THE DIET: Eat Right for Your Type by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo
THE CLAIM: Blood type "is the key that unlocks the door to the mysteries of health, disease, longevity, physical vitality and emotional strength. [It] determines your susceptibility to illness, which foods you should eat and how you should exercise." As a by-product of eating according to your blood type, you will also lose weight.
HOW YOU EAT: People with the "original" blood type, type O, need to eat a high-protein, low-carb diet because our caveman ancestors found little else to eat besides meat; type A's should be vegetarians because D'Adamo believes the digestive system changed when we became smart enough to cultivate crops; types B and AB can have the most varied diets because they developed more recently (around 10,000 B.C. and A.D. 1,000 , respectively) and therefore have the most tolerant, evolved digestive systems.
WEIRD SCIENCE: The entire theory revolves around toxic food substances called lectins. D'Adamo believes that certain blood types react violently to lectins in the bloodstream. In the digestive tract, lectins may cause inflammation because they react poorly with intestinal cells. According to D'Adamo, the only factor that blocks the horrifying reactions is if your blood type perceives a food's lectins as a friend, not a foe. For example, because dairy was not a part of the human diet until recently, only the newest blood type, AB, can call it a friend; older blood types can't tolerate dairy and must avoid it.
WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY WORK: Lectins are mostly destroyed by cooking and, for the most part, our stomach acids detoxify what hasn't been made harmless by cooking. Harvey Klein, M.D., a hematologist and chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, says, "When lectins are digested, they're no longer in the same form. We know of no food that attacks and agglutinates blood cells after you ingest it."
While eating by blood type is essentially useless when applied to nutrition and health, it is gaining popularity as a personality game, similar to astrology. Look forward to hearing it used in future pickup lines.
FYI: For the record, the "Dr." in D'Adamo's title refers to his being a naturopath, not a certified medical doctor.
This article was obtained from: http://www.phys.com/b_nutrition/02solutions/diet_debunker/blood.html
