Anyone tried the Blood Type Diet? Is it legit?

My husband did it for about a year and a half. He was supposed to just eat vegetables. He was very, very disciplined about it. He gained about 50 pounds. He didn’t need
or want. He felt terrible all the time: hungry, cranky, and frustrated. Finally he began eating more animal protein and
instantly felt stronger. All the weight came off.
Just an anecdote.

Whoa!!! Really???
Do you mind sharing what his blood type is? Just curious.
Thanks for the input! Good to know!!!

Oh and I’m glad that he is doing better!

Please give us a link and/or explanation of the diet. Anything labeled “diet” is usually not a good long-term way of eating.

Um.. I don’t think he was supposed to eat only vegetables. That’s simply not healthy. Was he eating alternate forms of protein, such as tofu? It sounds like he’s a type A, in which case, tofu and other recommended forms of protein should work really well. Type A’s can eat chicken and lamb.. they’re considered ‘neutral’. Plus the Type A diet is high carbohydrate, low protein, so he should have been eating grains along with the fruit, veggies, and protein.

I do believe in this diet, but I don’t follow it to the letter. I’m a type A and really, tofu grosses me out like nobody’s business. I can’t eat anything I’ve cooked that has tofu in it. If someone else makes it, maybe. :)

I’ve studied a lot of biology and the science behind the diet makes a ton of sense. What really surprised me was reading through the list of ‘avoid’ foods, a bunch of which I had already figured out that my body doesn’t like, that I don’t digest well.

My friend who introduced this diet to me has some auto-immune health issues (she has dermatomyositis) and she swears by this diet. She’s much more disciplined than I am, so she has followed the diet to the letter and found that her health improved a lot. She had less flare-ups of the dermatomyositis, she lost weight, and generally felt a lot better.

@gailcalled – “diet” alone is not a bad word.. it just means what you eat, not necessarily a restriction.

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat.

The Blood Type Diet

Alena: I checked the site and couldn’t find my blood type (A negative). And it looked as tho the author was pushing the sale of lots of books, products, supplements, etc.

I love tofu, but as an estrogen positive breast cancer survivor, I eat none of it on Oncologists advice. I find that a mostly veggie, fruit, nuts, low dairy, no meat, rare fish and complex carbs work best for me, plus local organic produce and unsprayed everything. (I cheat in the summer with real ice cream.)

Check here – it’s a list of foods, which then give the blood type values.

The only reason the site “pushes” the books is because really, you have to get the book to fully understand. Once you have the book, you don’t have to buy anything else, if you don’t want. The book fully explains the science behind the diet, there’s a section for each blood type, and there are recipes. If you like the diet and want more, then there’s a cookbook. The other stuff is for people who want to know their secretor type, for example, and you can buy a test on the website.

What you stated in your last paragraph is spot-on for a type A. Low dairy, low meat, lots of veggies/fruits/nuts and carbs.

Some more links:
The Blood Type Diet: Getting Started

Answering the question “does it work?”:
RESOURCE: Blood Type Diet Results

Key Point: The blood type diet is quite effective, as measured by the large numbers of individuals who have reported their results. Interestingly, roughly 8 out of 10 individuals report a positive result from following the program, which is especially interesting in light of the fact that each of the four blood groups have quite different diets. What does that say about the wisdom of ‘one-size-fits-all’ diets?

To view the results of the Blood Type Diet by blood group, click on the links below:
* Blood Type AB
* Blood Type A
* Blood Type B
* Blood Type O

Thank you all for the feedback. So far I’ve been trying this out for almost a week now and have noticed a change in the way I feel. I don’t feel sick after eating…this was the main reason I went on this diet. I think it was the wheat that was making me feel sick and bloated after meals.
Planning on continuing, and cutting more “avoid” foods out. I’m starting out slow, the person who told me about this suggested that I slowing start cutting things out, so I don’t have any withdrawls! Hardest so far has been my morning coffee…but I’m over it now.

Thanks for checking back in. I’m also interested to know how other people do on the diet. Despite how it may seem here, I’m not a fanatical pro-Blood Type Diet person (I mean, I don’t even follow it to the letter), but I do believe in the science behind it. I, too, notice that I feel better when I eat “beneficial” and “neutral” foods.. my stomach and body don’t feel icky and bloated.

Something I continue to find very interesting.. I was reading in the BTD about how I should avoid most types of alcohol, beer and distilled liquors, but that red wine is beneficial. Since then, I have realized that I feel so totally crappy after I drink beer or liquor (even just one or two), so my reaction to red wine is kind of amazing in light of that. I always thought that alcohol made you feel terrible afterwards, I mean, I get digestive issues and generally feel awful the next day. I came to find that my body loves red wine; I have never been sick from drinking too much, I feel perfectly fine the next day, and I never have a hangover afterwards… even when I’ve consumed quite a bit.