Popular Diet Comparison: The Blood Type Diet (aka Eat Right 4 Your Type)

Popular Diet Comparison

Lose 30 pounds in 30 days! Lose 10 pounds a week and eat all you want! We’ve all seen these statements – miracle diets that claim to have you losing large amounts of weight with little to no effort, or on the flip side, diets that ask you to deprive or starve yourself in order to see results. And if you want to lose weight, these miraculous claims can certainly seem appealing. But many of these diets are not realistic in the long term (or even healthy in the short-term!) and if you are serious about achieving healthy weight loss/maintenance for life, then it requires a life-time commitment. 

Here we’ll go through some of the more popular diets out there – what they are, how they work, what to expect, some unbiased pros and cons and then our own evaluation and rating (good, bad or ugly) based on the safety and effectiveness of each. At the end, we hope that you’ll be able to make an educated decision regarding the healthiest and most effective diet for you!

Popular Diets:

• The Atkins Diet
• The Cabbage Soup Diet
• The Blood Type Diet (aka Eat Right 4 Your Type)
• The Zone Diet

The Blood Type Diet (aka Eat Right 4 Your Type)

Official Site: www.dadamo.com

Overview:

Each blood type has its own personalized diet plan. The idea is that if you follow the specific diet for your blood type, you'll improve digestion and lose weight. You need to know your blood type, and once you do, you refer to a detailed list with all the foods you can and can’t have, as well as some foods that you can have occasionally. It’s not a difficult diet to follow once you have the plan for your particular blood type.

How it works:

Each of the four blood types has a detailed list of foods that are beneficial, foods that must be avoided and foods that are neutral, based on the premise that each blood type has its own unique antibodies that react in positive or negative ways to certain foods. Avoiding foods that have a negative impact while increasing those with positive impact leads to better digestion and metabolism, leading to improved health and weight loss.

Length of program

Indefinite

Expect to eat a whole lot of:

Varies depending on blood type. In general, Blood Type O will eat a lot of meat and fish, Blood Type A will eat a mostly vegetarian diet, Blood Type B will eat a balanced omnivore diet and Blood Type AB will eat a mixed diet but with everything in moderation. Each blood type also has a list of foods that are particularly beneficial for weight loss.

Say goodbye to

Pork and wheat across the board. Other foods to be avoided will vary depending on your blood type.

Pros:

• It’s a relatively simple diet and some people find it easier to follow a list of foods you can and can’t eat – no overly complicated recipes, schedules or programs to follow.
• Specific guidelines are given as to what foods, what amounts and timing of meals, making it a very straightforward plan.

Cons:

• The plan can be difficult to follow if everyone in your family doesn’t have the same blood type. 
• Certain healthy foods are on the avoid list, which could lead to nutritional deficiencies (there is a section on their site to determine which supplements could benefit you, but it's sponsored by North American Pharmacal Inc. and recommends their own products to you, so take the advice with a grain of salt).

Thoughts on the Blood Type Diet:

There are arguments for and against the Blood Type Diet. Some experts swear by it, while others are adamantly against it. Unfortunately, there are no conclusive studies to prove the point either way (although both sides do their best to convince you otherwise). However, regardless of how your body reacts to certain foods, everyone can benefit from a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, which is one area that I think this diet is lacking in. Eating the same few ‘allowed’ fruits and veggies will eventually become dull and you’ll be missing out on the variety of different nutrients found in your ‘to avoid’ foods. If you’re interested in trying this diet or are already on it, just make sure you don’t cut out your complex carbohydrates – they’re essential to a nutritionally balanced body.