Overview of Worst Diet Plans: Eat Right 4 Your Type

According to naturopath Dr. Peter D'Adamo, if your diet is tailored to your specific blood type you'll stay healthy and lose weight. This has caught on with many celebrities in Hollywood, but has the feel of a fad more than an actual weight loss/dieting plan. Doctors and other health specialists are not as enamored with the system as celebrities, and raise some real concerns about the dieter's overall health being negatively affected.

Dr D'Adamo's theory is based on the idea that our bodies break down nutrients differently according to our blood type. According to him, each group has a distinctive "antigen marker" that has a negative reaction to certain types of food and causes the body's health to fail. He also states that the level of stomach acid we have is inextricably connected to your blood type, and by following a diet that's created specifically for someone with your blood type you'll be able to digest food more efficiently, losing weight as a result.

This is all well and good, but science fiction starts to blend with fact as Dr D'Adamo goes on to declare that the different blood types evolved at different times, and that we should eat the same way out ancestors did back when the blood type was discovered. Therefore, those with blood type O should stick with a protein-rich meat-based diet, as that is what the first people with O-type blood did. A-type individuals supposedly come from an agrarian group that relied mostly on vegetables for their sustenance, so everyone with A-type blood should naturally become vegetarians.

People with B-type blood are better off with a varied diet that includes meat, vegetables, dairy and breads because their ancestors traveled a great deal and adapted to the different available foods. Interestingly, D'Adamo believes that the AB blood type only evolved a thousand years ago due to the shift from ancient to modern times. He claims members of this semi-rare blood type can pick and choose from the dietary recommendation columns of A and B, being well-suited to both meat and vegetables.

This diet also comes with its share of caveats for each blood type: those with O-type blood should have a diet rich in protein and low in carbs (Atkins, anyone?) while those with type A blood need to avoid both meat AND dairy, sticking strictly with vegetables and whole grains. Type B is the least restricted, being allowed a moderate amount of meat, dairy and vegetables and only restricting processed materials.

Those with AB-type blood end up getting confused the most, as D'Adamo gives them the same recommendation of mixing both A and B's allowances; he suggests a vegetable-rich diet with "some" meat and fish thrown into the mix. Even the exercise recommendations he has for those with AB-type blood combine those for A and B.

Although Dr. D'Adamo's theories are academically interesting, they should never have been allowed to leave the confines of a science lab. Doctors and other medical experts have gone on record condemning this potentially damaging diet, having found no evidence of a connection between blood type and diet. They especially are concerned for individuals with Type A and O blood, as they suffer the most severe drawbacks of the diet-either going with too much protein or too little. It's far from a balanced diet, and can lead to serious health issues like heart disease, osteoporosis and/or anemia.

This diet is almost assured to help you lose weight, since restricting your intake of food and nutrients will certainly affect the body. The question is would causing such harm to your body really be doing it a favor, even if you lost a few pounds from it? I would say no. It's far better to choose a diet that's at least somewhat rooted in reality more than hypothesis-your body will thank you later.