Blood Type Eating

No, this is not a message for vampires who might prefer the fruity notes and strong finish of a vintage type “O neg” on a chilly night by the fire in Transylvania. Today’s topic is the recent fashion of eating a specific way based on your blood type. This strange idea came from the book “Eat Right 4 Your Type” by Peter Adamson.

Supposedly, the author’s premise goes, there are certain blood types that need to eat meat all day long, some which must avoid dairy products, some that actually can’t abide any meat and others that cannot be doing with any wheat. First point to make is that there is no scientific basis for this idea. It has been discredited by many sources, but recently discussed in a Chicago Tribune article and thoroughly debunked in this article.  

The key to the success of this diet book is the exact same thing which made best-sellers of the Atkins diet book, the Zone diet, South Beach and others: telling people what they want to hear. This will always be profitable advice to offer, as people are very fond of their comfort zones.

Nutrition isn’t that hard to figure out. For generations, parents have been telling kids to finish their vegetables and to eat their apple a day to keep the doctor away. So when this author chose the largest blood group – type “O,” which is over 50% of the population – and told them they are natural meat eaters and they can eat all the meat they want, this was bound to be a very popular message. When he tells a smaller group – type “A,” that you poor idiots have to sit over there and eat your vegetables, he’s not expecting to sell many books to that group.

People of type “O” blood represent half of the 350 million people in America, which is a very good pool of the book-buying public for your target market. While all of his type “O” readers are in the drive-thru lane at KFC, proudly telling their friends they’re going to get a bucket of health food for their blood, this dude is counting his money while they’re counting their rising cholesterol levels.

There are no loopholes, no secret shortcuts for health. Eat your vegetables, have an apple, stick to whole grains. This is not a popular message and it won’t sell any diet books, but on the plus side, you get to keep your money in your wallet and forget about refilling that Lipitor prescription.

Today's recipe may be enjoyed by people of all blood types, rest assured. Another example of the excellent meals we enjoyed on our recent stay in Fort Myers (photo on the blog), the memory of which has just convinced us to book plane tickets to return again over March Break. And there was much rejoicing! It won't be long before this exciting news is the talk of the dog park at Seven Lakes.