adamo. Type A’s prefer calming, centering exercise, such as yoga and tai chi.

Type B-Type B’s have a strong immune system and a tolerant digestive system and tend to resist many of the severe chronic degenerative illnesses, or at least survive them better than the other blood types. Type B’s do best with moderate physical exercise requiring mental balance, such as hiking, cycling, tennis, and swimming.

Type AB-Blood type AB, the most recent, in terms of evolution, of the four groups and an amalgam of types A and B, is the most biologically complex. For this group, a combination of the exercises for types A and B works best, says Dr. D’Adamo.

All dietary recommendations and related views of the blood-type diet have been adapted directly from Dr. D’Adamo’s website: http://www.dadamo.com/program.htm