Blood Type Diet; How it Improved My Life
How I Got Started
Throughout my life I’ve had a lot of GI problems, everything from stomach aches, to nausea, to at one point, vomiting as soon as I woke up in the morning and throughout the day. As you can imagine, I’ve tried many things to figure out what’s going on and to feel better.
Today I feel great, it’s now rare for me to get a stomachache or get nauseous. There were many pieces to the puzzle, and I’m sure I’ll discover more.
But the most recent one was the Blood Type Diet. I had heard my mom talk about this years ago, but didn’t pay much attention or think it applied to me. Then, when I was doing one of my health coaching calls, one of the people I coach told me about it, and said that he was going to start it.
This grabbed my curiosity. I started reading about my blood type and realized a lot of the characteristics they were describing sounded like me. For each blood type, there are lists of foods, by type. And for each type of food, i.e. vegetables, foods are listed as beneficial, neutral, or harmful.
For my blood type, (B), there were also a few foods listed that are especially bad. These are chicken, corn, wheat, buckwheat, tomatoes, lentils, peanuts, and sesame seeds. This made a lightbulb go off for me.
Part of the problem...
Previous to this diet, I had been on an extremely strict diet for 8 months, trying to get rid of all of my symptoms. I had cut out all pasta, rice, breads, white foods, sugar, and alcohol. Basically, I was just eating fruits, vegetables and meat. And despite never “cheating” on this diet, I still had times when I wasn’t feeling great. But on this diet, I was eating chicken about 90% of the time, in terms of meat. I thought chicken was healthy, and it’s generally a cheaper meat. Also, I was only eating organic, pasture raised, chicken so I assumed I was safe.
I decided to follow the blood type diet as best I could; one huge change was cutting out all chicken, and trying to avoid the other things on the especially bad list. Within a week, I really noticed a difference. Stomachaches went away, nausea went away. I didn’t feel bloated after eating, I didn’t feel tired after eating, didn’t have those huge blood sugar swings where I’d feel like I was “starving.”
To find out more...
If you’re curious to read about your blood type, or try out the diet. You can get an app on your phone: Blood Type Diet. The little picture for the app says Eat Right 4 Your Type. It costs $5, and I love it. It has all the lists of the foods. When I am out to eat or at a party, or even the grocery store, I can quick check my app and see what foods fall most into my beneficial and neutral categories.
You could also read the book: Eat Right 4 Your Type by Peter J. D’Adamo. I have read this as well and found it to be worth reading. Quite a bit of the info overlaps with the app, but you’ll find more detailed info in the book and some additional facts.
Screen shot of the app showing Beneficial, Neutral, and Avoid for Blood Type B in the Beans & Legumes category
Real Life Examples: 2 Cases
2 of the people I coach have also done the diet for their blood type. One of them has fibromyalgia, and on the call where she decided to try the diet, she was in so much pain and had such low energy she thought she was going to have to quit her job, even though she couldn’t afford to. She was spending all day in bed, having to sleep. She tried the diet for 90 days with her husband (they each followed their own blood type). Her energy massively improved, she was able to keep her job & she had enough energy to join a yoga class (she hadn’t worked out in a year). Another bonus: a painful rash that she always had on her arms went away (she found she is allergic to gluten). Her husband lost 25 pounds.
The other person I coach that tried it, was also finding it almost impossible to get out of bed each day. He has pain in every joint, has had a ton of surgeries and is on a massive list of medications. He hasn’t been able to work in 2 years. He did it for 30 days. In those 30 days he also experienced a massive increase in energy. He was able to get out of bed much earlier, he was able to do his PT exercises, he started cooking more at home. He started looking into jobs he thought he could do. Update as of yesterday (he's now been on the diet for 5 months)… he is moving to the Dominican Republic to do organic farming AND he’s going to use his organic produce in a restaurant he’s starting. Pretty big shift from not being able to get out of bed or move!
Curious yet? Check it out!
Comment and let me know if you've heard of this diet or if you've tried it and how did it work for you?