Does Your Blood Type Matter In Relation To Your Diet ?

September 15, 2010 By Mark

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red blood cells According to Peter D’Adamo, a naturopathic physician, your blood type most certainly matters. Eat Right 4 Your Type (ER4YT) is a blood type diet developed by Peter D’Adamo that aims to improve health, but not specifically aid weight loss.

The diet claims that eating a diet which has been specifically chosen based on your body’s blood type will lead to a healthier nervous system.

Why it is Important to ER4YT

According to D’Adamo, medical professionals have stated that a person’s blood type directly affects how their body digests food, in particular the protein lectin.

Lectin is a protein that binds sugar and can be found in several food types, the most common being legumes. D’Adamo believes that too much lectin can negatively affect your immune system and lead to severe physical ailments, such as kidney failure.

Does ER4YT Encourage Weight Loss?

Overall, D’Adamo’s blood type system is focused on the long-term dietary benefits, focussing on wholesome and unprocessed foods. It also incorporates exercise into your diet, which most successful diet programs also encourage.

The blood type diet is a food plan that seems to work with other plans, one of which is the Weightwatchers program (WW). WW members have been known to use the blood type diet, in addition to the WW portion control method. While Weightwatchers will not formally support ER4YT, WW does support food choice.

Combining these two programs is currently a popular dieting choice among those wishing to lose weight. Some people start off with the WW program (consider doing an internet search for ‘Weightwatchers Discount Codes’ or ‘Weightwatchers Discount Vouchers’ if you are thinking of doing the same), and then move on to the blood type diet once you are comfortable with the WW program..

What is Your Blood Type?

Whether you combine it with WW or not, in order to successfully follow the ER4YT program, you will definitely need to know your blood type. If you do not know what your blood type is, you can purchase a blood type kit for around $9.00 which will give you the result. Once you have identified your type, only then you can begin following the ER4YT program.

Eating Right 4 Your Type

The ER4YT plan identifies the foods that are the most beneficial to you – neutral foods, foods that encourage weight loss for your type, and foods which should be avoided to improve your overall health. Here is a brief overview of the foods that the plan claims each respective blood type should eat and/or avoid:

As meat-eaters, Type O’s focus their food plan on high protein, supplemented with fruit and vegetables. For weight loss, ER4YT highlights red meat, spinach, broccoli, seafood, kelp and salt.

As cultivators, Type A’s should centre on a vegetarian lifestyle with an emphasis on grains, beans and legumes. For weight loss, vegetables, pineapple and soy foods are recommended.

As balanced omnivores, Type B is the only diet balanced with meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit, and should avoid eating chicken or tomatoes. For weight loss, they should focus on greens, liver, tea and eggs.

Those with Type AB blood are quite non-specific, and as such their diet is mixed between Types A and B. For weight loss, they should focus on tofu, greens, dairy and seafood.

Critics of the Blood Type Diet

Although D’Adamo claims that studies have been undertaken to support the efficacy of his diet, no such results have ever been published. In addition to this, the scientific community has since claimed that there are no studies linking blood type to food digestion. Vegans and naturopathic physicians tend to disapprove of the plan because of the focus on meat.

There is currently no overwhelming literature, user reviews, nor study that has been published which can provide definitive proof of the effectiveness of D’Adamo’s diet. If you undertake Eat Right 4 Your Type, and are successful with portion control and exercise, in all likelihood you will experience better health. However, whether this is down to blood type or simply because a more balanced diet is being followed is currently open to speculation.