A few weeks ago I was inspired by VegFest to try a mostly vegetarian diet (something I have never been successful at doing). When my husband got wind of my efforts (possibly due to recipes involving celery root and rutabagas), he was distressed.
He told me (I paraphrase), “I’m type O. I’m supposed to eat meat.”
I said, “You believe in that? I didn’t think you did!”
Well, I have Type O blood, too. If you know anything about Dr. Peter D’Adamo and his blood type diet, you know that Type O’s are the original Hunter types. We thrive on meat, and whither on wheat (see my earlier post, Bread is the Devil).
It had been a long time since I’d thought about the blood type diet, so I looked up Dr. D’Adamo’s website and learned he has a new twist on “Eat Right 4 Your Type.” It’s called the Genotype Diet, and further personalizes the generalizations made in his earlier books.
In 1995 I visited Dr. Jenefer Huntoon at the Naturopathic Clinic. She did a lot of things for me healthwise, but one of the things she did was to send my blood and saliva samples to Dr. D’Adamo’s lab for testing. The first “Eat Right 4 Your Type” book had not even been published yet. I submitted to a blood draw and spent several long minutes drooling into a test tube.
I got back a report informing me of various details about my ABO blood type (O positive, secretor, etc) including a list of foods to eat and foods to avoid.
After “Eat Right 4 Your Type” came out and Dr. D put up his website about it, I wrote to him and asked whether I should be following the food recommendations in my personalized report, or the ones in his book. He told me to always go with the most recent information, in this case, the book.
I must admit that when I have followed this list of blood type specific food recommendations to the best of my ability, I actually feel better. And after eating meat for the first time after a week of playing vegetarian, I felt a surge of vitality and wellness.
When Dr. D’s Genotype Diet book came out, I got it from the library. It’s the latest research, so should supersede the earlier books, for the most part. I will write more about the Genotype Diet in a future post.
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Oh no! Please don't tell me the pod people have gotten you two as well :).
ReplyDeleteI've been arguing with my parents about these books for years now, and the claims are no more scientifically founded now than they were back then. Almost none of the supposed "research" that he uses is peer reviewed, very little is done by other researchers, and those studies that are done by someone else have usually been twisted by D'Adamo to reach a conclusion that's wildly different from that of the original study.
There are far better diets out there that are far more scientifically grounded. I just do not understand why so many people are willing to throw so much money the guy & his books, based on such flimsy pseudo-science.
Here's just a couple of the skeptical pieces I found while googling:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50713
http://www.owenfoundation.com/Health_Science/Blood_Type_Diet_FAQ.html