It's been two years since I first heard about The Blood Type Diet, or BTD.
I was at my first appointment with a naturopathic doctor. I was concerned about excessive appetite and sugar cravings, weight gain, plus brain fog, especially after lunch when I'd sink into a semi-vegetative state. I had already started to buy pants two sizes larger.
But I knew a bit about nutrition. I had already realized that cereal for breakfast was not good enough. It was pretty obvious, actually. I'd eat breakfast and then shower and shave. By the time I was heading out the door, I'd have a terrible empty gnawing feeling in my stomach, plus a case of the shakes. I figured my blood sugar was on a roller coaster ride.
When the ND found out that I have type O blood, he urged me to try the Blood Type Diet. I borrowed his copy of the Peter D'Adamo book, "Eat Right 4 Your Type," which described this new way of eating, which involved red meat and fish and certain vegetables and a little bit of "ancient grains." Some foods such as beef, lamb, cod, broccoli, kale, were classified as "Highly Beneficial;" others such as wheat, diary, corn, were classified as "Avoids."
The first change I made was to eliminate bread. Lunch changed from a sandwich to some slices of roast beef and salad greens. The result -- I no longer dozed off after lunch.
As I avoided wheat and corn, the pain in my joints went away. Without dairy, my sinuses were clearer and my allergy symptoms were much milder. We decided to get a cat, and, with the help of "Allergies: Fight Them with The Blood Type Diet," the usual symptoms of watery eyes and runny nose and asthma failed to materialize.
Best of all, my waist line shrunk. I lost a little weight and had fewer cravings. The weight-loss increased the more compliant to the diet I became.
I feel like I've gotten my life back. I managed to reverse a collision course with decrepitude, and I'm looking forward to living out my best years with health and strength!
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16 comments:
Hey there Mr Peg~ Congrats on all of the shifts and changes that you have experienced with this way of eating. Sounds like your body has loved it!
This is absolutely amazing stuff. I have never heard of this before and I shall investigate this further and perhaps get a copy of the book too. Thanks for posting about your experience. I can relate to you.
I have heard of the diet and tried it a bit. It's SO hard for me to stick to anything that makes me cut anything out entirely though. I just don't have the willpower!
Yep, I remember beef being a good thing for my blood type (B+) and I'm allergic to so much that it sorta screws with the rest of the diet. I'm actually... giving up dairy. Yeps. I literally like don't even want to touch it any more. Lot of great info on the web (ah yes, the "all knowing" source *snicker*) about how nasty dairy is for humans. Meanwhile I'm flailing a bit, because of my AS-and-genetic hyper tastebuds that don't like rice milk or soy milk/cheese. Argh. BUT. I'm... doing it.
So glad the blood type diet helped you out! ^___^
I have done some research now and find that there has not been any scientific statistical support for this fad. I am rather weary about trying it out.
Hi rummuser:
It's true there are no studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the diet. But there are studies that show that lectins in certain foods have a negative effect on different blood types. The diet approach merely extrapolates based on those results.
Also, a lack of studies doesn't mean it won't work for you. If you know your blood type and can borrow the book, you can try it for yourself with no cost to you.
Good luck and thanks for posting.
Hi Petra:
It's hard for me to stick to the diet too. One of our daughter's favorite foods was mac-n-cheese -- the exact opposite of what I should eat.
Also the diet is expensive in that it calls for no cheap processed foods. And some of the common foods should be replaced with less common ones. For example, instead of eating peanuts, which you can buy for about $3/lb, the diet recommends walnuts at more than $8/lb.
But after I started to see results, I was motivated to comply more closely.
Good luck with your approach! I'm looking forward to reading about your "secret method."
Hi Tirsden:
Any food allergies or intolerances override the diet, unfortunately.
Good luck with giving up dairy. I've given up only milk and cheese. But yogurt is one of my staples. And I don't bother to avoid foods that are made with dairy products. Yet.
I heard that cow's milk contains a substance that has a calming effect, which compels people to eat/drink it even when they know they shouldn't.
Thanks, Lynne. I *am* loving it!
Ooh interesting about the calming effect ("warm milk before bed" hmmmm). I can't eat yogurt cuz it gives me migraines, haven't had it in 10+ years. I'm almost done phasing into rice milk (well, for cereal anyways, which is mostly what I use milk for now anyways) and I discovered the hard way that soy cheese has naturally-occurring MSG due to the processing. x_x ...so still looking for a cheese substitute... that or something else to eat for lunch/dinner/etc than quesadillas. xD
Hi Tirsden:
That's interesting about MSG in soy cheese. Sometimes it's better to just give up certain foods than to try substituting.
I've tried non-dairy frozen desserts such as Rice Dream and Soy Delicious. They actually make me sicker than regular ice cream. I'm guessing it's because of the thickeners like guar gum or carageenen.
I wonder if there's something you could add to your rice milk to make it better. One idea is to mix in some sort of protein powder. Rice milk has a lot less protein than regular milk anyway, so it would be a good nutritional enhancement.
Good luck!
Yeah, just have to watch for milk products in protein powders... I'm not even sure I can use them for other reasons (haven't looked in ages). Rice milk actually tastes ok/good to me now in cereal (day 4 I didn't use any dairy milk, and day 3 it only took a tiny bit to make it okay)...but then ironically the puffed rice I eat tastes a bit like rice milk anyways.
Yeah, I'm just plain giving up cheese at this point. Gonna place a big online order for NoNuts Pea Butter so I can have my wannabe peanut butter back. Mwahahahaha... goes perfect with tortillas. Quesadilla replacement, go! XD The pea butter is good stuff (especially compared to soy butter, blargh), have missed it! And it has about a year of shelf life too.
Have ordered for the book SP. Let me see how it works out. I shall revert after I experiment with some of the recommendations.
I have got the book and find it quite interesting. Appears to be quite logical too. Shall keep you informed. Thanks.
Hi rummuser:
Good luck!
I hope you'll visit the forums on the Blood Type website for motivation and answers to any questions you might have.
You sound like my husband. We're about 3 weeks into the diet, and I can tell a big difference in him, and he's starting to believe it, too -- particularly the grains making him sluggish and having brain fog.
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