“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Eat Right for Your Blood Type
Following extensive research Dr Peter D’Adamo has created a detailed dietary and lifestyle recommendations specific to one’s blood type.
Over the several decades, Dr D’Adamo and his team of researchers have identified over 1,000 common foods that contain powerful proteins called lectins. Depending on our particular blood type we react in particular ways to to different food lectins.
The main areas on influences being ; Ideal Body Weight, Optimum Energy Levels, Healthy Digestion, and, Mental Clarity.
I work with blood type by incorporating it into programs that are primarily specific to the individual.
For example, after consuming any number of foods containing wheat, blood types O experience fatigue, bloating and other digestive problems. This may be more than a simple ‘food intolerance’. The walls of the stomach and intestines are lined with sensitive receptors that interact with, and respond to the lectin in wheat. At first, one might only experience that wheat lectin interaction as a mild digestive problem, or a dull, listless feeling after consuming a white bread sandwich but over time this can develop into consistent weight gain, digestive related complaints and loss of energy.
Another example is after consuming dairy products blood A types can experience digestive related complaints. On the other hand blood B types appear to tolerate dairy symptom free.
Weight Loss
In the study conducted involving 6617 individuals who reported their results from following the Blood Type Diet for a period of one month or more, three out of four had significant improvement in a variety of health conditions.
Weight loss was the effect most often observed but a number of reports detailed improvements in digestive function, resistance to stress, overall energy and mental clarity.
Made Easy
Having done the blood test and established your blood type we go through the details on your diet sheet. This is made easy by having the foods broken into three categories.
The first category is what is benefical to you, these are the foods that help balance your metabolism to an optimum level, increase energy levels, promote mental clarity and a healthy digestive tract.
The second category is what we describe as neutral.
The third category is the list of food to avoid, these being the foods that result in weight gain, fatigue, reduced mental clarity and a range of digestion related complaints such as a bloated feeling, irritable bowel, and heartburn.
Exercise
Again with research Dr D’Adamo has created recommendations best suited to the different blood groups.
For instance O Blood types benefit best from energetic exercise whereas A Blood types are better suited to a more gentle form of exercise such as tai chi or yoga. Type B’s do best with moderate physical exercise such as tennis, swimming and hiking.
Type AB’s have over time evolved as an amalgamation of types A and B, the benefit from a combination of type A and B exercise recommendations.
Irish Blood Types
Approximately 55% of Irish people are blood type O. 31% belong to type A.
11% are blood type B and just 3% of Irish people belong to type AB.