‘Life-changing’: Blood type diet could be the next big thing

It’s a diet that’s been around for decades – though you’ve probably never heard of it. But after trying it for a month, one woman swears she’s converted.

As a Type A, I was told I’d flourish as a vegetarian, that I should pick yoga over HIIT and that taking up pottery could revolutionise my world.

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

It was a diet popularised – emphasis on the word ‘popularised’, not invented – by the book Eat Right For Your Type by naturopath Peter D’Adamo way back in 1996.

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

To take it one step further, hard-core advocates of the diet, including me as of about a month ago, believe that personality is influenced by blood type.

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The diet theorises that different blood types process food differently.

I was introduced very recently to D’Adamo’s book on a routine trip to Colon Care Centre in Bondi for my annual colonic (it’s 2018, surely I can talk about this publicly now right?) by the centre’s founder Anna Paredes. She is a big fan of the diet, first introduced to D’Adamo’s book in the year 2000.

“Being a nutritionist myself, I found that the dietary recommendations taught in nutritional degrees were still targeted to treat everyone in the same way,” Ms Paredes says.

“It can be a hit and miss with different people, but once I came across the blood type diets I found that it really finetuned advice for four individual groups of people.”

The horoscope of diets

Ms Paredes’s centres pair colon hydrotherapy (colonic irrigation) with the diets, prescribing a meal plan along with a course of treatments.

“The practitioner can visually assess through the colonic elimination procedure certain foods that the body reacts to and can’t break down.”

Ms Paredes considers it a body reset, helping people to find the foods they were born to eat.

I personally found D’Adamo’s book akin to devouring my latest horoscope, but it was actually insightful, accurate and descriptive.

It confirmed facts I’ve long since realised about myself but never acknowledged publicly. Like the ways I handle – or more accurately don’t handle – stressful situations (crowds of people, loud noises, negative emotions), the importance of going to bed early and having a full eight hours of sleep, and how calming exercises (pilates, yoga) benefit me more than high-energy workouts.

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

The diet divides people by blood type and ranges from a near-vegetarian diet for type A to something resembling a paleo diet for type O.

Suggested diets for each blood type

And while the book addresses diet in a traditional sense, losing weight does often eventuate as a happy side effect.

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

“If you are accustomed to eating meat, you will lose weight and have more energy once you eliminate the toxic foods from your diet,” D’Adamo writes.

“Many people find it difficult to move away from the typical meat and potato fare to soy proteins, grains and vegetables. But it is particularly important for sensitive Type As to eat their foods in as natural a state as possible: pure, fresh and organic.”

So I went green, cutting out meat (chicken, red meat, processed meats) from my weekday diet, and eating a majority vegetarian diet with the occasional spot of seafood and eggs.

I cut out dairy years ago, so I was practically eating as a vegan 50 per cent of the time and a pescetarian the other 50 per cent.

And while I didn’t stick to it rigidly (I love anchovies and wouldn’t give them up for anybody) I dodged ingredients on the ‘avoid’ list at the grocery store like coconut milk, eggplant, mushrooms and kidney beans.

No scientific studies have been conducted to either confirm or refute the benefits of the blood type diet. Picture: iStock

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

All signs of brain fog and anxiety dissolved, and I felt energised from the second I opened my eyes in the morning … in fact, I didn’t snooze the alarm once that whole month.

My skin had never looked better, and my tightest of skinny jeans did up without a struggle for the first time in years.

Sure, the verdict is still out on the legitimacy of the blood type principles, and it has been widely criticised for a lack of scientific credibility, but what critics cannot deny is that following his recommended diet of whole foods can’t really do any harm.

As with all things, it is deeply personal so feel free to consult a doctor if you have any concerns.

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