QuestionDear Evelyn,
From an anthroposophical perspective do certain blood types respond better to certain diets? I am referring to the book Eat Right for your Blood Type by Dr(?) Peter D'Adamo. I have been vegetarian for over 15 years and enjoy good health (with occasional iron deficiency) but I wonder if my diet is best for me in the long term. Also despite feeling good - I suspect that there is always room for improvement. As I am in my early 30's I cannot know if I am increasing my risk of good/poor health in later life by my current diet choices. The Eat Right for your Blood Type diet would recommend a high protein diet and reduced grains/legumes for an O+ blood type such as myself. I don't plan to return to flesh eating but I would like to be as informed as possible of the consequences of my dietary choices. My GP who suggested I try the blood type diet says to isolate different foods to test their effect on me. On a practical level this is hard for me to do at present so any anthropological insights from you would be appreciated. I have not been able to source any satisfactory information regarding this subject in my various web searches.
Clara
AnswerDear Clara,
Thank you so much for a fascinating question! Alas I am unfamiliar with the work you cite, and at first sight, this bloodgroup concept boggles my mind as an Anthroposophist. The approach you suggest is not exactly holistic, at least not in any traditional vein. But that is not to say that it does not hold amazing new ways forward. I just have trouble seeing how.
From a holistic perspective, we always look at what we need in harmony with what we are and what we are not, yet, all of which must be mirrored in an inner-outer relationship, and not just on a microscopic (blood picture) level. Blood is blood, red and life-giving, an amazing sap, whatever "type". I hope this bloodtype trend is not a modern type of "discrimination"!
Remains the intriguing question, why are there bloodtpes, so few, and yet so relevant on many levels (thinking of transfusions). My first reaction is to assume some kind of ancestral story underlying the blood-type diets. But we do not eat in accord with what we were, holistically considered: rather we eat to become more human (and less primitive or "natural" even!).
I can only presume a blood-type diet derives some authority from a very radical perspective - quite literaly. What are blood types anyway? Radical differences in the most literal - root - sense? I simply do not know. It is probably a very bio-chemical question and one that I most definitely need to look into, since for me personally,the topic has cropped up a few times over the past year, on very discrepant fronts in Questions from About Questioners. That is always a great prompt to expand one's knowledge! For now, therefore, I can only respond very intuitively, from an Anthroposophic angle, that bloodgroups are as abstract as DNA, which is but one language by which to understand the ultimate workings of our life on earth. By the same token all such concrete differences, unalterable from birth, must tell us something about who we are.... But they would, in principle fall to a very physical picture, which has a limited stretch with regard to informing us to who we are to become (INSPITE of our bodies as well as THANKS to our bodies).
Since bloodgroup O + happens to run in my son's family (with coincidentally an Indonesian heritage somewhere in the distance - I note this is your location)it makes your question all the more curious to me. However, purely intuitively, again, I will not be changing my son's diet any time soon from vegetarian based on presumptions about what a blood type means and how certain foods correspond. Already with more individualised considerations (my son has Autism) I find it hard to alter a diet to exclude or explicity include one food over another in the hope to "remedy" something. Especially when all indications are vague or general. Diet has its limitations on such fronts, and serves merely a supportive role in a much broader, holistic understanding, or so is my experience. There is a lot more to choices in one's diet than science, namely, common sense and resonance. Many factors enter these choices we consciously meet, and for now, the most important and positive thing is that you are taking a very conscious approach to your health and diet. Why risk your health, indeed! with experiments?
I find it very odd how your physician recommends trying such a diet without any specific indication, while medical science agrees high protein diets may come with all sorts of risks. He would need to have medical indications, surely, that tell him you are in need of an increased protein intake, before going there? But I cannot off hand imagine which. Furthermore, who says vegetarian diets are low on protein? Legumes especially are very high in them, only not "animal" protein. Does this O+diet really suggest you eat meat for optimal health? This would bluntly be regressive advice, although there is nothing inherently wrong with naturally preferring meat - in most cases - and there is still some economic/natual balance in the consumption of (organically farmed!) meat (hence moderation!). (Anthroposophy never suggests a vegetarian diet per definition.)
In practice, usually, isolating foods is only useful when an allergy is higly likely and one needs to pin point it. Otherwise, more often than not, one can get rather funny results from cuting out one food stuff and overdoing another. Medically seen, you would need constant bloodtests to indicate what one food is really doing for you or not - but even these tests are becoming more and more controversial with simply too many interpretations possible. All in all, it is not a very organic or generally healthy attitude to take to meals. Besides it takes several months in some cases to know what one food does for you long-term, if not years!
I must assume your doctor had some reason to recommend such a haphazzard experiment, but you omit to indicate what actually AILS you. If you are happy and healthy in your early thirties on the diet of your choice, why change? Certainly never swap your intuition and love of your diet for one man's theory (or growing trend), I would say.
For now, therefore, I cannot add much more to your own general feel that there is not enough indicating such a radical change in diet is worth it. Especially since it is not otherwise indicated or advocated by science or alternative fields. I will remain interested to find out where this Peter D'Adamo is coming from - of course from Adam but where else with this bewildering theory!
May I get back to you as and when new insights befall me? Until then, I wish you continued enjoyment with the vegetarian diet you are on - hopefully containing just the right stuff to inspire your health and happiness. If you could give me some more medical background why such a diet would be beneficial this might help my research, and you may do so via my personal email I can give you after you have sent a private follow-up question. I will surely not let this question rest! So, thank you, again, for promoting this research.
My very best wishes,and sorry for not helping you much further, yet,
Love Evelyn.
- Prev:Please suggest
- Next:Carbohydrate Intolerance