During the summer of 2023, I started the Blood Type diet for Type Os and I don't think I'll ever turn back, but actually go deeper. I had been yearning for a structured set of rules that understood exactly what I was going through, and boy was I going through a lot.

WHAT IS A DIET?

Before I go any further, I want to explain what I mean by diet. For this term, I am referring to the simplest definition of diet which is simply what you eat. Oxford Languages' first definition is "the kinds of food that a person, animal or community habitually eats". That's it. So, to me, "going on a diet" is not real because it's considered temporary. It's usually done to attain a desired result, then later abandoned to go back to the previous way of eating, the foods normally consumed on a daily basis by habit. Well here's the thing, there will always be a need to "go on a diet" if we rarely eat the stuff that gets us to our desired results. And I don’t know about you, but I want my desired results every day.

Over the years, I learned a few things about my personal diet through trial and error and the elimination method. I observed how food affected my body and eliminated certain foods to try and pinpoint what was making me feel bloated, gassy, yeasty and rashy. The foods that were obviously poisonous for me were wheat gluten, dairy, coffee and pork. These were easy to single out because they usually are a main part of a meal or snack. So the day after eating that meal, I’d eat something else and wouldn't have the symptoms of gas, bloating, itchiness, etc. Since they were easy to pinpoint, then they were easy to eliminate.

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Now the problem was that I wasn't able to accurately identify the harder-to-find food items that was wreaking havoc in my digestive system. I stayed far away from the 4 major problem foods, but I was still experiencing gas all day and rashes near my lymph nodes. So I knew that there was more for me to do to improve and refine my diet. I felt frustrated, confused and lost, like no one understood me. But when I saw the book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type sitting on that vegan juice store shelf that I had just ordered a green juice from, and cracked it open, I felt my load lighten.

What hooked me was the attention given to each individual blood type and the predictions of ailments that each blood type is likely experiencing if they are not eating correctly. It wasn't a blanket diet that everyone needed to follow, but a zoomed in set of rules based on how a wide range of food items affected each of the 4 blood types. I thought this was the real deal and I have literally been obsessed ever since.

I found the book just in time for summer break from teaching and dove deep into learning, getting rid of foods I had that were on the avoid list and learning how to cook highly beneficial food in various ways.

Since I have Type O blood, my main beneficial food sources are lean red meat, and allowable seafood, fruits and vegetables. That's really all a Type O person needs to thrive. Most grains, beans and dairy products are either severely limited or eliminated. They should be eaten in moderation or avoided, depending on what it is.

GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH STEAK

One of my biggest feats was learning how to cook a steak. Dr. D’Adamo, the author of Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type, says that beef steaks are the best foods for those with Blood Type O. He suggested specific cuts like eye of round, top round, top sirloin, sirloin tip, brisket and 95% lean ground cuts. I didn’t really know the difference, so I took off to the markets looking for this new and apparently essential food source.

My first two pieces of meat were lamb steak, oddly enough. I got them from a local farm who raises their own sheep, goats and cows. My favorite part of visiting the farm was that I could pet the animals. But afterwards, I got sad because I was about to eat one of them. I was really looking for beef steaks, but the mutton (lamb) sufficed.

I took the lamb steaks home and put them in a pan, without a recipe. I let them cook until light pinkish brown and put them on a plate. Cutting them was a chore and eating them was like torture. My teeth were not prepared to eat the leather that it had turned out to be.

I asked my Instagram followers for advice on how to cook steak and some said to pan-sear it then finish cooking it in the oven. Then my friend said that his mom automatically wraps her steak in foil with potatoes and carrots and bakes it for about an hour.

I wanted to cook the beef steak in my skillet one more time to see if there would be a difference in texture between beef and mutton. There was a slight difference, but the beef was still chewy and tough and had me spitting out unchewables throughout the meal, which was not the ideal dining experience.

Due to failed attempts with the skillet, my next round of steaks went straight into the oven. And it was the best decision I made. I chopped up some turnips and parsnips to replace the potatoes (which are avoids), along with onions and carrots, and baked the combo for one and a half hours. When I tasted them, OMG those steaks turned out tasting amazingly good! They were so soft and tender, full of flavor and even the fat was chewable and oh so yummy!

So I got good with cooking steaks and mastered a few other recipes as well, like black eyed peas, loaded sweet potato, collard greens, and kale greens. However I was having a major issue with gas, more than what I had been experiencing before starting the diet.

Dr. D’Adamo did say that we could experience gas in the beginning as the digestive system adapts to eating more red meat. Type Os have more stomach acid than other blood types, but when that excess stomach acid has not been used and then is awakened by dumps of red meat, then it would make sense that it would cause a notable reaction.

Dr. D’Adamo’s advice was to use the TypeZyme O which is an enzyme needed to help the body break down the food that is being digested. This worked wonders for my digestion to the point where I experienced no gas while taking this enzyme. Then one day, I had eaten some beef and forgot to take the TypeZyme O, but I didn’t have any gas. That’s when I knew that my body had fully adapted to my new way of eating.

I also experienced a sore throat in the beginning of transitioning to the Blood Type Diet. This is not the first time I’ve felt soreness in my throat. It has happened in the past when I used the CCWS supplements to clear excess Candida from my body. It also happened when I started drinking kefir, a probiotic milk-based drink, on a regular basis. I’m not sure what goes on when I feel that sensation but I’m thinking that it’s some sort of detox because it always goes away after a few days.

A FEW OTHER THINGS CAME UP

I was eating foods I should have been avoiding by mistake when I had crackers made with coconut oil, prepared chicken liver with eggs, and baked sweet potato snacks made with potato starch. These were all no good for me as a Type O so I had to throw them out. Along with that stuff, I also had to clear out my refrigerator of foods on the avoid list. I had plenty of white potatoes in various forms, like tater tots, hash browns, potato wedges. Just too much potato!

By switching over to a meat based diet, I had to do way more prepping and cooking. There was chopping, peeling, grinding and soaking. Cook times had lengthened tremendously to upwards of 3 hours on one dish. I was not ready, but soon became used to it and surprisingly more efficient. I also grew to appreciate the practice of cleaning while I cook and was always delighted that by the time the food finished cooking, all dishes used were clean.

I ran into ruts when I didn’t prepare in advance and ran out of allowable food that I could eat. I realized that I couldn’t just think about one meal at a time. I needed to prepare everything in advance. So I got serious about meal prep, even using a spreadsheet to see it all. This helped me to see what I would be cooking for the week so that I could find recipes to adapt to the Blood Type O Diet and make a shopping list before I went to the grocery store.

I also had trouble remembering to prepare snacks to eat on the go. I’m still working on this. Right now, I’ll grab a piece of fruit before I leave or I’ll buy some dried mango snacks, pumpkin seeds or beef jerky while I’m out.

I do experience a little gas when I eat certain plant foods. Like tonight I was lazy and just ate leftover split pea soup and kale greens, no meat portion, along with my Polyflora O probiotic and I felt gassy and bloated again. However, in meals where I eat only meat, I don’t feel much gas at all. Dr. D’Adamo has even more refined diets, like the Genotype Diet and SWAMI. I’m thinking of taking a type test for these to see what other refinements will be made to my diet. I’ve been also thinking about the carnivore diet and cutting out all plants to see what happens.

IN CONCLUSION

Even though the Blood Type O diet hasn’t given me perfect health yet, at least I feel better. It was a great step in the right direction as it validated my prior negative reactions to foods with wheat, dairy, pork and coffee and it taught me a list of other foods that would cause me problems as well, like corn and potatoes. I was also given the permission to eat red meat, further learning that it is good for me. Meat meals are the only meals that leave my gut feeling at ease after eating.

I certainly recommend the Blood Type Diet as a starting point to see which direction you need to go, whether towards plants (Type A), towards meat (Type O) or somewhere in between (Type B, AB). This diet is a baseline for Dr. D'Adamo's other diets. On my journey to discovering the blood type diet, I’ve developed many skills and implemented mindset shifts to help me stick to any diet long enough to see results and make necessary changes. If you’re interested in making diet and health improvements, subscribe to my email list The O Women for advice and updates.

Love,

Latreil