Blood Type Food Based Diet

Is it too far fetched to say that dependent upon your blood type, you are able to digest foods better?  The type of food you eat, the better your body can break it down and circulate it throughout your body.  Proper food digestion is the purpose of eating.  Food sustains life, not as primordial over-indulgence just because we live in a society of quantity.  Early Greek philosophers suggested four different types of phlegm (bodily fluid) determined personality traits. These philosophers were not too far off. The following chart suggests diet profiles for each body type.

	Diet Profile	Allowed	Limited	Food to avoid for Weight Loss purpose	Food that help with Weight Loss
Type O	High Protein: Meat eaters	Meat fish vegetables fruit	grains beans legumes	wheat corn kidney beans navy beans lentils cabbage Brussels sprouts cauliflower mustard greens	kelp seafood salt liver red meat kale spinach broccoli
Type A	Vegetarian	vegetables tofu seafood grains beans legumes fruit		meat dairy kidney beans lima beans wheat	vegetable oil soy foods vegetables pineapple
Type B	Balanced omnivore	meat (no chicken) dairy grains beans legumes vegetables fruit		corn lentil peanuts sesame seeds buckwheat wheat	greens eggs venison liver licorice tea
Type AB	Mixed diet in moderation	meat seafood dairy tofu beans legumes grains vegetables fruits		red meat kidney beans lima beans seeds corn buckwheat	tofu seafood dairy greens kelp pineapple

 *chart taken from Dr. Lam, MD http://www.drlam.com/blood_type_diet/*

Current research shows that the quality of food influences the body's mechanisms and possibly, as Greek philosophers theorized, effected personality.  Aren't you happy after eating food anyway??

Too Much Muscle Mass???

Bone bearing activities reduce the risk of osteoporosis and promote the stimulation of red blood cells in the bone marrow.  Beta lymphocytes (disease fighting cells) are differentiated from red blood cells during its maturation in the bone marrow which is further promoted via exercising.  Other than denser bones and disease prevention, weight lifting (a bone bearing activity) is used for muscle development.  When is there too much mass muscle?

Muscles mass is the motivation most body builders, exercise enthusiast, and gym non-frequenters need in order to contribute to their own personal health development.  On the contrary, muscle mass should not diminish flexibility.  Muscles that become to massive may effect poor circulation comparative to fat buildup leading to high cholesterol and heart disease.  Flexibility and lean muscle mass allows proper circulation for regulatory systems in the body, and eliminates body structure rigidity.

Inability to touch your toes or scratch your back are clear indicators of extremely tight muscles that should be attended to with equal effort stretching.

Sport Drinks: What's better?

Exercise physiology says that we need to fuel our bodies to activate its potential, particularly for the activity it will engage in.  This theory makes actual sense.  However, what doesn't make sense are the types of fuels we consume enabling our bodies to be capable.  Regardless of the exercise we engage in, once we sweat our bodies need  to be replenished with the electrolytes it lost.  Electrolytes are positively or negatively charged elements which assist cell regulation throughout the 11 body systems (ex. central nervous, endocrine, & digestive).  Decrease your chances of dehydration by ensuring your sports drinks contain the following:

• sodium (Na⁺)
• potassium (K⁺)
• chloride (Cl^-)
• calcium (Ca²⁺)
• magnesium (Mg²⁺)
• bicarbonate (HCO₃^-)
• phosphate (PO₄^2-)
• sulfate (SO₄^2-)

Gatorade, VitaCoco, Powerade, etc contain a significant percentage of these electrolytes however what differentiates each brand is the amount of artificial sugar or sweetener used to enhance the drinks' flavor contents.  Gatorade and Powerade contain 35 and 46 grams of sugar respectively in a 20 fluid ounce container while VitaCoco contains 11 grams in a 8.5 fluid ounce container. If a person doubles the serving of VitaCoco, the amount of sugar does not equate in comparison to Gatorade or Powerade.  

With the latest NYC regulation on sugar content at chain restaurants, I think it is fair to know the amount in our sport drinks so we dictate the choice of how much sugar we need.