The Blood Type Diet: an evidence-based review

A diet called The Blood Type Diet has been popular for nearly two decades.

Proponents of this diet suggest that blood type determines which foods are better for your health.

There are many people who swear by this diet, and claimed that he saved my life.

But what are the details of the blood type diet, and it is based on any hard evidence?

Let us take a look.

What is the blood type diet?

The blood type diet, which is also known as blood type diet popularized by a naturopathic doctor named Dr. Peter D'Adamo 1996.

His book, Eat Right 4 Your Type ^[1] was an incredible success. It was a bestseller in the New York Times has sold millions of copies and remains popular today.

In this book, that the optimal diet for an individual depends on the person 's ABO blood group ^[2] .

Says every blood group genetic characteristics of our ancestors, including what diet they developed to thrive in.

Thus, each blood group is supposed to eat:

• Type A: land called or a farmer. People who are type A should have a diet rich in plant foods, and completely free of "toxic" eat red meat ^[3] . This is very similar to a vegetarian diet.
• Type B: Call the homeless. These people can plant and most of the meat (except chicken and pork) to eat, and can also eat dairy products ^[4] . However, it should avoid wheat corn ^[5] , lentils, tomatoes, ^[6] and some other foods.
• Type AB is called the mystery. As a cross between types A and B. The described food to eat seafood, tofu, dairy products, beans and grains. Avoid grains ^[7] , cereals, beef and chicken.
• Type A: Call the hunter. It is a high protein diet based mainly on meat, fish, poultry, some fruits ^[8] and vegetables, but limited in cereals, legumes and dairy products. It is very similar to the Paleo diet ^[9] .

For the record, I think one of these eating habits would be an improvement for most people, regardless of their blood type.

The four diets (or "species to eat"), mainly on the basis of genuine health food ^[10] , and treat a vast improvement over the standard Western diet of junk food.

So even if you are going to improve these plans and their health, this does not necessarily mean that it had something to do with the blood type.

Perhaps the reason that health benefits is simply that you eat healthy foods than before.

Conclusion: A type of diet as a vegetarian diet, but type O is a high protein diet that is similar to the Paleo Diet. The other two are somewhere in between.

Lectins are a suggested link between diet and blood group

One of the most important theories of the blood type diet is related proteins ^[11] called lectins.

Lectins ^[12] are a heterogeneous family of proteins which can bind to sugar molecules.

These substances are called anti-nutritional factors ^[13] , and negative effects on the mucosa of the large intestine (have 1 ).

According to the theory of the blood type diet, there are a lot of food lectins that specifically target different ABO blood groups.

It is claimed that eating the wrong types of lectins could aggregation ^[14] (chipboard) red blood cells.

It is proved that a small percentage of the lectins raw, uncooked vegetables ^[15] , specific binding activity for a certain type of blood.

For example, raw beans only red blood cells in people with blood group A (interact 2 ).

In general, however, it appears that most binding lectins react with all blood groups (ABO 3 ).

In other words, the lectin in the diet not certain blood group, with the exception of certain varieties of raw vegetables.

This may be even some importance in the real world are soaked most of the vegetables and / or cooked before consumption, which destroys the harmful lectins ( 4 , 5 ).

Conclusion: Some foods contain lectins that can cause red blood cells clump together. Most lectins are no specific blood type.

Is there any scientific evidence behind the blood type diet?

Research ABO blood groups has increased in recent years and decades.

Now there is strong evidence that people with certain blood groups, a higher or lower risk for certain diseases (need 6 ).

For example, the S-type have a lower risk of heart disease, but an increased risk of stomach ulcers ( 7 , 8 ).

However, studies show that has something to do with food.

In a large observational study of 1,455 young adults, a type of diet (lots of fruits and vegetables), was associated with better health indicators. However, this effect was observed throughout the next type A diet that not only people with blood group A ( 9 ).

In an important study, 2013 where researchers examined data from more than a thousand studies have not found a single well-designed look at the impact on the health of the blood type diet (study 10 ).

She concluded: "There is no evidence currently exists to the health benefits of so-called blood group to examine diet."

Of the four studies identified some related to ABO blood group diet, everyone was poorly designed ( 11 , 12 , 13 ).

One study found an association between blood type and allergies act was contrary to the recommendations of the blood type diet ( 13 ).

Conclusion: There is a well-designed study was conducted to confirm or refute the benefits of the blood type diet.

Message Home

I have no doubt that many people have experienced positive results after the diet. However, this does not mean that it was related to your blood type in any way.

Different diets work for different people. Some people do well with many plants and some meat (such as the Type A diet), other developing eating a lot of protein-rich foods (such as regime type O) of animal origin.

If you have received very good results on the blood type diet, maybe you just have a diet that is suitable for metabolism. It may have had nothing to do with blood type.

In addition, this system eliminates most unhealthy processed foods ^[16] the men of power.

Perhaps this is the main reason that it works regardless of the different types of blood.

That is, if you went on the diet for blood group and it works for you, then by all means keep doing it and do not let this article discouraged.

If your diet is not broke, do not fix it.

From a scientific point of view, however, the amount of evidence for the blood type diet is particularly disappointing.

Credentials

1. ^{^} Eat Right 4 Your Type (www.amazon.com)
2. ^{^} ABO blood group (en.wikipedia.org)
3. ^{^} red meat (authoritynutrition.com)
4. ^{^} milk (authoritynutrition.com)
5. ^{^} maize (authoritynutrition.com)
6. ^{^} tomatoes (authoritynutrition.com)
7. ^{^} beans (authoritynutrition.com)
8. ^{^} fruits (authoritynutrition.com)
9. ^{^} Paleo Diet (authoritynutrition.com)
10. ^{^} healthy foods (authoritynutrition.com)
11. ^{^} proteins (authoritynutrition.com)
12. ^{^} lectins (en.wikipedia.org)
13. ^{^} antinutrients (en.wikipedia.org)
14. ^{^} agglutination (en.wikipedia.org)
15. ^{^} legumes (authoritynutrition.com)
16. ^{^} processed foods (authoritynutrition.com)