Monday, January 28, 2008

Eat Right for Your Blood Type

I am quickly losing topics to discuss. We did talk about a whole lot on my first weekend at school, but a lot of it was laying the foundation for things to come. It was an anatomy class and we went over all the systems of the body. Therefore there wasn't all that much that I can share with you that would be interesting to you. But, I have a few more I think I can touch on later.

I recently bought a book called "Eat Right for Your Blood Type". I have barely read it, so I won't even try to get too in depth - I will do that after I read some more. But, what a concept? Having a diet specific to YOUR blood type. Makes sense, doesn't it? When you eat, your digestive tract, but mainly small intestines, absorb the nutrients and they are taken right into your bloodstream. Well, if your blood has or doesn't have certain cells or attributes of those cells, that would affect the way in which your body handles the things you are bringing in. That is why they are careful when taking blood, donating blood or giving a person someone else's blood - because the types are all different. They have different qualities, therefore they do things differently.

I am a blood type A. I found this out from a blood type test. We had to prick my finger and squeeze out some blood on test sheets. I couldn't do it myself, so my dad did it for me. (I can't handle blood at all! That's why I got into this sort of health care =] ) Based on the results I am an A. So I have been doing a lot of in depth research on my blood type - then I will learn about the rest. As for me and my blood, we thrive on vegetarian diets. Not only no meat, but also no dairy (or very, very small amounts) - so more of a vegan diet. That has been pretty hard. I am focusing on those first - cutting out the dairy and bringing in soy and cutting out the meat. After I get a handle on that, I will get into avoiding the other foods it recommends I avoid. It is tough for sure. I have never really been much of a meat eater, but for some reason knowing that it would not be good for me to have it makes it worse. And guess what else? Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are NEGATIVE to my health because of my certain lectins they have in them. Do you understand the significance of that? NO HUMMUS! I almost cried. That is basically the best food ever. And no olives or pickles or mangos. That is really rough but that isn't even the half of it. I know it sounds weird, but those foods, although some are healthy and natural, they have certain qualities that inhibit the health of us type As.

It is one hard pill to swallow this whole thing, but I see the benefit of eating according to your blood type. This shows why diets work for some people and not others. If you know your blood type, let me know and I can give you some details on what to avoid.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it the type they tell you when you give blood? For example Im A positive

Jennifer D. said...

What about O positive?

Julie said...

Yup, you can find out your blood type when you give blood. When I have more time later I will write more about blood type A's and O's.

Anonymous said...

Can you let me know a little about B positive, Julie? Thanks.

**Kathryn Joy** said...

I'm AB+. Let me know what I can do/not do!