Eat Right For Your Blood Type Revisited

A few weeks ago, I posted about this book, by Dr Peter D'Adamo and Catherine Whitney.



The premise of the book is to eat according to your blood type for optimum health and weight control. When I last posted, having quickly read this book, I was convinced I was O blood type, who are the original meat eating hunter gatherer type. However, having recently received an appointment from the Blood Donation Service, I now realise that I am in actuality an A blood type, which most definitely changes things.

So what should Type A's eat.  Well, according to the book, they should largely eat a vegetarian diet, or at least not eat red meats, as these are not easily digested by their bodies, due to low levels of stomach acid and as a consequence get stored as fat.

In addition, dairy products should be largely avoided, as these too are not easily digested and provoke insulin reactions, which slow the metabolism, although goat's milk and cheeses are acceptable.  Other common foods to be avoided are bananas, kidney beans, tomatoes, potatoes of all kinds, vinegars and wheat in excess, especially wholegrains (surprisingly).

What is recommended for this blood type is eating soya products which aid digestion, metabolise quickly and optimise the immune function, vegetables and vegetable oils which aid efficient metabolism and prevent fluid retention, pineapples to increase intestinal mobility and calorie utilisation and peanuts for cancer fighting lectins. (as type A's are unfortunately biologically predisposed to heart disease, cancer and diabetes).

The other night, I re-read the book again in light of my clarified blood type and noted down all the highly beneficial foods for Type A's, the neutral foods and the foods to avoid.  I'm trying to skew some of our food shopping towards this list where possible.

For instance, last week I purchased goats milk and butter for my use, and found them to be hardly different from normal butter and milk (in tea and on toast in anycase), so these items will definitely be bought from now on.  I am relieved that I will be able to make rice puddings with the milk and other sweet dishes, so that I won't have to give up some of my favourite desserts.

Greek style yoghurts are acceptable to Type A's, but not other types of yoghurts, so my yoghurt maker will be making these for me in future. Some other dairy products are acceptable, i.e. feta cheese, goats cheese, mozarella, etc., but within limits.

Other highly beneficial foods and drinks include lentils, black/pinto/aduki/black-eyed beans, nuts and nut butters (save for brazil, cashew and pistachio), buckwheat, rice cakes, rye flour, oat flour, herbal teas such as camomile and green tea, coffee and red wine.  Many other foods and drinks are at least neutral, so can be consumed without causing harm to health.

Finally, dietary supplements recommended include vitamin C, vitamin B12 and calcium amongst others and recommended exercise includes yoga, dance, aerobics (low impact) amongst others.

Once again, I may have to make a few changes to my current eating regime, but it is great to know that I can still eat avocados and some wheat when I wish to, and there are types of alcohol that I don't have to avoid. It does state that meats such as turkey or chicken can be consumed, along with fish, so I intend to cook with turkey mince from hereon in, where necessary.  I have also purchased some turkey sausages and will be interested to know how these taste once cooked.

I feel a lot happier trying to eat according to this plan.  There are some things that I love, that are recommended that I avoid, i.e. oranges, black tea, distilled spirits, tomatoes, potatoes, but many of the foods to avoid, I hardly eat anyway, so they won't really be a big loss.  In addition, I have been trying to reduce our consumption of red meat for a few months, so I shall just continue in this vein.

It will be interesting to see how I get on, as with a strong family history of breast cancer and approaching the menopause, I feel it might benefit me to follow this eating plan.  I'll keep you posted if I have any positive results from it.