Live Right 4 Your Type [Hardcover]

If your life seems strangely out of kilter and you and your doctors can't quite put your finger on what's wrong, I strongly urge you to read this book. It may well contain important clues for creating more "wellness" for you from the correct application of self-discipline in your eating and activities. The basic weakness of most scientific studies and almost all health books is that they look at average results for the whole population. The studies cited in this book are based on seeing major differences in the body chemistries of people with different blood types. In the same way that you can drown in an average of six inches of water (if that average expresses a range from 10 feet deep to half an inch), the average health advice can make your health worse in some cases.

Eat Right for Your Type was first published in 1996. That pioneering book summarized hundreds of research studies to define healthful eating for people with each different blood type. The underlying mechanism for this relationship is that your blood type influences your body chemistry in ways that create vulnerability or resistance to disease and an efficiently operating body. The four blood types are O, A, B, and AB. Type O people need the most animal protein (especially beef. Type A people need lots of vegetables. Type B people should eat a varied diet. Type AB people should eat smaller, more frequent meals.

Based on that book, many people reported remarkable gains in health, vitality, and weight loss after changing what they eat. In my case, my weight is now 31 pounds less than on my old way of eating (one that my Mother, who has Type A blood, had encouraged all my life -- but I am a Type O person). Many such case histories are reported in Live Right for Your Type.

Live Right for Your Type includes all of the diet information of Eat Right for Your Type, and adds to it insights into personality development, stress management, digestion, disease, and aging. Space does not permit explaining each of these links here, but personality traits are related to different ways that brain chemicals are created and processed by people with different blood types. Type O people, for example, are more easily stimulated into "fight or flight" responses and stay in them longer.

Genetic influences are the beginning of how these factors influence you. Your genes for blood type and other traits come from your parents. From these genes, you get a phenotype (one of the four blood types), a secretion status (whether you secrete antigens into your other bodily fluids or not, as well as into your blood), a Rhesus Factor (positive or negative), and your MN blood type (MM, NN, or MN). All of these concepts are well explained in the appendix of the book. There are also instructions for how you can send away to be tested so you will know what your characteristics are (a total cost of $51.40). In the main body of the book are many explanations of how each of these factors have been associated with the different aspects of life.

The heart of the book though comes in four sections where all of the information about each of the four main blood types is summarized. Yup, there I was in the Type O group with my quick temper, inclination to stay stressed out once stressed, oversensitivity to caffeine and alcohol, impulsiveness to create variety, and blissful reaction to exercise. Dr. D'Adamo definitely had me pegged.

To me the greater insight was when I looked at the type for my wife. I had become concerned about some health vulnerabilities she was experiencing. Yup, there they were. And the things that help her were the items listed. I heaved a big sigh of relief. Whew! It's natural.

If you want to take all of this further, there are instructions in the book for how to get more instructional material and to order special food supplements for each blood type. Normally, I find such offerings offensive. In this case, I had the opposite reaction. I don't know where else to get information that will help me, and I want to know more.

Unlike many books that are based on one study or one hypothesis, this book is built on hundreds of studies. These are cited in the back of the book. Although I did not look any of these up, these seemed to be from reputable sources. There is some speculation in the book. I was fascinated to see that some of the brain chemistry related genes are located next to the blood type genes in DNA. We don't know enough yet to know what that means. It may mean nothing, but it is certainly interesting to think about.

After you have finished following advice in this book and feeling better, I suggest that you think about people you care about who are potentially living and eating in ways that don't match their blood types. Please do share this book with them. You will be giving a very precious gift.

Live more naturally, in keeping with your true physical self!

Both books say that type ABs lack stomach acid. I have too much. Both books tell me to eat a great deal of soy. I don't like it and neither does my digestive system. D'Adamo doesn't really discuss exceptions to his rules...he just plunks them down like they're the word of God.

Under the section on seasonings, both books list ONLY curry and parsley as beneficial for ABs. However, none of the individual ingredients in commercial curry powder are listed as beneficial and some are in the avoid column. That's true of curry powder from health-food stores too. I read dozens of recipes for curry powder online and they all contain "avoid" ingredients. So how can curry be beneficial?

In this book, the lists of beneficial, neutral, and avoid foods are listed in small type on tables covered with a dark grey screen. I find them difficult to read and the pages unattractive. ER4YT was presented in an easier format. I'm also put off by the gloom-and-doom prognoses D'Adamo gives for ABs. He assumes he's talking to sick people, not well people. I'm much healthier than he thinks an AB has a right to be, and would much prefer it if he would concentrate on positive suggestions to improve my health in general. He does list some supplements that are good for ABs, but doesn't go into enough detail about how much to take.

I'm inclined to believe that blood types matter, but because of these and other discrepancies, small but significant to me, I think Dr. D'Adamo's theories are a work in progress. I am following the diet for my type about 90% of the time. But the book does not give me any perspective on whether following 90% of its suggestions mean anything whatsoever. Is it all or nothing? If you eat one "avoid" food does it throw you off altogether, or can you make up with it by eating 3, 6, or 12 beneficial things?

This book presents a ton of supposedly scientific evidence, but it sorely lacks reader-friendly touches that would endear it to me.