The USDA Food Pyramid and the older ‘Four Basic Food Group’ theory represent a uniform approach to human nutrition. However, since they are based on a concept of disease treatment, their recommendations revolve around the prevention of deficiency diseases. Vitamin C, an important component of our immune system, is only recommended in amount (64 mg/day) sufficient to prevent scurvy, a deficiency disorder. Yet it is known that in instance of infection and in many other disease states, our amount for vitamin C can rise twentyfold. The prevention of deficiency diseases has little to do with functional need in our society, so the recommendations are for the most part useless in more specific treatment.

These dietary recommendations do have their value, however. They attempt to rectify malnutrition, which is a major worldwide dietary problem. They now promote the use of high fiber whole foods rather than processed foods, which for the average Westerner is a major step forward.

Unfortunately, conventional dietary recommendations are just that – conventional. What if you’re not suffering from malnutrition and have already begun using whole foods? Unlike Hippocrates, who counselled,

‘Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food’

, our modern nutritional principles are based on a separation of food and medicine.

The Blood Type Diet allow us to restore the interrelationship of the two. It has accomplished this by studying a diverse collection of factors, some of which would seem to be unrelated to the specific science: anthropology, genetics, immunological response, disease and so on.

When you choose your diet based on a comprehensive understanding of all these factors, you will find – perhaps to your amazement – that you have not chosen a diet at all. The truth is, the correct diet has already been chosen for you by your own blood type.

None of us have been created identically; each of us is unique, so we must be treated individually too. Different DNA, different blood type, thus different treatment and different diet.

For certain blood types, the Food Pyramid recommendations make a fair amount of sense. Fundamentally, however, the pyramid is based on the reductionistic model. It is based on a concept of disease treatment, in which the recommendations revolve around the prevention of deficiency diseases. Meaning that it doesn’t take into consideration dietary variations. For example, Type Os should not follow the basic pyramid recommendation of six to eleven servings of grain- based foods each day. And only Type B will benefit by eating the recommended amount of dairy foods. The Food Pyramid is probably closest to the needs of type A. However, even foods within categories – which are not distinguished from one another in this model – can have a huge impact. For example, while Type Bs thrive on regular portions of meat, chicken can cause havoc in their digestive and immune system.

Best advice is that you should not try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Create your own Food Pyramid based on the foods that are listed on your specific blood type chart for Type O, Type A, Type B, or Type AB.

All blood types should eat the recommended three to five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, but there is a wide divergence of choices in the level above, with two to three servings of dairy products as well as two to three servings of meat, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts. For some blood types, such recommendations can be a very poor choice, indeed! The top of the pyramid, in which fats, oils, and sweets are located, recommends using these items sparingly, ignoring the fact that for many people 40% or more of their diets are from this section. The Food Pyramid was created to help people understand what a healthy diet entails. As with many other things, we’ve grown more sophisticated in our assessment of such recommendations. They are well-meaning but inadequate.

The pyramid really was created to provide minimal nutritional standards that would avoid malnutrition. As with many guidelines, the data are far too broad to really shed light on individual needs.

References:

1. ” Eat Right 4 your Type”, Dr. Peter J.D’Adamo and Catherine Whitney, London: Century Books, 2001
2. “Cook Right 4 Your Type”, Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo and Catherine Whitney, Century, 2001
3. www.wikipedia.org