Sunday, June 17, 2012

Eat Right 4 Your Type - Is it Hype?

Can it be possible that your blood type can determine which foods will aid in weight loss and which foods will actually cause you to gain weight? That is the claim in the book "Eat Right 4 Your Type", by Dr. Peter j. D'Adamo. The book was written in 1996 and I just recently happened across it when I was asked to do a report on the diet for a nutrition class. I had never heard of this diet or even this concept. I am not in any way trying to sell you on this book or diet, just let you know my experiences with the diet. Some of the information really is very interesting and certainly worth looking into. The idea is that depending on your blood type certain foods can actually be harmful to your system causing all sorts of problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, etc., while other foods can be very beneficial to your health and promote weight loss and reverse the signs or beginnings of some of the above mentioned health issues. I happen to have type A+ blood. I was shocked to learn that many of the foods I love and enjoy on a daily basis were actually on the foods to avoid list. I was also informed that I should be a Vegetarian, can you believe it? I am only listing a few of the recommendations. You will have to buy the book if you feel you want to follow this diet. I just found it interesting to see some of the food listed. Here is the run down of how blood type A's should eat.:   Type A's:
    • We are "Cultivators", the first vegetarians
    • We will be naturally thinner and will lose weight rapidly in the beginning on this type of diet if we eliminate meat products.
    • We should NOT do strenuous, high intensity exercise, but rather will benefit from Tai Chi & Yoga (seriously? I have been killing myself with my workouts and love it, lol)
Food that will encourage weight gain:
  • Meat (they say it will be stored as fat, yikes)
  • Dairy foods - no milk, cheese, etc.
  • Kidney & Lima Beans (we can have all other beans, oh my, I always eat kidney beans, oh well!)
  • Wheat (we can have wheat, just not too much, but this is one thing I don't eat much of anymore so I am okay with this, lol.
Foods that will encourage weight loss (sounds good to me!):
  • Soy Foods (another shocker, I have been told to avoid these foods like the plague, but maybe I will give this a shot and it will help with my awful hot flashes)
  • Vegetables, (hmmm, no mystery here, anyone who eats their veggies (and not much else is bound to lose weight, right?)
  • Vegetable Oils (like olive oil, so this is good, but NO coconut oil? Say it isn't so, I love the stuff, sigh!)
  • Pineapple (good for digestion, okay, I will try it, I like pineapple)
Type A's can should eliminate all meats from diet, but we can have some fish and chicken a few times a week.
Fish and seafood to avoid (the list is longer, these are just my favorites):
  • Crab
  • Halibut
  • Lobster
  • Scallop
  • Shrimp
Dairy & Eggs (Okay to eat):
  • Eggs (1 - 3 per week, I eat 1 - 2 per day)
  • Feta
  • Ricotta
  • Goat Cheese
  • Yogurt
  • Mozzarella
Bad Dairy:
  • All Cheeses including cottage cheese, brie, cream cheese
  • Ice Cream
  • Half & Half
  • Milk
  • Parmesan
  • Whey (seriously??? What about my protein shakes!!!)
Good Oils & Fats:
  • Olive Oil
  • Walnut Oil
  • Flaxseed
Bad Fats & Oils:
  • Coconut Oil (boo hoo, I love the stuff)
  • Corn Oil
  • Peanut Oil
I can go on and on, and I am sure I will be adding to this list. Type A's are also allowed to have some grains, cereals & pastas. This is good news to me but also scares me a bit. It is necessary to eat certain grains like rice when you have legumes (beans), in order to make a complete protein. This is not from the book, but a simple fact of any nutrition book you will read. It is science.

Type A's really only need to avoid these Grains, cereals & pastas:
  • Cream of Wheat
  • Grape Nuts
  • Wheat Germ, wheat bran, shredded wheat
  • Whole wheat bread, multigrain bread, high protein bread
  • Whole Wheat flour (pasta, too)
Type A's need to avoid these Vegetables:
  • Cabbage
  • Peppers
  • Olives
  • Potatoes (all colors/varieties)
  • Tomatoes
  • Shiitake Mushrooms (all others are okay)
  • Eggplant
  Type A's need to avoid these Fruits:
  • Bananas
  • Coconuts
  • Melons
  • Papayas
  • Oranges/Tangerines
  • Mangoes
This makes me a bit sad, I love some of these fruits. I have a banana everyday and also love oranges and tangerines, and mangos, sigh!

Lastly, Type A's must avoid these things:
  • Pepper , black, cayenne, red flakes, white (all my favorites)
  • Vinegar (I am italian, this could be hard)
  • Ketchup
  • Mayonnaise
  • Pickles
  • Worchestershire sauce
  • Beer & alcohol
  • Soda
  • Tea (except green is good)
Things Beneficial to Type A's - I LOVE This:
  • Coffee
  • Red Wine
  • Green Tea
  • Chocolate (is neutral)
So, I plan to give this a try. I will let you all know how it goes. When I did my report, I concentrated on the type O blood type since most of the people in the nutrition class were type O's. If you have tried this Blood Type Diet, please feel free to leave your comments. I would love to hear how it was for you!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see a nutrition class talking about this. I have been an avid follower of Dr. D'Adamo's for about 15 years. He has written many books Eat Right for Your Type is just the first one Live Right for Your Type and The Genotype diet will take you through a fascinating journey on individualized nutrition. For the really curious the website will provide more information. Looking even further Dr. D'Adamo wrote a computer program that creates individual diets. Hope you dig deeper into his work. www.dadamo.com.

Doris said...

Hi Gina,

I'm not sure if I really buy what the author is saying on this. I can't remember if I'm an A- or AB-. I'm one of those 2.

Wow, to be a vegetarian . . . sorry, that's just NOT going to happen. And, they are encouraging eating soy? I personally know eating most soy makes me sick.

With better protein intake through meats, I'm noticing positive changes in my nails, so I think I'm doing something right.

So, if the only real protein source is soy, I'm screwed. We eat a lot of eggs. I find it hard to believe that coconut oil would be bad. It's helped me with my sugar issues.

I fidn when I do eat those grains, cereals and pastas, THAT causes weight gain big time. So, I think for me, if I'm actually an A-, this diet would not go well for me.

If what was working for you before, stick with that. I thought cutting out grains & starches would be a bear, but I it wasn't. If I did this diet, I would totally fail because the things I'm finding healthy for my body according to your list are unhealthy for me.

ARgggh . . . .
Oh well,
~Doris

Gina said...

@ Anonymous, Thanks for commenting. It is an interesting concept, it just shocks me that I may have been eating most of the wrong foods all along, since most of what i was eating was on the "food to avoid" list. I do think that wheat bothers me if I have too much, but the idea of not havng spicy foods is hard to get used too. I also believe that the foods listed are guidelines because everyone is still different. A lady in our nutrition class is a type B blood type and she is allergic to most of the foods that she has been told she should eat for her bloodtype. But I was glad to do the report for the class. I had never heard of the diet before. Thanks again for your comment.
Gina

Gina said...

Doris,
I agree that making any rash changes in a diet can be bothersome to one's system. I do think that wheat is a slight problem for me and so I stay away from wheat as much as I can and also in doing this, I really try to eat a gluten free diet. Since I am in nutrition and physiology and exercise physiology classes I know that our body really needs carbohydrates for energy. (yes, ketosis will cause your liver to convert the food you eat to a source that can be used as carb energy) I found for me when I was on a no grain diet I felt more tired and had a hard time getting through my workouts. I wasn't craving it, but every person I know who cuts the carbs and then goes back to eating them gains back their weight (it happened to me a little as well). The reason for that is that since your body uses carbs for energy, it will try and hold on to them and store any excess since it doesn't know when it will get more, causing a weight gain. It makes sense for me too because Scott had tested us and i was a "muscle burner" and needed the carbs. So I eat quinoa, brown rice, and other healthy carbs in moderation. I also am sure to add these carbs to my meal if i am not having meat ans having legumes as this is the only way for our body to get a complete protein in absence of the meat. I really like coconut oil too, so I am just going to give this diet 1 week to see how I feel. I think the key to any diet is common sense and eating cleanly with portion control. I have always stayed away from soy as well (the occassional soybean would be in my diet, bt no tofu, etc.). I am going to have a little bit of it to see if it will help with my dreadful hot flashes and bed sweats. If what you are doing is working for you, then I would stick with it. I don't think I am fully committed to any one line of thinking/eating such as paleo , etc. I just love the idea of eating healthy, keeping the sugars low, and the carbs natural and unrefined. Thanks so much for commenting, I always appreciate your insight, and we have a lot of similarities on our thinking! Big Hugs,
Gina

Doris said...

Hi Gina,

I'm not 100% committed to Paleo in its strictness and have always had a little dairy with my stuff. What I've found is if I don't include a little dairy, my success rate decreases drastically. And, I was still getting good results.

Unlike you, I was more a mixed burner tending towards sugar burner, so that's probably a huge reason why the nixing of the complex carbs has made me feel much better and the opposite for you.

I have tried to add bad some complex carbs, but I don't feel THAT great - not quite awful now, but not good either.

So, what I'm gathering is I don't have to be 100% strict Paleo, and I can have a little complex carbs, but probably less frequent than you and less in amount. I'm finding that I am a lot more tired & lethargic putting these carbs into my system then when I go 100% complex carb free.

And, as our bodies heal and change, what we may be now and a year from now is different. We need to pay attention to our bodies and see what works for us. If we keep getting good results with what we're doing, then probably making too drastic of changes would not be good.

It's when we aren't getting good results that we probably need to make other changes.

I like your blog, Gina!

Hugs,
Doris