Your blood type is the key that unlocks the door to the mysteries of health, disease, and longevity, physical vitality and emotional strength. Your blood type determines your susceptibility to illness, which foods you should eat and how you should exercise. It is a factor in your energy levels, the efficiency with which you burn calories, your emotional response to stress and perhaps even your personality.
Note: When we talk about blood type-related risk factors, we are not saying that being a particular blood type in itself creates a higher risk factor for certain diseases. Only that, in combination with other factors, such as family history, diet, lifestyle and environmental conditions, there may be an increased risk for developing a certain disease.
The connection between blood type and diet may sound radical, but it is not.
- There had to be a reason why there so many paradoxes in dietary studies and disease survival.
- There also had to be an explanation for why some people were able to lose weight on particular diets, while others were not;
- Why some people retained vitality later into life, while other deteriorated mentally and physically.
Blood type analyses has given us a way to explain these paradoxes.
The Blueprint of Blood Type
Blood is a force of nature, the élan vital that has sustained us since time immemorial. A single drop of blood, too small to see with the naked eye, contains the entire genetic code of a human being. The DNA blueprint is intact and replicated within us endlessly – through our blood
Blood carries much more importance than just being a vehicle for the distribution of nutrients and oxygen. Our blood is the most precious thing we have in the body. It carries all our thoughts, emotions, and memories and makes them available to every part of the body
Your blood type is the key to your body’s entire immune system.
It controls the influence of viruses, bacteria, infections,
chemicals, stress and the entire assortment of invaders
and conditions that might compromise your immune system.
Enter the Blood Type
Your blood type is named for the blood type antigen you possess on your red blood cells. Your immune system creates antibodies to reject foreign antigen, including blood type antigens foreign to you.
IF YOU ARE ANTIGEN(S) ON YOUR CELLS
Blood Type A A
Blood Type B B
Blood Type AB A and B
Blood Type O No antigens
No other immune mechanism is as powerful as our blood type. We know this because of a factor called lectins.
Lectins: The Diet Connection
A chemical reaction occurs between your blood and the foods that you eat.
- When you eat a food containing protein lectins that are incompatible with your blood type antigen, the lectins target an organ or bodily system (kidney, liver, brain, stomach, etc.) and begin to agglutinate blood cells in that area.
- For the most part our immune system protects us from lectines. Ninety-five per cent of the lectines we absorb from our typical diets are sloughed off by the body. But at least 5% of the lectines we eat are filtered into the blood stream, where they react with and destroy red and white blood cells.
- The reactions of lectines in the digestive tract can be even more powerful. There, they often create a violent inflammation of the sensitive mucus of the intestines, and this agglutinative action may mimic food allergies. Even a minute quantity of a lectin is capable of agglutinating a huge number of cells if the particular blood type is reactive.
Lectins: A Dangerous Glue
Here is an example of how a lectin agglutinates in the body. Let’s say a Type A person drinks a glass of milk. The milk is digested in the stomach through the process of acid hydrolysis. However, the lectin protein is resistant to acid hydrolysis. It doesn’t get digested, but stays intact. It may interact directly with the lining of the stomach or intestinal tract, or it may get absorbed into our bloodstream along with the digested milk nutrients.
Once the intact lectin protein settles somewhere in your body, it literally has a magnetic effect on the cells in that region. It clumps the cells together and they are targeted for destruction, as if they, too, were foreign invaders. This clumping can cause irritable bowel syndrome in the intestines, cirrhosis of the liver, or block the flow of blood through the kidneys – the name just a few of the effects.
This is not to say that you should suddenly become fearful of every food you eat. After all, lectins are widely abundant in pulses, seafood, grains and vegetables. It’s hard to bypass them. They key is to avoid the lectins that agglutinate your particular cells – determined by blood type. For example, gluten, the most common lectin found in wheat and other grains, binds to the lining of the small intestine, causing substantial inflammation and painful irritation in some blood types – especially Type O.
The Indican Test
There is a scientific barometer that can be used to measure the presence of lectins in our system. The barometer is a simple urine test called the Indican Scale. The Indican Scale measures a factor called bowel putrefaction. When the liver and intestines do not properly metabolize proteins, they produce toxic byproducts called indols. The level of these toxic byproducts is shown on the Indican Scale.
If you avoid foods containing toxic lectin proteins that do not metabolize properly in your system, your Indican Scale will be low.
If, on the other hand, you regularly consume foods that are high in indigestible lectins, your Indican scale will be high – meaning that you have carcinogenity of substances in your body.
This may be the first time you have ever heard of the Indican Scale, but it has been widely used in conventional medicine for last 50 years, and all commercial laboratories perform it.
Measure colour on the Indican Scale:
0.2 good
2-2½ problems
3-4 danger
If you eat food that is not compatible with your blood type, even occasionally, your Indican Scale will be very high.
The reason is: The Indican Scale shows that a toxic food entering your system is magnified to 90 times the effect on someone for whom it is not toxic. For example, if a Type A eats a processed or cured food, such as bologna (salami), the nitrates are magnified 90 times in the negative impact they have because Type As are particularly susceptible to stomach cancer and the toxic effects of nitrates.
The Blood Type Solution: A Road Map
If you follow your Blood type Plan regime carefully, you can:
- Avoid many common viruses and infections
- Lose weight, as your body rids itself of toxins and fats
- Fight back against life-treating diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver failure
- Avoid many of the factors that cause rapid cell deterioration, thus slowing down the ageing process.
Eat Right 4 Your Type is not panacea. But it is way to restore the natural protective functions of your immune system, rest your metabolic clock, and clear your blood of dangerous agglutinating lectins.
You Blood Type Plan include:
- The Blood Type Diet
- The Weight Loss Factor
- The supplement Advisory
- The Stress-Exercise profile
- The Personality Question
Today, it is well accepted that nutrition – or the foods we eat – has a direct impact on the state of our health and general well being. But confusing, and often conflicting, information about nutrition has created a virtual minefield for health-conscious consumers.
Your Blood Type diet works because you are able to follow a clear, logical, scientifically researched and certified dietary blueprint based on your cellular profile.
Each of the blood type diets includes 16 groups:
Meat
Seafood
Dairy Products and Eggs
Oils and Fats
Nuts and seeds
Beans and Pulses
Cereals
Breads, Crisp-breads and Muffins
Grains and Pastas
Vegetables
Fruits
Juices and Other Fluids
Spices, dried Herbs and Flavourings
Condiments
Herbal teas
Miscellaneous Beverages
Each of these groups divides foods into three categories: HIGHLY BENEFICIAL, NEUTRAL and AVOID. Think of the categories this way:
HIGHLY BENEFICIAL is a food that acts like a MEDICINE
NEUTRAL is a food that acts like a FOOD
AVOID is a food that acts like a POISON
Being overweight was anathema to our ancient ancestors, whose bodies were machines which consumed and expanded the fuel they needed. Today, obesity has become one of the biggest health problems in many industrialized societies. For this reason, losing weight has become an obsession, and naturally many people are interested in the weight loss aspects of the blood type diet.
Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo is pointing: “I always tell them that these diets were not specifically designed for weight loss; they were designed for optimum performance. Having said that, I add that weight loss is one of the natural side effects of the body’s restoration. Because the blood type diet is tailored to the cellular composition of your body, specific foods will cause weight gain or weight loss for you, even though they may have a different effect on a person of another blood type.”
“It doesn’t surprise me that the patients who tell me they have lost weight on high protein diets are usually Type Os and type Bs. You do not see many Type As who do well on these diets; their systems are biologically unsuited to metabolize meat as efficiently as Type Os and Bs. Nor the Type ABs lose weight on high protein diets, since these diets lack the balance of A-like foods that Type Abs require”.
“Let me tell you about the weight loss potential of each of the blood type diets. Actually, the greatest problem most of my patients encounter is that they lose too much weight very quickly and I have to make adjustments in their diets to slow down the rate of weight loss. Too much weight loss may seem to be the least of your problems, if you’ve always struggled with your weight. But remember, your ultimate goal is optimum health and performance, and that means achieving a balance between your weight and your height and shape. Excessive weight loss indicates a malnourished state that will weaken your immune system – exactly what you are trying to avoid. So use these guidelines wisely.
I’ve found that many people approach their diet religiously in the beginning. They eat only the HIGHLY BENEFICIAL foods, and do not even consume NEUTRAL foods. The result is inevitably a rather unhealthy weight loss. They look gaunt and unwell because they are not getting the full range of nutrients needed for a healthy diet. A better approach is to eliminate all the foods on your AVOID list, and reduce or eliminate those NEUTRAL foods that are prone to cause weight gain for your blood type. That will leave you with a balanced diet and a healthier method of weight loss.
Your Blood Type Plan also includes recommendations about vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements that can enhance the effects of your diet. This is another area where there is great confusion and misinformation. It’s hard not to be seduced by the vast array of remedies overflowing the shelves of your local food shop. Promising energy, weight loss, pain relief, sexual potency, strength, longevity and mental power – along with cures for headache, colds, nerves, stomach pain, arthritis, chronic fatigue, heart disease, cancer and every other ailment in the book – these tempting panaceas seem to be the answer we’ve all been looking for.
But as with food, nutritional supplements do not always work the same way for everyone. Every vitamin, mineral and herbal supplement plays a specific role in your body. The miracle remedy your Type B friend raves about may be inert or even harmful for your Type A system.
It can be dangerous to self-prescribe vitamin and mineral supplements – many of which act like drugs in your body. For example, even though they are all readily available, vitamins A, D, K, and B3 (niacin) should only be administrated under the care of medical supervisor.
Your specialized programme of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals will round out dietary aspect of your programme.
- The Stress-Exercise Profile
It is not only the foods you eat that determine your well-being. It is also the way your body uses those nutrients for good or ill. That’s where stress comes in. Few people realize, though, that it is not the stress itself but our reaction to the stress in our environment that depletes our immune systems and leads to illness. This reaction is as old as human history. It is caused by a natural chemical response to the perception of danger. Unlike our ancestors, who faced intermittent acute stress, such as the threat of predators or starvation, our highly pressured, fast-paced world imposes chronic, prolonged stress. Even though our stress response may be less acute than that of our ancestors, the fact that it is happening continuously may make the consequences even worse. More stress hormones are being released into our blood than we can possibly use.
What is the outcome? Stress-related disorders cause 50 to 80 per cent of all illnesses in modern life. We know how powerfully the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. Problems known to be exacerbated by stress and the mind-body connection are ulcers, high blood pressure, heart disease, migraine headache, arthritis and other inflammatory disease, asthma and other respiratory diseases, insomnia and other sleep disorders, anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, and as variety of skin problems ranging from hives to herpes, from eczema to psoriasis. Stress is disastrous to the immune system, leaving the body open to a myriad of opportunistic health problems.
The most revolutionary aspect of the James D’Adamo (father of Dr. Peter D’Adamo) work is the discovery that different blood types need different forms of physical activity, or exercise, to cope with their responses to stress. That will turn stress into a positive force.
The idea that your blood type may relate to your personality is not really so strange. Indeed, if you look at each of the blood types, you can see a distinct personality emerging – the inheritance of our ancestral strengths. Perhaps this is just another way for you to play to those strengths.
By playing to your blood type’s strengths, you may be able to achieve greater efficiency and accuracy in your work, and greater emotional happiness and security in your life.
Quoted from Dr. Peter’s D’Adamo book “Eat Right 4 Your Type”
Who is Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo
Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo is an eminent naturopathic physician and researcher with a wide international following. Dr. D’Adamo’s series of books are NY Times Bestsellers, and have been translated into over fifty languages. He has been named Physician of the Year by American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. In 1999, respected industry analysts named Eat Right 4 Your Type as one of the ten most influential health books ever, and Dr. D’Aadmo the most intriguing health author of the year.
Visit Dr. D’Adamo’s web site for the latest blood type news at:
www.dadamo.com |
