Eat Right for Your Blood Type
Dr. Michael Greger is quoted in this Chicago Tribute article from yesterday about eating for your blood type: Should blood type guide your food choices?
Even after 15 years, Dr. Michael Klaper’s article on the blood type diet is still, to my knowledge, the best response to it:
Challenges to the Plant-Based Diet in the 90’s: “The Zone” and “Blood-Type” Diet Fads
October 27th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Is it possible for a child to get too much B12? My friend’s mostly vegan 3 year old had a blood test for B12 and the ped was concerned that her levels were too high (1168). She eat nut. yeast and takes a B12 spray infrequently.
October 27th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Linda,
I’m not aware of any dangers with B12 levels that high in children. B12 that is not stored on proteins is just excreted in the urine. But if she or her pediatrician are concerned, just back off on the spray a bit. Maybe cut in half how often she’s taking the spray.
October 28th, 2011 at 4:43 am
Phew! I saw the title of this post in my blog feed and gasped with horror. I felt so disappointed to think that you were supportive of that dreadful blood-type diet nonsense.
When I read the post I was so relieved to find that you do not support it at all!
Love your website and blog. It is so great to have a one-stop shop for reliable, well researched, well presented vegan dietary information. Thanks for all the effort you put in.
Mandy
October 28th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Mandy,
Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you!
October 28th, 2011 at 5:39 am
Thank you SO much for this article. I had recently given blood and found out my blood type is O pos. I have been a vegan since March and some of my family members, who had read about the Blood type diet were telling me that I shouldn’t be vegan. I have not listened to them, especially since becoming vegan, I have lost over 50 lbs. I still have around a hundred to lose but I know it will happen, slowly, like it should. Reading your article has strengthen my resolve and also has given me a good comeback to their argument.
Thanks again!
Ang
October 28th, 2011 at 8:19 am
Ang, My husband is O pos and have been successfully and happily vegan for over 20 years.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Nobody is going to stick with a blood type diet unless they really enjoy it, day after day, year after year. Are we all supposed to read a whole bunch of science books before we eat, for God’s sake?
Just as a side note, the change from meat-based omnivore to vegan is not necessarily any more drastic than the change from one style of vegetarian eating to another style of vegetarian diet – that’s me I’m describing. I’ll tell you this much – I now eat whatever I please and it so happens that there’s no meat involved.
My point is that the environmental arguments, correct though they are, won’t go far in convincing people that they “don’t need meat”, even if they are accompanied by Klaper’s information that a slow transiition to vegetarianism will result in better health than a sudden change. We aren’t built that way. Klaper implies that it’s only what you were raised on that matters, but I’m not sure about that; when your ancestors have been eating meat regularly for aeons, that’s very, very hard to overcome. It’s stuck in your genes and only some serious philosophical motivation is going to help you keep to your vegan diet.