Eat Right for Yourself -Roger Mason

Many of you have  heard about a series of books called "Eat Right 4 Your Type". This purports that your diet should be based on your blood type. This series of books has been a best seller for years, and has a cult following. The author went on to write "Cook Right for YourType”, "Live Right 4 Your Type", as well as others. 
 
The author is Peter D'Adamo, who is a naturopathic doctor. It would be nice to suggest you find a naturopathic doctor where you live, and stop seeing your allopathic (treat the symptom and ignore the cause) medical doctor you now see. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any naturopathic doctors who have any clue at all about what natural health is about and how to heal disease with diet, proven supplements, natural hormones, fasting, and other lifestyle changes. D'Adamo is a perfect example of this. 
 
There are literally millions of people in the world who take "Eat Right 4 Your Type" as gospel, and try to persuade all their friends and relatives to join them. There are often clear overtones of religious fervor here.  
 
What is D'Adamo's central thesis? He says there are four basic blood types which absolutely determine what you should eat, and what you should not eat. Let's take these types one by one and see what he advises.  
 
Type O blood means you are a Meat Eater and should eat red meat, poultry, and seafood as the basis of your diet. Do not eat any whole grains, beans, or any complex carbo-hydrates. You can also eat some dairy with your meat. This is a ketogenic diet plain and simple. Define the word "ketogenic", as in the Atkins/Heller/Eades/Mercola books  as meat, meat, and more meat. Ketosis is defined in your dictionary (go ahead and look it up yourself) as a, "pathological condition of having too much of a ketone in the body as in diabetes, acidosis, etc." Not eating complex carbohydrates (whole grains, beans and such) causes a disease state called "ketosis". He actually advises type O people to stay in a continual disease state of ketosis! Go read the chapter yourself, so you'll know I'm not misquoting him here. This means all type O people will run cholesterol and triglyceride levels off the Richter Scale. God help you if you live in the tropics and try to live on all meat diet. Expect a whole lot of cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and coronary disease with a saturated fat based diet like this.  
 
If you are type A blood you are a Vegetarian. If you're married to a type O you can eat vegetables while your mate eats meat.  That will work, right? You do not eat flesh here except for some limited dairy and seafood. You very intelligently eat lots of whole grains, beans and vegetables- but no wheat. He just doesn't like wheat. No reason given; he just doesn't like it. He says some vegetables and fruits  are not good for type A's, but never gives any basis for this. This is the only partially intelligent diet in the book.  
 
If you have type B blood you are a Nomad and can pretty much eat a conglomeration of everything the hunter gatherers of yore did. You can eat all the dairy products you want. Who cares that all dairy (except hard cheeses) products are full of lactose (milk sugar) and dairy proteins. Milk and dairy are the worst food allergens known on earth bar none. No adult of any race can digest lactose as we don't secrete lactase after the age of three. Nevertheless, Nomads can eat meat, poultry, seafood, grains, vegetables, fruits- but don't eat any corn. Of course he doesn't give any basis for this. He just doesn't like corn. Asians and Africans, who are violently allergic to milk products, should force themselves to eat dairy foods! I'm not making this up folks; this is an objective and honest book report. Type B should "adjust" to eating dairy foods regardless of their lactose intolerance. Again, long lists of which particular vegetables, etc. are good for type B and which are not, but no basis is given for these decisions. Who needs a basis? 
 
The last type is type AB blood, which is the Enigma. Enigmas comprise less than 5% of the population, and combine the rules for both A and B types. Do not eat anything banned by A or B, and eat everything that is good for both A and B. Eat lots of eggs, although each egg is full of a whopping, artery clogging 250 mg of pure cholesterol. Eggs are among the top ten allergenic foods known. Read “Eggs are Bad Food”. Don't eat any corn since that isn't good for B types. Enigmas need to do more work here and make more restrictions than others.  
 
D'Adamo is thorough, and goes into all this in great detail. He really breaks down each of the four types into fifteen different headings and covers: meat/poultry, seafood, dairy/eggs, oils/fats, nuts/seeds, beans/legumes, cereal, bread/muffins, grains/pasta, vegetables, fruits, juices, spices, condiments and herb teas. He makes long lists for each of these headings and tells you which is bad and which is good. He might tell one type to eat apples and papayas, but not cherries or mangoes. How he figured all this out, or what evidence this is based on is never discussed. No basis is ever given for all this. 
 
To his credit, he points out that Caucasians, Africans, and Asians are all different biologically and have different dietary needs. This is very insightful on his part, especially in the current scientific politically correct atmosphere that tells us all races are exactly the same in every way except for percentage of skin pigment. Races, of course are completely different mentally, emotionally, psychologically, physically, and biologically. He gives specific advice for each racial type to match their blood type.  
 
Folks, your blood type is next to meaningless except when you need a blood transfusion. There have been a few rather unimportant correlations shown between blood type and various factors, but nothing  that is worth discussing. That anyone would write four different best selling books telling people to eat, cook and even LIVE according to their blood type is too silly to discuss. What should be discussed, however, is why D'Adamo is a best selling author? Why are millions of people around the world  obediently following his every word? This is what doesn't make any sense. Are people so lost, disoriented, and searching for a compass- any compass- in life to give them direction? Probably. His next book should be "Worship Right 4 Your Type". We can get rid of all the worlds religions and just have four religions- O Religion, A Religion, B Religion, and AB Religion. No more converting and proselytizing; just pray according to your blood type.  
 
Let's keep saying it over and over... 95% of the diet authors out there should be lined up and shot. Very few good books are published on eating well. Go to your local library and pick up a book by Dean Ornish, Terri Shintani, Neal Barnard, Gary Null, Susan Powter, Robert Pritikin, or Michio Kushi. Look into macrobiotics, especially if you have any kind of illness or medical condition. You can actually cure "incurable" diseases with good diet and lifestyle. Read my Zen Macrobiotics for Americans. Diet is everything.