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- NEW YORK - The blood
type diet reads like a horoscope: Type Os are aggressive meat eaters; type
As are laid-back grain eaters; type Bs are "nomads" who should
graze through the food groups; and ABs are the Geminis of the nutritional
world, having the dual dietary personalities of types A and B.
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- This diet plan, based on the bestselling 1996 diet book
Eat Right for Your Type, has attracted numerous adherents, but it is supported
by little more scientific evidence than the idea that your destiny lies
in the stars, experts say.
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- "This is just trash," says Dr. Adam Drewnowski,
a nutrition researcher and director of the Nutrition Science Program at
the University of Washington.
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- Like followers of other popular book-based eating plans,
this diet's enthusiasts, who call themselves "Eat Righters,"
have their own cybercommunity where they can trade information about dietary
supplements, recipes and weight-loss issues specific to their blood type.
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- "I love the food on the type O plan, and I have
no desire to eat between meals or go off the diet," writes Edna, an
O-positive participant in this community, www.dadamo.com, in an e-mail.
"I have now lost close to 50 lbs., [and] it feels so natural, easy,
and right for me " like coming home after being away for a long time."
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- Other experts agree with Drewnowski. "If there were
any merit to the biological [connection between blood type and diet], we
would be looking into it," adds Cathy Nonas, a registered dietician
at the Vanitalli Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at St. Luke's
Roosevelt Hospital in New York.
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- Typing It Out
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- Is your blood type O? Then you,re a hardy hunter gatherer
who thrives on a carnivorous diet and vigorous exercise and who should
avoid wimpy foods like oat bran and corn flakes, says Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo,
the naturopathic doctor who wrote the book. In other words, stick to the
high-protein, low-carb diet that has lately become popular.
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- Type As, on the other hand, are the "cultivators,"
who do well to avoid meat altogether and should focus on complex carbohydrates
such as grains and vegetables. These people, D'Adamo says, should release
stress with calming activities such as yoga.
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- Type B, "the nomad," lies somewhere between
A and O and can enjoy a varied diet of carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables
and dairy products. True to its name, this type should engage in moderate,
mobile exercise such as walking or swimming.
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- Finally, type AB, "the enigma," is one that
doesn't seem to fit logically into the blood type system. This person may
have the intolerances of As and B and can eat a variety of foods that seems
to make no sense to those not versed in the obscure "science"
of blood typing.
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- The Heart of the Theory
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- D'Adamo derives his blood type theory from anthropology.
Since O was the first blood type to develop in evolution, people with this
blood type should eat like our primal hunter-gatherer ancestors, he reasons.
Type As should likewise eat like farmers because this blood type emerged
at roughly the same time, give or take a few millennia, as agricultural
communities.
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- Source: Dr. D'Adamo's Web site From left to right: Type
O, the hunter (strong, a leader); type A, the gatherer (cooperative, orderly);
type B, the nomad (flexible, creative); type AB, the enigma (charismatic,
mysterious)
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- Under the same logic, type Bs should eat like nomads
because this type appeared at the same time at the great global migrations.
Since type AB only emerged in the past 2,500 years, these types are not
as clearly defined by one evolutionary mode of living.
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- D'Adamo finds a scientific backing for this theory in
his own tests with lectins, proteins that he says tend to clump together
differently in people of different blood types. Since different kinds of
foods contain different types of lectins, food choices should vary according
to which type of lectins are compatible with your blood type, he says.
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- The problem with this theory? "I think it's wrong,"
says Dr. Dan Bessesen, associate director for Research Training at the
University of Colorado Center for Human Nutrition. "The data that
supports it is really bad data."
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- If It's Trash, Why's It So Popular?
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- This book, like other popular diet books, may derive
its success not from the merit of its claims but from the charisma of its
author and his compelling story of carrying on his father's legacy, Bessesen
believes.
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- Others think the book hooks into the psychology of exaggerated
individuality pop culture has fostered.
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- "People see themselves as not like other people,
and they are desperate to have something that works for them personally,"
says Drewnowski, "but unlike Oprah Winfrey, they cannot afford to
have their own personal chef and personal trainer."
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- The book, he adds, "is a cheap way of personalizing
medical or professional advice."
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- COMMENT
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- From Dr. J S Chiappalone <jstac@north.net.au 10-26-99
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- Hi Jeff
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- Hope you are well. I want to comment on the essay you
posted: 'Blood Type Diet' Meat Claims Demonstrate No Science By Marian
Jones
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- I was amused to read this essay sent to me from your
website by Thomas Austin of England.
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- Is it not amazing how the Arrogance of Ignorance always
seems to win the day - temporarily - until time exposes the Asses of Stupidity
who proudly wear the coats of blind scientific falsehood.
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- Galileo, the Father of Modern Science is reputed to have
words to the effect that "one fact of evidence is worth more than
a thousand so-called noble opinions".
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- The condemnation of the Blood Group diets, as revealed
in this essay you have posted highlights the fact that it is often the
so-called scientists who are bogged down in their own self-importance and
their own stupidity, and hubris, as in this case, and cannot see the evidence-based-truth
of the matter. Is it not the same with Ufology?
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- Scientific Arrogance has always been seen to be this
stupid since Galileo's time. For example, when Marconi sailed to England,
many of the "learned" Professors of Physics in that Enlightened
land colluded and convinced the Government of the Day to confiscate his
equipment and even lock the "crazy Italian" up in jail for, according
to them, they were sure, as sure as they could be, that Marconi's theories
where totally wrong and he would blow up the British Isles with his radio
experiments. Heeding such stupidity, the Government did stop Marconi. We
know the outcome, do we not?
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- Well, in relation to this diet, as in all other things,
nothing beats evidence. I know nothing about D'Adamo, nor have I ever met
him. I owe him nought. I came across people on this diet almost by accident.
Being interested in all aspects of Medicine, especially nutrition, I have
questioned many of the people who eat the way suggested. Not one has said
he or she feels worse for eating the prescribed foods. All say they feel
better! In fact, all say, specifically, when asked, that after a few weeks,
they feel worse if they eat foods from their "avoid list".
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- A return to the diet is marked by improved energy levels,
more stamina, less allergy, etc.
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- In my experience, the beneficial effects on chronic diseases
such as asthma, sinusitis and arthritis, and others, are almost instantaneous.
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- There is no doubt upper respiratory symptoms and excessive
mucous production are reduced. Even if this was to be psychosomatic - and
I cannot see how this could be, for few lay people would know to expect
such improvements - the diet is worth following.
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- When a food or additive which is on the "avoid"
list is unknowingly eaten - and this can happen when one does not prepare
the food personally - I have found that the patient's adverse reaction
tells him/her it has been in the food consumed.
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- There is more I could add, but, brevity prevails.
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- I suggest that the "knockers" do a trial of
their own, over reasonable time - say over 6 to 12 months - and then try
to refute, with evidence, not just arrogant opinion, that which is experientially,
pragmatically self-evident.
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- Galileo's Principle still stands: Evidence is the best
proof, not the mumbo jumbo rhetoric of convoluted explanations purporting
to be scientific.
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- The cheap shots at the end of the essay, against people
who are trying to improve their diets, on their own initiative, especially
as the allergenic and dangerous contents of foods are dramatically increasing,
are unwarranted, and expose of the makers of such unwarranted vulgar shots
as abusive ignoramuses.
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- Joseph Chiappalone
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- ****
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- Dr. J. S. Chiappalone ANNWN PUBLICATIONS PO Box 28, Malanda,
Australia, 4885 http://www.alphalink.com.au/~jdm or: http://www.cia.com.au/annwn
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