Blood Types Explained - The History of Genetic Evolution
The blood type diets come from a long story of survival, migration and adaptation. There are four major blood types: A, B, AB and O. These all have different characteristics regarding diet, stress management and even personality. But why? Our ancestors’ need to eat, expand and stay alive required some chemical reconstruction.
Most of us are aware that somewhere in our lineage was a period where hunters and gatherers ruled the world. But then it gets a little fuzzy when agriculture and domesticating farm animals comes in. I’d like to share what I have learned from Dr. D’Adamo’s book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type (ER4YT). My mind was completely blown when I was finally able to grasp the connections Dr. D’Adamo laid out for us and apply it to what I had already been pondering. Keep reading and it will all make sense.
The Mystery of Lectins
There is a chemical reaction that occurs whenever we eat food. Deep down on the cellular level of our blood is where all the action happens. A protein, called lectin, passed down to us from our blood type ancestors shows favoritism to certain foods, so much so that it causes the body’s immune system to destroy any food that it doesn’t like. 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. As we see around our world, and especially in the US alone, there are many people who are sick, on their way to being sick or at the very least not operating at their highest potential, due to going against what their own bodies’ lectins choose for them to eat.
So how do lectins work in our bodies, for good and for bad?
Each organism has lectins, including our bodies and the food that we eat. Lectins are diverse proteins that activate glue-like, or agglutinating, properties in the environment that provides optimal conditions. In the case of food, agglutination of food lectins happens when they encounter the wrong blood type. Think of it like a serving of macaroni and cheese walking down the wrong alley (your esophagus, stomach and intestines). It’s marked for destruction and then attacked. This is actually what will happen when a person with Blood Type O, whose lectins oppose wheat-gluten and dairy, eats traditionally prepared macaroni and cheese.
Thankfully our immune systems protect us from 95% of the harmful lectins we consume. However, about 5% get into our bloodstream where they cause harm to our blood cells.
When the wrong lectins enter our digestive systems, they clump neighboring cells together leaving them as a target for the body to destroy. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and overall inflammation are some of the many dis-eases caused by this process. That is why it is so important to eat only blood type specific foods. By doing this, not only do we feel better, but we keep more of our cells and digestive functions intact and at ease.
Eating according to our blood type supports our bodies in keeping the peace. Our immune system doesn’t have to fight off foreign invaders that are in the form of food all day long and it can just operate normally in a flow that supports homeostasis. A prolonged period of this state of being is great when viruses, the real health threats, come around and try to attack our immune system. When our bodies are not busy using up its energy to destroy food, smh, it can be fully prepared to destroy the viruses that try to take us out, for real.
The Evolution of Blood Types
In this section, I want to share some basic information about each of the four common blood types. Although you may share the same race or gender as another, your blood types may reveal different information about who your ancestors are, what you should eat, how your body reacts to stress, and actions you can take to operate in your daily life for optimal focus, productivity, and positive interactions with others.
Blood Type O
First up is type O since one of the designations for the O is actually Old. Type O is recorded as the oldest and most populous blood type across the globe (Actually A is, but it disappeared for some reason and was not able to be studied). About 60,000 years ago in Africa is where human life is said to have emerged. These people survived with a hunter-gatherer system and lived mainly off of meat. They grew to dominate the food chain as skillful hunters of animals that would be considered their predators. These original Type Os grew rapidly in population and were very strong and healthy. This was the Paleolithic age and ancient bone fossils from this time show that these Type Os were taller than their own ancestors (makes me wonder what blood type their ancestors were).
As they relied on meat, these carnivores quickly grew in population and ran out of food in their area. They needed to migrate to find more food. In their newfound locations, the Blood Type O people depleted the resources of large game and soon had to rely on small animals and plants like berries, grubs, nuts and roots for survival. Those who moved to live along the coastline thrived on seafood.
A geneticist named Arthur Mourant was curious about the distribution of the ABO blood types. So in the 1940s and 1950s he set out to study the blood type distribution of indigenous peoples. These groups of people had been isolated from the rest of the world for decades, or more, and were ideal for blood type testing. As Mourant examined these tribes of indigenous people, specifically Inuits and Native Americans, he found that the percentage of Blood Type O was at an increased rate, upwards of 90%. And these tribes still operated in a hunter-gatherer system.
It is believed that the absence of adequate food is how a new blood type was created. In ER4YT, Dr. D’Adamo says that “genes can alter their functions based on changes in the environment: change a habit for long enough and the body will alter the functions in the genes needed to metabolize the result of that change”. We will see how this theory occurred to change the O blood types to all the others.
Blood Type A
As groups of humans migrated north of Africa, around 25,000 to 15,000 B.C.E., and began to settle and find a new way to live, Blood Type A emerged. The low supply of animals to hunt for food required them to make due with what they had access to, and that was plants. In order to survive, Type Os learned to tolerate various plants. To support them their digestive and immune systems evolved to allow them to benefit from grains and other plants, creating the Blood Type A.
Subsequently, they quickly began to aggregate plants and domesticate animals. To support and tend to their crops, Type As learned that a change from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle was needed, and that collaboration with each other and the animals could ensure that the work would get done so that everyone could eat. Close urban dwelling was established during this time, which made it fair ground for diseases to develop. The new Type A blood was able to refine its immune system in a way that helped the people stay healthy and alive. This new lifestyle allowed for massive growth in population since plants could be grown anywhere.
Today we see large numbers of Blood Type As in the countries of Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, Turkey, the Balkans as well as a high concentration in Japan.
Blood Type B
Type B blood is believed to have developed due to climate changes and elevated landscapes, and spread due to continuous migration. Significant growth had reached its pique around 10,000 and 15,000 B.C.E. in what is now known as Pakistan and India, previously the Himalayan highlands. These people were steppe-dwellers and became expert horsemen as they grew their livelihood on herding and domesticating animals. Their diets consisted of animal meat, cultured dairy and plants.
Blood Type B split their migration in two directions. Most went towards the west and south further through Europe and into Asia, developing characteristics of Caucasians and Mongolians as well as the Chinese and Koreans. Another group went east further into Europe and tapered off in size. Jewish branches, such as Ashkenazin and Sephardim, have higher than average rates of Blood Type B occurrences.
Blood Type AB
Uneventfully, more migration occurred of a large amount of western people, mostly Type B, migrating to the east and began to intermingle and produce offspring. However, their gene pairings did not have a dominant-submissive effect. The A and B blood type gene alleles were actually both dominant and meshed to become the AB Blood Type. As a result, people with AB blood have several characteristics of blood types A and B, as well as some of their own. Yes they are omnivores, but lean more towards the vegetarian side for most of their diet.
Popular Diets that Mimic Each Blood Type Diet
When we look at the specific diets for each type, we can see that they consist of foods that are similar to popular diets that are floating around our society today.
The Blood Type A diet is a mostly vegetarian diet. Many of the people pushing vegetarianism and veganism are likely listening to the advice from the Type As who experience the most benefit from eating this way. However, it does not suit the natural blood type diet of everyone. Other diets like pescatarian (fish and veggies) and Mediterranean Diets fall into the Blood Type A category. Mediterranean even includes the base word terrain in the word, indicating agriculture.
Check here for an abbreviated list of foods that people with Blood Type A should eat and avoid eating. Read the full Type A food, exercise and stress management profiles on pgs. 129-168 of the book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type.
Blood Type O is on the opposite end of the diet spectrum than Type A, as it favors red meat as its main source of food. Since Type Os have a high level of stomach acid (and Type As do not), it can consume and break down meat easily. This fuel in the form of animal protein supports muscle formation, preparing the body for high levels of physical activity, as if it were preparing to go hunting. The popular diets ketogenic, carnivore, Paleo and Adkins diets are all similar to the high-protein diet that people with Blood Type O should eat.
Check here for an abbreviated list of foods that people with Blood Type O should eat and avoid eating. Read the full Type O food, exercise and stress management profiles on pgs. 91-128 of the book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type.
I would say that the Blood Type B diet is closest to a probiotic diet, as it consists of several fermented and cultured foods like kefir and sauerkraut. The Candida Diet would also suit a person with Type B blood since it includes meat and fermented food, but excludes wheat.
Check here for an abbreviated list of foods that people with Blood Type B should eat and avoid eating. Read the full Type B food, exercise and stress management profiles on pgs. 169-203 of the book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type.
The AB Blood Type diet is like the diet that our doctors tell us to eat when they find out that we are pre-diabetic, overweight or recovering from a disease: light on the meat and heavy on the veggies. Sadly, most of us won’t do well on that diet for the long term. Eating for our OWN blood type is the best way to recover from any disease and to prevent new diseases coming our way, simply because it allows our bodies to be at rest and in peace for a majority of the time.
Check here for an abbreviated list of foods that people with Blood Type AB should eat and avoid eating. Read the full Type AB food, exercise and stress management profiles on pgs. 294-238 of the book Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type.
My O Mission
On this website, I primarily focus on the profile of women with Blood Type O, since I am a Type O woman and share many of the issues that other Type O women experience. My bouts with digestive upset, thyroid malfunction, skin rashes, Candida overgrowth and much more are issues that are prevalent and yet go mistreated or overlooked by doctors. This has been my story.
I see this world currently as a man’s world and a vegan’s world, which leaves no place for a Type O, meat-eating women like me. So I’ve created that space so that we can be healthy and thriving in our own way, all while maintaining our femininity. If you’re a Type O woman and would like to learn more, be sure to grab my Blood Type Food List Starter Kit so that we can heal together.
