Eat Right For Your Blood Type? Seriously? Both Logic And Science Call This Nutritional Quackery

August 24th, 2011 by

Not everyone knows that the fitness industry is ripe for marketing, hucksters, scams and fad, after fad, after fad, which is exactly why it’s so ripe for the sale of hope. And unfortunately, the blame for becoming consumers of these ‘products’ really can’t be placed (too much anyway, since some things should just scream BS) on the consumer themselves. How are they to know any differently? How are they to be able to ‘read critically’ and assess whether a claim, product, book, service, etc., is worth their hard-earned money? It’s like me going to see a mechanic; they could probably sell me an entire engine rebuild, simply because I just do not have the requisite knowledge to critically assess what they’re ‘selling’ me.

Ever go into a bookstore, wander on over to the ‘diet book” section and notice just how many diet books claiming the latest and greatest, there are? Nearly countless now, and all marketing their program as the best way; often with a bunch of whacky pseudo-science (to sound really scientific and smart … so it just has to be right), if any ‘science’ at all. One good example of this is the Eat Right For Your Blood Type diet. Classic BS at its finest. Or as I like to always say, voodoo nonsense and/or nutritional quackery.

This strategy, choosing foods based on blood type has idiocy written all over it. There is absolutely no scientific support for any of the notions proposed in this book. The author asserts that certain foods are good for your blood type, and that others are bad. If you eat foods from the ‘bad’ category, you’ll set yourself up to experience various health problems, ranging from cancer, metabolic problems, inflammation issues, etc.

Here is a summary of the Blood Type Diet recommendations:

O = “old” or ancient times.

  • Is intolerant to dietary and environmental adaptations
  • Lean meats, poultry, fish
  • Restrict grains, legumes
  • Responds best to stress with vigorous exercise
  • Requires an efficient metabolism to stay lean and energetic

A = “agrarian”

  • Has a sensitive digestive tract
  • Vegetarian diet
  • Tolerant immune system
  • Adapts well to settled dietary and environmental conditions
  • Responds best to stress with calming actions and gentle exercise
  • Requires agrarian (based on agriculture) diet to stay lean and productive

B = “nomadic”

  • Has a tolerant digestive system
  • Can tolerate the most flexible dietary choices
  • Low-fat dairy, meat, produce
  • Avoid wheat, corn, lentils
  • Responds best to stress with creativity
  • Moderate exercise
  • Requires a balance between physical and mental activity to stay lean and sharp

AB = “modern”

  • Has a sensitive digestive tract
  • Avoid chicken, beef, pork >
  • Should eat seafood, tofu, dairy, most produce
  • Responds best to stress spiritually, with physical verve and creative energy
  • AB is an evolutionary mystery

As a quote, since the idea is based so much around the issue of lectins:

“Lectins are mostly destroyed by cooking and stomach acids. Harvey Klein, MD, chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the National Institute of Health, says, “We know of no food that attacks and agglutinates blood cells after you ingest it”. So there isn’t any need to worry about your blood type when choosing a diet.”

Or how about this? Foods are portioned out differently based on your ethnicity. Ethnicity? What?

Oh but then you hear someone say, I’m type O and I DO in fact feel better on a lower carb diet. Yes and? That has nothing to do with your blood type; that has to do with glucose tolerance and issues with insulin sensitivity/resistance, which have become increasingly bigger issues in people for various reasons.

The craziest part of these dietary suggestions aren’t so much the food type/blood type link, which has no physiological basis anyway, and I guess is still therefore crazy, but that certain blood types should EXERCISE A CERTAIN WAY. What? Seriously? Type O for example is supposed to eat meat, avoid grains, etc., and do vigorous aerobic activity. Really? All Type As should be vegetarians and be sure to avoid vigorous exercise? Stick to gentle exercise? Yoga? Oh and Type As should also spend time in meditation. Might as well give up on physique goals if you’re a Type A. You don’t want to get cancer or heart disease because you worked out too hard and had a chicken breast.

As Jamie Hale says, “Primary Scientific Research or common sense does not support the ideas promoted by this diet. If what D’ Adamo says is correct I would suspect there would be many more dead and sick people in the world.”

Here’s another quote from Michael Klaper, M.D.,

“Since most people are unaware of their blood types, let alone what foods are “evolutionarily inappropriate” for them to eat, it is reasonable to assume that on most days most people eat the “wrong foods” for their blood type (e.g., Type O eating wheat, Type A eating meat, etc.). Thus, according to D’Adamo’s theory, most everyone experiences repeated showers of agglutinated red cells throughout their bloodstream after most every meal – day after day, month after month, year after year. If the capillary beds in your heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, eyes, and other essential organs are subjected to barrage after barrage of agglutinated red cells, they will eventually begin to clog up. These micro-areas of diminished blood flow would at first cause scattered, then more concentrated areas of tissue damage – with eventually many micro-infarctions scattered throughout these vital structures. The brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and adrenals would soon be irreparably damaged by these processes, resulting in potentially fatal outcomes in millions of people.”

Hmmm … where is this epidemic?

Rather than go on, take a few minutes to read this total annihilation, a scientific annihilation, (ok let’s just call it a serious ass kicking) of this nonsensical diet.

//www.skepdic.com/bloodtypediet.html

Check mate!