Eat Right for Your Type

Rating:
Summary: This is the last diet book I'll buy.
Review: I'm very health conscious, and have tried every reasonable diet published to improve energy, moods and reduce illness. This diet makes SENSE from a scientific point of view, and is based on a culmination of research from many fields inclduing immunology and anthropology. The recommended changes are pretty dramatic because our American diet is filled with "avoid" foods, following the diet requires a certain level of committment. My committment has paid off, and I have not had an illness including cold or flu since I began to follow it stricly. I am a type A, and have modified Dr. D'Amo's plan slightly by eliminating all dairy products (he allows for some including yogurt). My roommates, one a type O and the other a type B, after my urging have reluctantly followed the diet during a test period. They report more energy and fewer illnesses, but find it difficult to stick to because the "junk" foods they like most are precisely what they're supposed to avoid. Willpower is an issue. As a general rule of thumb, following a more asian-style diet makes compliance with his plan much easier. The personality, exercise and supplement section make sense although they are more speculative. Get your blood type tested; otherwise, this book is not relevant. It's free if you donate blood.

Rating:
Summary: Information turned continued failure into success.
Review: After years and years of frustration, Dr. D'Adano's book has turned my life around. It wasn't just being overweight and with little energy, it was also the well intended but cruel remarks made by insensitive people, that was so discouraging. After one week on the program for Type O, I lost 15 lbs. and could feel my ankle bones at the end of the day. Previously, my legs and feet were so swollen, I had to constantly prop up my feet. This condition has run in our family for generations and was finally diagnosed as "Venous Insufficiency". Grains seem to be the problem and in particular those with gluten. With Dr. D'Adamo's book and also THE GLUTEN-FREE GOURMET COOKS FAST AND HEALTHY by Bette Hagman, I am relearning to cook and thoroughly enjoy a balanced diet of the foods that are right for me. It takes some work and advance planning but is well worth the effort. Experts who find fault with this program should walk awhile in the shoes of those whose lives have been changed, by well researched information, before they pass judgement. Experience is the best teacher. It is the experts who didn't have an answer when we asked them for help. I am grateful for finally having an answer and also that I can pass it on to my family. Let's not kill the messenger.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading
Review: There are two huge problems with D'Adamo's books.

First, he forgot to check scientific data. His whole theory is based on the history of the origin of blood types. He describes in great details the story how everyone was originally O, then 20000 BC type A emerged, then about 15000BC type B appeared. His diet recommendations are based on what were the conditions and diet at the time when some particular blood type appeared.

The only problem is that it's all wrong. Monkeys have the same blood types and hence blood type ABO were not developed in humans, but inherited from our ancestors.

The second problem is that he stresses the "evil" side of your products so emphatically that you may get sick just because you believed him. It's well known that psychogenic sicknesses can be quite real. Simply put, if you believe that you have a cancer hard enough, you may really get one even if there was no real reason for that. Read about people showing symptoms of a burn after touched by cold object under hypnosis and told that it was really hot.

When you reading his book you feel like blood is agglutinating and clogging your arteries right while you are reading because of a piece of chicken you had for a lunch. This is not just unpleasant, this is plain dangerous. So, I'd suggest not even to read this book. If you still has an urge to know for yourself, just look through it in a traditional bookstore first and see if you are ok with it first. The chances are that you won't be.

This applies to all books on the topic of blood type-based diets.

Rating:
Summary: Simple and Life Changing
Review: I'm 40-something, relatively fit and health-conscious. This book and the "Live Right 4 Your Type" book have changed my life. D'Adamo presents his findings in a user-friendly format, giving history and simple explanations of biochemical background to support his thesis. I was amazed to learn that the foods I loved and craved as a child are on my "Highly Beneficial" list and the foods I hated -- the ones that made me sick -- are on my "Avoid" list! As an adult, I had learned to eat many of the "Avoid" foods that were supposed to be good for me. But since reading this book, I have changed my eating habits to match what I ate as a child, and I feel even healthier and more energetic than ever. I also feel a great sense of empowerment, knowing that my own body was telling me all these years which foods were good for it! D'Adamo also publishes a short booklet that lists foods for each blood type, easy to take to restaurants & groceries. I have found it easy to cook and eat as well as dine out with friends and family members who have different blood types. Many of my friends are Type A & Type O couples, and they have also found it relatively easy to adapt even though the foods for these are very different. We all have our preferences for foods anyway, and many of us have been dealing with friends/family with food allergies or diabetes. Planning different meals for different blood types is a similar, easy to accommodate exercise that Pays Off!

Rating:
Summary: LIVING BY YOUR BLOOD TYPE!
Review: A very short and succinct review!

This is the first scientifically based information on human food intake I have ever read. Followed seriously, it has life changing benefits; life saving benefits! Dr. D' Adamo is a highly respected, academically credentialled professional. And this approach to eating works! Builds and restores optimum health; and, at the same time it has nice little spin offs like normalized weight, clarity of thought process, energy.... Anyone would be a fool not to follow this scientific approach to living. The text is easy and enjoyable reading. I think it's partner book, COOK RIGHT 4 YOUR TYPE, should be purchased along with the original text; it only makes good sense to put into action this nutrition philosophy as soon as possible. I have found children who need this change in food intake are extremely receptive. Once any of us feel better that's the 'hook' to keeping us on the right track. Thankyou Amazon.com for the opportunity to voice my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: No More Zits!
Review: I eat milk/cheese/corn --> I get zits; :-(
I stop --> They go away. :-)

I eat wheat --> I get hemorroids. :-(
I stop --> They go away. :-)

Dr. D'Adamo helped me lose 40 pounds in 1 year.
...without exercise! :-D

Read this book while emptying your cupboard and fridge!

Rating:
Summary: Are you a Secretor or a Non-secretor?
Review: These terms may mean nothing to you before you have read this extremely helpful book. But there's a test to take (a saliva test) that will give you the next level of information beyond your Blood Type. Only LIVE RIGHT FOR YOUR TYPE gives you the different Secretor diets. For example, a Blood Type B Secretor can eat white potatoes; a Non-Secretor cannot. This is valuable information. Only 15-20% of the population are Non-Secretors, but if you fall into this category, you want to make sure that you have that information before diving headfirst into the diet and expecting it to make a huge difference. You can begin without that knowledge and just by eliminating the AVOID foods for your Blood Type, you do begin to feel better. To feel great, if you are a Non-Secretor, you need LIVE RIGHT FOR YOUR TYPE.

Rating:
Summary: Does it work?
Review: Let me get a few things out of the way before reviewing the book itself. I've been on the Blood Type O diet for 9 months now and have lost 30 lbs. To give you some background I started a new job in a new industry about 3 years ago and had gained nearly 25 lbs due to the long hours and free snacks and dinners (which I ate because I was working 60-90 hours a week) - in addition to the 20 lbs I had gained since getting married almost 7 years ago. Both my wife and I searched for a diet that would work for the both of us. My sister and her husband had some success with the Atkins diet, but it seemed too stringent for us. It was my wife who suggested this diet and I admit to being sceptical.

After reading the book I searched the internet for further information about Dr. D'Adamo's research. Not much came up other than the "official" website. Does this mean that Dr. D'Adamo is wrong or that his book is just another diet clothed in new language? Perhaps, perhaps not. And therein lies a caution I would give you: be careful not to glorify this diet or Dr. D'Adamo beyond it, or his, relative worth. I've met many people over the years who have tried a variety of diets with varying degrees of success. Many tend to dismiss the diet if it doesn't work for them and, on the other hand, present it as the one-and-only true diet if it does work.

My criteria for deciding whether or not to try the Blood Type diet was twofold: 1) is it a radical diet that emphasizes one or two types of food to the exclusion of all else or does it recommend a balanced intake of a variety of foods, which in my opinion is the right way to go and 2) is it something that I can incorporate as a lifetstyle change rather than being a fad. In my opinion, and my experience, the answer is yes to both. However, I would also say that your success with this diet may be different as I believe a number of psychological factors are also applicable, to any diet e.g. willingness to follow a regime and a recognition of when it is ok for them personally to "cheat".

The book itself provides information about the different diets and, in general terms, why they work. Dr. D'Adamo doesn't provide details of his research - though he does describe some case studies, again in general terms. While that isn't the purpose of the book the fact that you virtually can't find the information if you wanted it is a little disconcerting. It provides a few recipes, but you should buy the supplemental recipe books if you have trouble creating them on your own. The first three chapters cover general information about Dr. D'Adamo's approach and the next four cover diets for each blood type. Chapters on the individual diets give some background information and then a list of foods categorized as Highly Beneficial, Neutral, and Avoid. At least for the Blood Type O diet a list of the foods that encourage weight loss and a list of foods the contribute to weight gain are also given.

I gave this book 3 stars for a couple of reasons. The lack of further detailed information about the research leading to his conclusions and the contradictory categorization of foods that are beneficial, neutral, and to be avoided throughout the "series" of Blood Type books. The end results is that I have lost 30 lbs and have been able to keep it off. But I must also give myself some of the credit for being able to make the lifestyle change necessary to make it happen.

Rating:
Summary: Going to give it a try...
Review: I've been trying to optimize my diet for years and I think the theories put forth by Dr. D'Adamo may be plausible. I have to say that I found some of the negative reviews of the book to be worthless to me because they didn't actually address what's in the book! One mentions saving your money and following a generic diet of fruits, veges, lean meats, etc and exercise - the basic advice of nutritionists for decades. Well, I've been doing that for decades and I've noticed problems with my digestion, energy levels, etc, and to my knowledge they are not disease related, so this one-size fits all advice is just not sufficient for me. I know through my own experience and discussions with other people that people have different constitutions and respond uniquely to different foods.

I think the book potentially has a lot to offer and I'm going to give the diet for my blood type a try.

Rating:
Summary: Theoretically sound, highly flawed in application.
Review: Well ...
D'Adamo's attempt at practical application of a theory fails in many ways:

1. He doesn't distinguish between blood group sub-types A1 & A2 or A1B & A2B. Regions of origin and therefore (according to his own argument) micronutrient requirements and proper macronutrient ratios of these sub-types are hugely different.

2. He has done very little (if any) independent testing to prove his lectin reactions occur as described. In fact almost no testing has been done by anyone.

3. He has plagiarized the work of Laura Power, PhD, who is the real expert on this topic. She has much more knowledge, experience, and most importantly - a huge, long-term study with clear results to prove her case. The truth revealed by Power is very, very different than D'Adamo's claims.

4. He does not account for (or apparently even understand) fundamental metabolic control mechanisms. If you lose weight with his system it will be quite by accident - or dumb luck.

I have been a medical nutritionist for many years and I assure you that the failings of D'Adamo's system are glaringly obvious to a trained nutritionist. His is a blatant commercial venture to capitalize on public ignorance by presenting a plausible theory as fact.
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS NONSENSE!