IS DIET TYPING THE SAME THING AS THE BLOOD TYPE DIET?

One question we get asked about quite often is, “Are Diet Typing and the Blood Type Diet the same thing?”

The simple answer is no.

The Blood Type Diet bases a person’s nutritional needs solely on a person’s blood type, O, A or B. Diet Typing, done at Caring Medical, bases a person’s dietary needs on a Modified Glucose Tolerance Test and their Blood pH. Many people hear the words “type” and “blood” and assume that they these two methods of determining diet needs are synonymous. This is not the case. Diet Typing is extremely different from the Blood Type Diet.

WHAT IS THE BLOOD TYPE DIET ALL ABOUT?

This diet is pretty straight forward. You find out your blood type and then you’re told a list of foods that are best for “you”. The author of the Blood Type Diet book states that the foundation for this theory is based on three “legs”. Meaning, there are 3 factors that they have used to support this diet. The developers of the Blood Type Diet are in short, saying that 1 out of every 3 people have the exact same nutritional needs. If you are someone that is following the Blood Type Diet we would challenge you to go find 10 other people who have the same blood type as you (O, A, or B) and compare notes. The goal of a person’s diet is to provide energy and health. We would guess that out of those 10 people, you will find many of them do not get the same energy or feeling from certain foods as you do. One other issue to consider when looking into this diet is change. Our blood type does not change but we do. With a person’s blood type you would not be able to see how a change in the diet is affecting change in the body. Life is all about transformations, we get older, encounter different illnesses, stressors, hormone changes, and body changes, such as weight gain and loss. If we change shouldn’t there be a need for our nutritional intake to change as well? We think so.

Health Claims of the Blood Type Diet

According to this diet, following the correct blood type diet plan allows for a person to reach improvement in health conditions, weight loss, healthy digestive function, ability to handle stress, better energy, and improved mental clarity. Each blood type has a profile of foods to include and foods to avoid, creating a healthy diet plan for each person to reach maximum health.

The Hauser Diet vs. The Blood Type Diet

Diet Typing involves looking at two different variables that assess how the body is functioning, and what will help it function better. By analyzing a person’s blood sugars and blood pH, we can determine what foods will put a patient at an optimal health and energy level. The unique factor about these two tests, compared to blood type, is that they can vary. When you test blood pH you can objectively see what is going on. If we put someone on a specific Hauser Diet due to their blood pH being either too acidic or too alkaline, we can later test it again to see if the diet has helped to normalize the blood pH. The same is true for a Glucose Tolerance Test. If we are trying to lower or raise someone’s blood sugars we can see if and how the diet is affecting them. Once a patient has achieved their heath goals or has seen improvement, we can monitor the change and alter the diet accordingly.

This is not to say that someone won’t benefit from the Blood Type Diet and have success. But it may not work for everyone. The other consideration here is that a person who has success on the Blood Type Diet may just happen to be eating right for their Diet Type! If you’ve been on the Blood Type Diet and haven’t seen any changes, it may not be you, it may be the diet. Try something new and that is specific to each individual, come get Diet Typing done!