Category: Health and Wellness
Has anyone tried the diet for their blood type? Does it seem to just be another fad? I'm looking at it, and some of it makes a lot of sense, but some of it after being paleo for a time looks counter intuative. For me as type a it says I should be a vedgitarian, but use a lot of beans for protene, but not kidney or lima beans. Also no peppers, no potatos or sweet potatos, oranges or bananas. Some of that makes sense, but some of it the grains, the over abundance of soi, which in organic form can be ok, but most of the soi is gmo... it sounds off. So has anyone had success or failior on the blood type diet? Not even for an a type, but does the science seem sound or pseudo scientific?
Because health and personal training is what I do, I tend to take the view all these diets are fads.
What works for one person doesn't work for all.
We all have different body types, and we have different needs.
All the things that are cut outin this diet, are actually a benefit.
Eat clean as you can.
What I mean is plenty of anything that grows in nature, or from the dirt.
Next, eat some red meats, and plenty fish of all kinds.
Eat small meals, 5 or 6 a day if you are a person that eats, but don't over eat.
When you are full, or slightly full, no matter what is on your plate stop eating.
To not waste food, start with small amounts. It is easy to get more, but a crime to toss out good food.
Processed foods like cakes, cookies, candy, and basic junk should be kept to one day per week only, and in small amounts.
It is said a portion or serving is no bigger then your hand.
Example, if you ate with your hands, you'd grab a serving.
Notice fruits and such are always about hand size.
Just my thoughts.
I used to have a co-worker who tried it, but then she tried every fad diet that came along. They all worked for awhile, but then she inevitably got tired of dieting and gained the weight back. My thinking on this type of thing is what most doctors will tell you. To lose weight, exercise more and eat less. It's as simple as that. Portion control is very important no matter what foods you eat.
I'm of two minds on some of this stuff. I know nothing about the blood type diet, although I went paleo for awhile.
While I understand challenging the assersions of these diets, I have a very pragmatic, combustion-based, engineering challenge to this idea that "calories are calories," no matter where they come from.
This isn't "fat guy logic," as some call it now, it's simple engineering. Some nutritionists try a quarter-hearted effort at applying thermodynamics to the equation, so if it's engineering / combustion they want, let's go:
Everyone knows combustion engines are more or less efficient. A two-stroke outboard motor is going to be more efficient in some contexts on the water, while a four-stroke motor in others. Hybrids and other newer vehicles actually use the same fuel far more efficiently than did the old junker "boat-mobiles." If "calories were calories", you could as easily power a chainsaw with gasoline for awhile, as you could the recommended one part two-cycle motor oil to two parts gasoline, I think it is, that's the recommended fuel.
Or who has tried burning regular wood in a pellet stove?
Truth be told, the matter energy exchange is a hell of a lot more complicated than just input output. No engineer wanting to keep her or his job would make such a simplistic claim.
So, a guy like me who is pretty average, moves into a neighborhood with a lot of bars, a lot of food, and enjoyed it for a year, put on some pounds, then is able to start working them off pretty regularly. Especially when certain fuel sources like sugar get more or less eliminated, at least downgraded. But then you have people who really struggle. Sorry larger people, I'm not being insulting here, but the two-stroke outboard motors of human combustion engines, put-put-putting along and perhaps require different fuel sources that will better work with that particular system. I am weak on biomedical, but seriously this is not rocket science if those who use thermodynamics as rationale actually understood combustion and BTUs and the like.
Imagine a scenario where you pull into a filling station, here you are, prepared to fill up for a road trip. Where calories are jst calories, they just fill the tank with anything resembling petroleum products, have a scale onto which they claim all vehicles operate -- miles per gallon -- instead of now, where each manufacturer knows approximately how many miles to the gallon, including city versus country driving, and even hills.
My opinion: the simplistic black-and-white calories-in-calories-out people are to thermodynamics what "The Secret" followers are to string theory in physics.
Put it another way: If these people were right, then we would have built a battery by now that would keep your cell phone alive and fully operational for days on end. It isn't hard for us to manufacture and store power. It is hard for us to contend with the various energy exchanges and power loss that happens at transfer time, bleed-off, and a whole host of other factors that would bore most people. And while electricity is not combustion, at its source there is still matter/energy exchange.
It makes perfect sense to me that some people would have a hell of a time losing weight, while some of us, myself included, when we fully apply ourselves, can get it done. Because fuel systems are more and less efficient depending on environment, the matter/energy exchange is far more complex than many of these would have you believe. To really settle this for yourself, go pick your favorite car manufacturer, and follow its trends backward in time. See how many miles to the gallon a given engine, not just the car, will give and under what conditions. Note the granularity of knowledge on how these systems work. Do the same for your cell phone batteries. Again, not combustion like us or cars, but it's energy exchange. All those little tricks for how to preserve battery life on your phone? Icing on the cake, really: the real work is the under-the-hood efficiency improvements to the battery and the processor / how many volts it takes to power what accessory, and how many cycles it takes to do what.
Sorry for the soap box rant. But when people like the mind over matter folks try and hijack sound string theory and cosmology, and these nutrition types try and hijack / oversimplify the matter energy exchange in physics, I had to speak up. Go look at your university's list of majors under engineering. There are whole specialties in engineering dedicated to improving fuel and fuel usage systems, combustion engines, a whole specialty in electrical engineering that does nothing but refine how to better use the negative charge from the electrons used in batteries. Any programmer who has worked at all on mobile device technology has been made painfully aware of how nuanced this exchange actually gets, and quickly. Unless you're some of these iPhone apps who can run your battery down flat real quick.
These are good points, and I have noticed some foods that I have to avoid too much of because it really does affect how I feel. some friends it's gluton, for me it's heavty meats like lamb and beef. so now I eat lamb twice a year one time at pass over. Part of that is due to having my galblatter out, but it's not just about losing weight. That's part of it, but there is something to be said for eating well helps you feel well. The idea behind the blood type diet is that each different blood type has different dietary needs. Like type a blood generally make less stomach acid, so foods that make our body over produce it like tomatos will make us feel unwell. So unlike adkins or south beach it's not just looking at people as one type only. There are just some issues i see with it especially after having done te whole 30 and paleo. And I still believe the whole 30 is a great thing.
I agree RE: feeling well being most important. The silly BMI was designed for populations not individuals. So a sort of smallish-boned guy like me, BMI is pretty accurate. But someone weighing 6'2" and a power lifter will register as obese when s/he could pick up the person making that claim, and flip them a good few yards with one hand.
here's my personal opinion re: fitness: I walk at my desk now. And for the past few years, I've always tried to do things that extend my abilities in life. So I can load up my radio gear and emergency supplies, one backpack and one shoulder bag, take off and walk on foot as far as I want for as long as I need, save this blasted shoulder injury I got now. But you see people who institutionally exercise in a gym for a certain set time, then it's time to go all day on the weekend -- no heart monitoring things or what have you, and they'll poop out.
My perpetual question for that is: What the hell good is that?
If I would get down to it and nearly 86 the sugar, I know I'd even feel way better. It's recently been written to be more addictive than Cocaine.
Blue has it. Smile.
Now, you have noticed some things just don't like you, so don't eat them.
Your body knows what works and what doesn't if you listen to it.
Make sure you drink plenty fluids, water, fresh juice, or the sports drinks are good.
Processed foods, such as white rice are not a good as brown, or anything that has been altered in some way as to color.
Before we were able to ship any kind of food anyplace, we ate what grew in our rarea, so that is also helpful.
We do wonderful now, because we have a wonderful source of all sorts, so that keeps down bordom. Change up some, but keep it as close to the earth as possible.
Wayne, did you really say that you should eat plenty of anything that grows in
the dirt? Wayne, foxglove grows in the dirt. Nightshade, oliander, poison ivy,
chrysanthimums, they all grow in the dirt, and they will all kill you if you eat
them. Hell, liander can kill you if you so much as taste it in some cases. I hope
you didn't actually get trained to do that job, cuz you're either terrible at it, or
they trained you wrong.
Now then, Leo, that's not exactly how calories work. Yes, calories give your
boy fuel to burn, but not all types of calories are burned the same. Some
calories, such as sugars, cause your body to release certain chemicals. If your
body releases too many of these chemicals, it can cause weight gain and other
side effects. Think of it like a noise. If you listen to a repetitive noise long
enough, you drown it out and don't hear it anymore, but it can still negatively
effect you in other ways besides distraction. So you can't just say that a calory
is a calory and if you run enough, you'll burn them all off. That's now how
digestion or metabolism works.
Cody that makes sense. Not all fuel systems, or even kinds of fuel, function the
same. I don't even know how they measure calories, but it seems very plausible
to me that calories can be contained in food and never make it to you. I could
easily design a very energy-inefficient system that would use a very nice battery
and bleed it to death due to power loss, energy transfer issues, etc. Or, a very
nice well-built system you could use, say, the iPhone, and substitute a really
shitty fuel source of a battery or AC power with "dirt" in it -- spikes, browns,
etc., and your nice iPhone would function very poorly. And the energy transfer
would be far less efficient.
Your understanding of this seems miles above what you hear from what I think
of as the calories apologists, people who say the word "thermodynamics" to
make themselves sound sophisticated, but sound like blithering idiots from an
engineering sense.
Based on what you're saying, some people would digest certain things better
than others, some fuel sources -- sugar for one, would be worse than others.
Hence a very average guy like me has a far easier time of things than some
larger people I know who seem to me, just speaking as an engineer, to be
trying to pull a car with a two-stroke outboard motor. They do all they can, but
just can't beat the situation they're in. I may be shit with biology, first to admit
as much, but can understand how they have a much harder time with energy
exchange. And yet, the calories apologists would accuse me of "fat logic" or
"enabling".
Shit, even as a motherboard ages and the doping on the board starts to break
down, it's efficiency with the transfer of data via the negative charge from
electrons diminishes. Fuck, I'm in my 40s and my capacity for efficient energy
exchange has diminished. I'm a pretty healthy guy, so if I personally pigged out
less, I'd lose more. But I know some quite large people who eat like field mice,
are always going on fitness walks or hitting the gym, but their systems seems
to be put-putting along on a two-stroke motor.
I even heard one of these calories apologists claim any calories can be
converted into anything your body needs. What? So I can pour two parts
gasoline 1 part two-cycle motor oil into your car's gas tank and the fuel
injection system will just automatically convert it into energy too? Probably
"because magic" or "because reasons". It's silly.
Actualy Wayne is probably close to correct, though I'm sure he didn't mean
Foxglove, just human consumable food products. I'm of mixed minds on that
stuff, but still. It's not "fat logic" or "enabling" to claim that my energy exchange
system probably just functions better than someone larger. Although certainly
ditching a soda habit or a few less trips to Mc'D's can't hurt if someone is in that
situation.
I'm just glad these apologists aren't designing the batteries you try and use, or
the fuel systems for your car. Be thankful for smallish favors.
Cody thanks for your response, I had not intended to say that *I* think it's a
one-off, in to out 1 for 1 ratios. That's stupid. Anyone who has operated a
generator and taken measurements with anything other than a measuring tape
and a scales, would understand it's not one-off.
Yep, figured someone would come up with that rebuke to my statement about what grows in the dirt.
I'm sure thinking people understood what I meant?
Smile.
Also, Leo does a goode job of describing how calories , or fuel in the body works.
Cody, shut up, I am an athlete, and when you exercise, you do lose weight and is able to keep it off when exercising, and I totally disagree with the soy thing. The key is to eat all things that are natural. For example, meats and vegetables. Nothing processed. If you can do that, then you're good no matter what blood type you are.
what's, "natural" anymore? *SMH*
lol That is true. You never know how much of your stuff is modified, and just earlier, I read an article about how the United States was sending American chicken to China for processing, and then China sends it back here for to be sold and for consumption. I'm going to start eating locally from college on.
Lots of options to eat as close to clean as possible.
You have to decide to do it, and research a bit, but I think the reward is worth the trouble.
Diet simply means what we consume, so adjusting one to suit your goals isn't that difficult.
Think of all the "diets'" that are going to do this or that, and how quickly you stop hearing about them.
I’d like to offer an interesting concept.
Do you know how children snack during the day if you allow it, and won’t set down for a regular meal, because they are too full to eat it?
If you as an adult adopt this eating pattern, and your snacks are healthy types, like fruit, nuts, cereals, you’ll not only do better as to your body sugar level, but not over eat.
This pattern seems to come natural to children if we don’t make them change it, so I wonder if it is natural to humans?
I think so Wayne. The more anybody teach themselves and body how to eat and drink right, they start to crave and want those things like they the snacks they were consuming before. I started drinking smoothies, and as long as we had ways to make smoothies, I had them for a snack and it came natural to me.
Also, after a while, you don't even want the unhealthy stuff anymore, and as for kids, parents don't put efert into making their kids eat healthier. I honestly don't blame 2 and 4 year old kids from not eating nasty, processed apple sauce. There are recipes out there that makes these type of snacks healthier and better tasting.
When I did paleo I read that it was because. We would hunt and gather. So as we'd gather we'd snack on what we had at the time. Our body would also make stores of some vitamins that might not be found all the times of the year.