Weight Loss - The Blood Type Diet

This diet is considered a fad diet and was developed and outlined by P. D'Adamo in his book "Eat Right for your Blood Type" and presumes that one of the most important factors in a healthy diet is your blood type.

The developer claims that the lectins found in different foods can cause different reactions in people with different blood types. These lectins react to a person antigens and some of them can be smooth and productive while others are incompatible and harmful to the person consuming them. This leads to his theory that it is important to match what you eat with your blood type.

What are lectins - you ask?

These are carbohydrate-binding proteins and found in most plants, eg: seeds, tubers such as cereal crops, potatoes, and our all time favorite, beans (legumes). Traditionally used as histology and blood transfusion re-agents we now find that lectins may be toxic, inflammatory and resistant to cooking or digestive enzymes.

Lectins can cause changes in the function of the digestive tract and may be related to some common diseases such as colitis and IBS, and some not so common such as Crohn's disease and Coeliac-Sprue. Due to the damage that lectins can cause to the digestive tract, other proteins can get the ability to pass into the body undigested, thus causing possible allergic reactions within a persons body.

Matching specific foods with your blood type

We all know there are 4 different blood groups out there, and the developer of this diet has listed them and the types of food they should eat as seen below.

Type O

He believes this group were part of the early humans who hunted and thrived on a diet of meat and therefore need to have a diet rich in meat.

Type A

Classified by the developer as cultivators/farmers, this group should avoid red meat, reduce the intake of meat overall and eat a diet rich in vegetables.

Type B

Classified as nomads by the developer, it is suggested that this group have the attributes of a strong immunity system and a fairly well developed and flexible digestive tract. Eating a diet of mainly dairy products is advised for this group.

Type AB

Grouped together with the same attributes of A and B blood these people usually do very well on a diet consisting of a low meat intake and a high dairy and vegetable intake.

Try to remember this is a fad diet and may not benefit you. Some die hards have lost weight on this type of diet but most health professionals and critics in this industry deride this diet as there is no scientific proof to prove that this diet indeed works.