Diet fads and crazes seem to sweep the country almost weekly. There are low fat diets, high fat diets, all meat diets, no carbohydrate diets and vegetarian diets, just to name a few. And these diets seem to work with varying degrees of success; some people swear by certain diets and some people just never seem to make a diet work for them. Perhaps the same diets do not work for everyone because everyone is different, with different dietary needs and with different hereditary inclinations.
At least, that is the premise of the blood type diet, a diet that determines what you should and should not eat by your genetic make up. The blood type diet, as explained in the book Eat Right 4 Your Type, by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo, puts forth that everyone’s genetic history is very important in deciding what a person should and should not eat. For example, those with the blood type O should eat more meat than those with other blood types because of their heredity. Those with blood type A, however, should eat predominantly vegetables while those with blood type B should eat both and also should consider dairy an important part of their diet.
The question really is, what makes this diet any better than any others? Well, the science of the book, some contend, is a bit flimsy. For one thing, it is possible to deprive yourself of important nutrients on this diet by cutting certain food groups out of your diet. Nutrient deficiency is too high a price to pay for weight loss.
However, if you like lists and making a set schedule, if this helps you achieve your goals, then this diet is for you because it is very specific about what you should eat, how it should be prepared, and when you should eat it. For many people, this is a turn off, but for some people that is a very compelling, positive aspect of the diet.
However, the diet also provides trouble if the whole family wants to diet together because, chances are, not the whole family will have the same blood type. Therefore, everyone will have to eat a different meal, and that can be very strenuous on the chef.
Furthermore, at least part, if not the majority, of the weight loss that occurs on the blood type diet is a result of limiting the amount of food you eat. Basically, that is the same as any common sense diet. For that reason, it is hard to understand why anyone would need anything as specific as the blood type diet.
When it comes down to it, everybody knows the “secret” to weight loss; eat less, or at least less fatty, high calorie foods, and get some more exercise. Fewer calories in, more calories out. Therefore, it is hard to say the blood type diet, as proposed by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo, is any better for weight loss than any other diet, but it is certainly no worse. And, like all diets, it helps people set objectives and then meet those goals and that always helps people keep running what is essentially a weight loss marathon.