The blood type diet recommends eating different foods based on your blood type. While you could lose weight on this diet, it probably has nothing to do with your blood type.
Should your blood type determine what kind of food you should eat? One fad diet says you should focus on certain foods depending on what’s coursing through your veins, but science says otherwise.
The blood type diet claims that your healthy eating plan should be based on your blood type. But according to science, eating for your blood type isn’t likely to help you lose weight or miraculously make you healthy. Instead, following any healthy diet plan and sticking to an exercise routine are more likely to help you reach your health goals.
What Is the Blood Type Diet?
In 1996, naturopathic physician Peter J. D’Adamo published a book titled “Eat Right 4 Your Type.” The book’s premise is that our bodies respond to different foods based on the four major blood groups: A, B, AB or O. The book claims that each blood type processes some foods better than others and provides specific dietary and exercise recommendations for each blood type.
The book made the best seller lists, and many people decided to find out their blood type in the pursuit of weight loss. People looking to lose weight were intrigued by a diet proposed by a physician that brought a new spin to dieting: eating for your blood type. As with other specialty diets, the blood type diet has received its fair share of both promotion and criticism.
It may help you lose weight in the short term, but not for the reasons it claims.
Best Weight Loss Diets
| RANK | DIET | OVERVIEW |
| No. 1 | WeightWatchers | WeightWatchers is focused on inspiring healthy living and improving overall well-being. That includes taking a holistic approach to help members eat healthier and move more. |
| No. 2 | Dash Diet | DASH diet, which stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension, is a flexible, balanced and heart-healthy eating plan promoted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to stop (or prevent) high blood pressure. |
| No. 3 (tie) | Mayo Clinic Diet | Using evidence-based behavioral science, the Mayo Clinic diet is a 12-week program that is designed to establish healthy habits for life. |
| No. 3 (tie) | TLC Diet | The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet calls for eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, bread, cereals and lean meats. The guidelines are broad enough that you’ll have a lot of latitude with what you eat. |
| No. 5 | Flexitarian Diet | With a flexitarian diet, also known as a semi-vegetarian diet, you don’t have to completely eliminate meat to reap the health benefits associated with vegetarianism. |
How the Blood Type Diet Supposedly Works
The book says that not only food, but also your choice of condiments, spices, supplements, relaxation techniques and exercise should depend on your blood type. For instance, those who have type O blood are better served by high-intensity aerobic exercise and advised to take supplements for their digestive tracts, while those with type A blood should stick with low-intensity workouts and take up meditation.
The “Eat Right 4 Your Type” guidelines promote these general recommendations.
Type A
The guidelines call those with type A blood sensitive, creative and analytical and recommends taking up centering exercises and meditation in addition to avoiding “triggers” like alcohol, sugar and caffeine. Instead, they recommend a largely vegetarian diet, including vegetables, seafood, tofu, grains and legumes.
Type B
The blood type diet recommends a “balanced omnivore” diet for people with type B blood. This would include fruits, vegetables, grains, seafood, meat and dairy, and limit chicken, corn, lentils, sesame seeds and wheat. Moderate levels of activity like hiking and swimming are also recommended.
Type AB
For those with type AB blood, the guidelines recommend a mixed diet of lamb, fish, legumes, grains, vegetables, fruit and dairy. They recommend avoiding corn, chicken, buckwheat and kidney beans. Additionally, they note that adding calming, moderate exercise like yoga with cycling or swimming can be beneficial.
Type O
The blood type diet recommends high-protein foods, claiming that someone with type O blood is more likely to be a “self-reliant leader.” They recommend intense physical activity, along with a diet of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. For a type O blood diet, they also recommend avoiding wheat, corn, some beans and dairy.
What the Actual Science Says
The science says, emphatically, that there is no relationship between blood type and foods that will improve your health. A 2013 analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concludes: “No evidence currently exists to validate the purported health benefits of blood type diets.”
“There are no new studies to date that I could find that provide any substantiation for the correlation between blood type and food,” says Elizabeth DeRobertis, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator with Scarsdale Medical Group, an affiliate of White Plains Hospital in New York.
There have been studies that debunk the diet’s claims, however. A 2020 study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group of 12,000 doctors, found no association between blood type and body weight, body fat, plasma lipid (blood fats) concentrations or glycemic (blood sugar) control.
“We found that blood type made no difference,” Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the study’s author, said in a release. “While the blood type diet says that a plant-based diet should be better for blood type A and less so for blood type O, it turned out to be beneficial for people of all blood types, and there was no evidence that meaty diets are good for anyone.”
The blood type diet may help someone to lose weight, DeRobertis says, but only because when someone follows an eating program like this one, they are cutting out foods and likely taking in fewer calories than they did before. “This would be the primary reason for the weight loss,” she says.
People may also lose weight because this plan does not include processed foods or foods that are high in calories, sugar or saturated fat.
“So, for many people, this may be an improvement over their current style of eating,” DeRobertis says. “I have heard people say that they did lose weight on the blood type diet, but usually they realize it is because they reduced their calories by cutting out less healthy foods, and sometimes even full categories of foods that they ate in the past.”
But that benefit is at best only a short-term one. Diets that recommend cutting out foods entirely, especially foods you like, are unlikely to work in the long-term, which can result in a dangerous cycle of yo-yo dieting.
Is the Blood Type Diet Harmful?
“If someone has very poor eating habits, and this approach motivates them and speaks to them, they can certainly try it as a way to take a step in the direction of more thoughtful eating. There will likely be no harm or downfall to following this plan,” DeRobertis says.
The plan itself does steer people towards generally healthy foods, but contains unnecessary restrictions for some people. It’s important to talk with your doctor when starting any diet to make sure you’re still taking in all of the nutrients you need. For example, if your blood type plan eliminates dairy, make sure you get enough calcium from nondairy sources.
The only danger of following the blood type diet, DeRobertis adds, is “feeling duped or misled when someone finds out that this approach is lacking credible evidence.”
“Honestly, it’s kind of sad,” says Wesley McWhorter, the director of culinary nutrition for the Nourish Program at the Center for Healthy Living at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. “There is so much misinformation from people with a vested interest in making money selling a bad diet. That’s what this is,” McWhorter says. Restricting objectively healthy foods just because of your blood type “doesn’t make any sense.”
Better Diets to Follow
Other diets may help you reach your health or weight loss goals without unnecessary restriction or blood testing. In fact, it may be more pertinent to choose a diet based on your specific health conditions and goals.
For example, those with diabetes may instead try one of U.S. News’s Best Diets for Diabetes in 2023:
If you’re looking to lose weight, try one of U.S. News’s Best Weight-Loss Diets of 2023:
As always, it’s best to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before starting a new diet, even if it claims to be the secret to longevity or weight loss.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Source: https://health.usnews.com/wellness/food/articles/does-the-blood-type-diet-help-you-lose-weight
