5 Scientific Facts About the Blood Type Diet That Debunk the Myths
Although the Blood Type Diet is not a new theory at the least bit, it is certainly not well known. There are many diets we can rattle off the names of without even thinking much because for the most part, these diets have been spread by the media, and for some of them, promoted by big corporations.
Veganism
Vegetarianism
Adkins
Paleo
Candida Diet
Dr. Sebi’s Diet
Whole 30
FODMAP
…and the list goes on.
Very little are these diets questioned as much as the Blood Type Diet. This is odd to me because all of these other diets are one size fits all while the blood type diet is more customized to a very specific biochemical identity trait of each dieter. Why would people view that as questionable and not the others? Is it a case of a desire to bandwagon and follow the crowd? If so, those desires are stronger than the desire to find the perfect diet that will actually make a difference in their health.
The blood type diet is extremely different and yet very similar to several of the diets we already know very well. How can it be the same and different at the same time? Because the Blood Type Diet morphs to your blood type. So there are literally four different diets in the Blood Type Diet to match the four different Blood Types of O, A, B and AB. In addition, for each blood type, there is another identifying factor of secretor or nonsecretor that each dieter must account for when choosing from their allowed foods.
Now to me it made perfect sense that my blood type could be a determining factor in what types of food I should eat. However, others are not sold on it and have found reasons to debunk the whole diet. Well I have a lot of faith in the Blood Type Diet because of the convincing information, studies and research that I’ve read in Dr. D’Adamo’s books, along with the health benefits I have experienced from following it for my O blood type.
So for anyone who needs more concrete information than just the basics, I have compiled a list of five reasons why the Blood Type Diet is not a scam and is actually backed by biological science.
Lectins
After years of experience and research, Dr. D’Adamo and his father curated four blood type diets for each of the four blood types. They were able to see similarities in the behaviors patterns and health concerns of patients of these blood types. To support creation of these diets, they tested the blood of these patients against a wide variety of foods to see which foods agglutinated the blood and which did not.
As mentioned in a previous article, every organism possesses a protein called lectin, which is passed down to us from our blood type ancestors. These lectins show favoritism to certain foods. Literally, the Latin term for lectin is “I choose”, and as much as we want to, we can’t really go against what our lectins want without consequences. This is when the agglutination takes place.
If the body’s lectins do not like the food, the immune system will clump or glue the food with other cells around it to mark it for destruction. Many of us begin to experience dis-ease in our bodies in the form of illnesses due to going against the desires of our lectins. As a result, our bodies remain in a state of warfare instead of a state of peace and harmony. To prevent this, eat food according to your blood type.
A Difference in Microbiome Diversity
It has been shown that the microbiome of each blood type is different. In a study, almost 50% of the bacterial strains that were tested showed some type of specificity to a blood type. When it came to the fecal sample of Blood Type B in one study, there were 50,000 times more B-specific bacteria than any other blood type.
This actually is not surprising since Blood Type B has a diet that is more diverse than any of the other blood types, including various fermented foods, along with meat and vegetables. It would make sense that the microbiome would follow suit to support the digestion of this large variety of food.
Candidiasis
Blood Type Os tend to develop an allergic-type reaction to the yeast organism, Candida Albicans, more than any other blood type. This is due to the fact that the Candida organism uses its own lectins to attach to the sugar fucose that is located on the cells of Type Os. As a result, various health issues arise in the body of one who is Type O, like hypothyroidism, inflammation, psoriasis and a variety of irritable bowel diseases. The Yeast Syndrome was established based on the theory that Candida yeast was the root cause of these illnesses.
Gluten from wheat germ is one of the most problematic foods that Types Os can eat that aggravates Candidiasis, along with lentils and dairy. These definite exclusions in the Type O diet have been the basis for the development of a multitude of Candida Diets. Other blood types are susceptible to Candidiasis as well, but usually after a round of antibiotics for Type As and ABs, which kill off all bacteria and allow for the usually low-count Candida yeast bacteria to grow out of control.
Blood Type Bs have a similar susceptibility towards Candidiasis as Type O, due having a high volume of grain in their diets. All blood types can benefit from incorporating probiotics that agglutinate Candida, like L. reuteri, and herbs like oil of oregano. The next thing to do is to strictly follow their own Blood Type Diets.
Infertility and Habitual Miscarriage
In 1975, a study was done of 288 miscarried fetuses showing a predominance of blood types A, B, and AB blood of women who were Type O. Another study showed that the rate of miscarriages was higher when the mother was Type O and the father was Type A. Furthermore, women of Blood Type O or A blood had a high rate of miscarriages when the fetus was Type B.
Learning this may feel devastating, since countless women have experienced miscarriages and pregnancy complications. Among all the prerequisites we as women have for dating a man (attractiveness, chemistry, provision, protection, etc.), no woman is asking for a man’s blood type before they decide to have a baby with him because they don’t even see that as a deciding factor. So to ease your mind, there is some advice that Dr. D’Adamo has for us when deciding to have a baby: eat right for your blood type.
In his book Eat Right 4 Your Baby, Dr. D’Adamo says that when we eat according to our blood type, we create a safe, calm and healthy environment for our fetuses to thrive in whatever blood type they are, which may be different from the mothers’ based on the gene mixtures of the mother and the father. One very personal case was of him and his wife, with him being Blood Type A and his wife Blood Type O. He kept her healthy according to her blood type and their two daughters were born healthy Type A babies.
Mental Illnesses
There has been a noticeable trend in mental health issues across various blood types. When it comes to the specific mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar, depression and ADHD, there is a common strand to them all: poor regulation of the opposing dopamine and the catecholamines hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline. This chemical imbalance is associated with Blood Types Os only, since they are found to have over- or under-active levels of the enzyme dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH) compared to other blood types. The DBH enzyme converts dopamine to noradrenaline, but happen in large or small amounts for Type Os.
While dopamine is involved in higher thought, contributes to the feelings of bliss and regulates the feeling of pain in the body, noradrenaline puts our bodies in a highly active state of fight or flight. Now, Types Os can endure stressful situations for a while before our stress hormones start to kick in. However, when they do kick in, there needs to be a balance of the two. Type Os have a hard time with this since it takes longer for us to reduce our higher-than-average levels of the catecholamine hormones, due to our inherently low activity of the enzyme used to break them down, monoamine oxidase (MAO).
When Types Os have too much activity from dopamine beta-hydroxylase, they may give way to bouts of paranoia or avoidance of social interactions. These are the symptoms of schizophrenia and depression. Low levels of dopamine hydroxylase activity in Type Os will result in a short attention span, hyperactivity, temper tantrums, rage and memory loss. These are the symptoms of ADHD and bipolar.
One way for Type Os to support the balance of these hormones is to eat more red meat which is included in our Blood Type Diet. Red meat and wheat are two of the foods that provide the highest amounts of L-tyrosine, an amino acid that is a building block for the catecholamine and dopamine hormones. Since wheat has a negative effect on the Type O digestive system (as mentioned above about Candida) as well as the active balancing of these hormones, meat is the best option. Another way to support the emotional balance of Type Os is to engage in regular physical exercise, since this tends to control dopamine beta-hydroxylase.
In Conclusion
As we can see, there is certainly a reason why “everyone responds differently to any diet”. There are actually several, one being because there are four different blood types trying to eat the same way and it’s just not going to hit all the marks for nutrition. Nutrition goes deeper than just providing the proper vitamins and minerals.
We need to eat in order to maintain and correct the systems we vitally need in order to function, progress in life and reach our goals. The term “diet” can be dwindled down to the food you eat that your body accepts as food. According to your lectins, any other type of food is actually an enemy to your system.
