I read Dr. D’Adamo’s book, Eat Right for Your Type, about 15 years ago and thought “Hmm maybe there’s something to this.” Although at the time I didn’t know which blood type I was, I looked through the different types and when I saw the O type I said “hey that’s me.” I fit that blood type perfectly – I need meat to thrive, I have hypothyroidism, don’t process grains or beans very well, wheat makes me gain 20 pounds, and although I don’t do well with really vigorous exercise, moderate exercise on a regular basis is crucial for me.

I had been exploring natural and holistic health for about five years at the time, so I had already tried numerous healing diets like the vegetarian diet and the macrobiotic diet. Both of those diets made me very sick. They increased my Candida problem, exacerbated my hypoglycemia, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, triggered my sugar addiction and made me so weak and fatigued I couldn’t stand up. So I learned very quickly that those diets were not for me.

As I experimented with different healing diets over the years, I discovered that the diet that made me function most optimally was a diet that was high in meat and low carb vegetables. I simply can’t function if I don’t eat meat three times a day because my blood sugar will not stay stable and my Candida flares. Grains, beans, potatoes and any high complex carbohydrate make my fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, migraines and multiple chemical sensitivity ten times worse, and they make me depressed, anxious, weak, sluggish, slow cognitive functioning and gain weight.

So when I found Dr. D’Adamo’s book I already knew which diet that my body needed to function optimally. Since I fit the O type blood characteristics so well, I just assumed I had O type blood. I took the book back to the library and although I never faithfully followed the O type blood diet, that is the diet that my body gravitated towards the most.

Recently I decided to take a closer look at the Eat Right for Your Type diet and see if I needed to follow the O blood type a little more strictly. At this point I thought, “geez I should get my blood tested and see if this theory really holds any weight,” so I ordered two blood test kits from Dr. D’Adamo’s website – one for me and one for my son.

When it arrived, I took the blood test and to my complete shock and surprise, it told me that I was not an O blood type. It said I was an A positive. According to Dr. D’Adamo, the type A blood person does best on a vegetarian diet. I simply couldn’t believe it. I thought I must have done something wrong when testing and so I used my son’s kit to retest myself. However, it too said I was an A positive. I was flabbergasted, because I really thought there was some truth to eat right for your blood type theory for me.

The reason Dr. D’Adamo’s book seemed to make so much sense to me is because his theory seemed to offer a good explanation of why there’s such great variance in why some diets work for one and not another.

However, it appears that blood type may not be the “be all and end all” of determining which diet is really best for your body. Apparently there are other factors that determine which foods you should be eating. I know without a doubt that I can’t function on a vegetarian diet, so the Eat Right for Your Type is not an accurate and reliable tool for me.

Possible Conclusions

There are a variety of conclusions we can draw from my experience which may include:

1. Dr.D’Adamo’s theory is not valid for some people.
2. Dr. D’Adamo’s testing kit was not accurate, and maybe I’m an O blood type after all. I plan on asking my doctor to test my blood type the next time I go for a visit, just to be sure.
3. The particular health issues that I face, hypoglycemia, fibromyalgia, Candida overgrowth, chronic fatigue and sugar addiction, have different needs that override what an A blood type might typically eat otherwise.
4. The eat right for your blood type is not the best determining factor for which foods are healthiest for you.

There is no way I can with certainty know which of these conclusions are accurate, but I do know with certainty that I can’t eat a vegetarian diet. I personally believe that nobody should be a vegetarian and meat is essential to the human body.  I have been on the healing path for a long time and I know what my body needs, I must listen to what it tells me. So for whatever reason, the Eat Right for Your Type diet is not valid and reliable for me. On the other hand,  that may not necessarily be true for everyone. We know that Dr. D’Adamo’s approach has been helpful for many people. There is not a one size fits all healthy diet approach, each of us has to find our own truth.

My experience is a good example of something that I often teach on this blog and site, and that is that you must listen to your body and there may be pieces of truth in a variety of healing diets, theories and approaches, but the ultimate authority is what your body tells you. Theories should be used as guides, but not Gods.

On the other hand,  I have come to believe that the Paleolithic diet is the diet that is the healthiest diet for all human beings. I encourage you to learn more about it.