DETAILS

Dr. Peter D'Adamo's Blood Type Diet (Eat Right 4 Your Type) is a form of Evolutionary Diet which focuses on the evolution of human society from hunter-gatherer to agricultural lifestyle, and notes the associated changes in blood type from Blood Type O found in hunter-gatherers to Blood Types A and B, and then argues that each blood type is associated with a different set of dietary dos and don'ts.

THEORY

Blood Type O has an H antigen that is expressed by all people. Blood Types A and B result from the modification of the H antigen by the ABO gene. Go to [biologyonline][biologyonline]

Dr. Weyrich notes that since the H antigen is expressed by all people, it should be recognized as "self" by everyone's immune system, and therefore not give rise to an antibody.

Dr. Weyrich notes that the putative relationship between blood type and diet is called into question by the observation that most primates seem to share the same ABO blood types, usually including A, B, AB, and O, which suggests that the ABO gene and consequent blood types were shared by the common ancestor of all primates, which diverged into separate species about 20 million years ago. Go to [medicalxpress][medicalxpress] Go to [theconversation][theconversation] Go to [anthropogeny][anthropogeny] In particular, "Orangutans from Borneo have all four blood types, A, B, AB and O" Go to [CBC][CBC] but there is no reason to believe that orangutans have followed the dietary stages that D'Adamo postulated to explain the historical blood type patterns observed in humans.

Dr. Weyrich notes that there is also evidence that Neanderthals and their Denisovan cousins exhibited A, B, and O genotypes, as well as other blood type markers suggesting African origin. Go to [plos][plos] Again, there is no data to suggest that these peoples were ever anything other than hunter-gatherers.

REFERENCES

  •       Peter J. D'Adamo, Catherine Whitney. Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Blood Type Diet Solution. (1996).
  •       Peter J. D'Adamo, Catherine Whitney. Eat Right 4 Your Type (Revised and Updated): The Individualized Blood Type Diet Solution. (2016). Go to Amazon Amazon
  • Dr. Adamo's Web Site
    Dr. Adamo's Web Site