Blood Type Diet: “I ate according to blood type for a month and it changed my life”

If you’ve never heard of the blood type diet, I’ll give you some background.

It was a diet popularized—emphasis on the word popular, not invented—by a book Eat right for your type by naturopath Peter D’Adamo back in 1996.

The diet theory is that the ABO blood type should correspond to the eating habits of our ancestors, and people with different blood types process food differently. Body + Soul reports.

To take it a step further, avid dieters, myself included about a month ago, believe that personality is influenced by blood type.

For more such stories, see bodyandsoul.com.au

Most recently, I was introduced to D’Adam’s book during a routine trip to the Colon Care Center in Bondi for my annual colon procedure (it’s 2018, surely I can talk about it publicly now, right?) center founder Anna Paredes . She’s a big fan of the diet, first introduced to D’Adamo’s book in 2000.

“Being a dietitian, I found that the dietary guidelines taught in dietetics degrees still aim to treat everyone the same,” says Ms. Paredes.

“It can be hit and miss for different people, but once I came across the blood type diets, I found that they are really accurate advice for four distinct groups of people.”

Diet horoscope

Ms. Paredes’ centers combine colonic hydrotherapy (irrigation of the colon) with diets, prescribing a meal plan along with the course of treatment.

“The practitioner can visually assess with a colonic procedure certain foods that the body reacts to and cannot break down.”

Ms. Paredes sees it as rebooting the body, helping people find the food they were born to eat.

Personally, I found D’Adam’s book akin to devouring my last horoscope, but it was actually insightful, accurate, and descriptive.

It confirmed facts I had known about myself for a long time, but had never publicly acknowledged. Like how I cope – or rather, don’t cope – with stressful situations (crowds of people, loud noises, negative emotions), the importance of going to bed early and getting a full eight hours of sleep, and how calming exercises (Pilates, yoga) bring me more benefits than high-energy training.

It also suggests that I need to cultivate an outlet for creative expression, so I took a ceramics class and have never felt more fulfilled.

Suggested diets for each blood group

And while the book deals with dieting in the traditional sense, weight loss is often a happy side effect.

D’Adamo claims that Type A thrives on a vegetarian diet.

“If you’re used to eating meat, you’ll lose weight and have more energy if you eliminate toxic foods from your diet,” D’Adamo writes.

“Many people find it difficult to switch from regular meat and potatoes to soy proteins, grains and vegetables. But for sensitive type A people, it is especially important to eat food as naturally as possible: clean, fresh and organic.”

So I went green, eliminating meat (chicken, red meat, processed meat) from my daily diet and eating a mostly vegetarian diet with occasional seafood and eggs.

I gave up dairy years ago, so I pretty much ate vegan 50 percent of the time and pescetarian the other 50 percent.

And while I did not adhere to it rigidly (I love anchovies and wouldn’t turn them down to anyone) At the grocery store, I avoided the ingredients on the must-avoid list, like coconut milk, eggplant, mushrooms, and beans.

For a month I lived like a true prophet of D’Adamo, and I was the picture of health.

All signs of brain fog and anxiety were gone, and I felt refreshed from the second I opened my eyes in the morning…in fact, I never snoozed my alarm the entire month.

My skin has never looked better, and my skinniest jeans fit without a hitch for the first time in years.

Of course, the verdict still does not establish the legitimacy of the principles of blood grouping, and it has been widely criticized for its lack of scientific credibility, but what critics cannot deny is that following the whole foods diet it recommends can do no harm .

As with everything, this is very personal, so don’t hesitate to consult your doctor if you have any concerns.

It was first published on Body + Soul and is reproduced here with permission

Originally published as ‘Life Changing’: The Blood Type Diet Could Be The Next Big Thing