Eating For Your Blood Type

Naturopath and author Peter J. D’Adamo, first published his book Eat Right 4 Your Type, in 2001 and made quite a splash with the assertion that finding out your blood type is key to creating a diet that is right specifically for you. 

After fifteen years of research, D’Adamo conluded that, there were some major connections between blood type, food and disease.  Since then, the eating for your blood type mantra has become fairly well known, although for most people a host of questions remain.

Eating for you blood type diet claims that your blood type is the single most important factor in determnining your health.  Citing biochemists and glycobioogists, D’Adamo claims that it is the body’s blood type that helps it decipher self from other.  Letchins found in found react with different types of ABO blood types differently and as such can create antigents which can be harmful.  Different foods thus work well with different types of blood from A, AB, B, and O types.

Blood group O for instance, is labeled the hunter, and is thought to be the earliest in the evolution of human blood types.  As such, the O blooded human should be eating a higher protein diet including a good deal of meat.  Alternatively, A blood types is a somewhat more recent evolutionary phenomenon and such indivudals, the cultivators, should therefore be eating a more vegetarian style diet, with the ommision of red meat.

Group B, according to the author, is the nomad type and is assocaited with a more flexible system.  These people are therefore capable of thirving on a diet rich in dairy products.  This type is associated with the evolutionary age of approximately 10,000 years ago.
Finally, Group A/B is considered by D’Adamo to be the enigma.  D’Adamo considers this type to be the most recent evolutionarily speaking.  As such, the dietearty needs of this type varry between groups A and B.  So dairy products and vegetarian options are most suited to this type.

Although having received a great deal of success, many nutrionists and other research scientists have been skeptical of the movement’s claims. Some critics claim that D’Adamo’s work is not supported by scientific evidence.  Primarily, criticism stems from the lack of clinical trials to prove the author’s claims.  To date, there has been no published material on the benefits of eating for your blood type.

Nevertheless, self-reported cases posted on the author’s website report that over six thousand respondents have found some solutions to their health problems by following the recommendations outlined in this diet.  Most of the improvement has been that associated with weight loss.  Self-reported cases however, are not the same as clinical trials, and doubts continue to reign within the scientific community.

Despite continued criticism, many adherents swear by the diet’s success.  Yet, until futher evidence comes to light, the jury remains undecided.