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Your blood type is the key to how foods affect your body and as a consequence it provides a guide that can improve your health, physical vitality and emotional strength. The link between blood types and food explains many of the paradoxes that have been observed in dietary studies over the years, it also explains why some people are able to lose weight on particular diets whilst others do not. The link between blood type and diet has been developed by two American Naturopathic Physicians, James and Peter D'Adamo and is based on 40 years of observation and research. From these observations the D'Adamo's have developed comprehensive lists of how specific foods affect the body and more importantly, which foods can be toxic to your blood type.

There is considerable evidence that the development of the various blood types is related to changes in diet during our evolutionary history. The original hunter and gatherer populations were type O, however with increasing population and migrations the other blood types developed. The first appearance of type A in appreciable numbers was during the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago. People with type A blood were more suited to the largely vegetarian diet and hence were more likely to survive than their type O predecessors. The type B blood type developed amongst the first communities to consume dairy foods in substantial quantities and it is not surprising that people with type B blood are able to tolerate dairy foods better than other individuals. The type AB blood type developed about 2000 years ago as a result of intermingling of type A and type B societies.

The importance of blood type in the development of disease has been recognized for many year. Type O's are more prone to ulceration whereas type A's are prone to cancer and cardiovascular disease, however the reason for these observations was not known. The D'Adamo's work on blood types and diet provides a simple and elegant understanding of how food - or more specifically - substances in foods called lectins, can interact with the blood and thus provide an environment in which disease can develop. The cells in our body have markers on their surfaces called antigens, that the immune system uses to determine whether the substances or cells are foreign or not. One of the most powerful antigens in the body is the one that determines blood type. It is found on the surface of red blood cells and your blood type is name for this antigen. For example, blood type A has the A antigen on the surface, blood type B has the B antigen, blood type AB has both the A and B antigens and blood type O has no antigens.

The key to the blood type approach to diet is that your body will reject blood type antigens that are not of your blood type. That is:

• Blood type A will accept type A and reject type B antigens
• Blood type B will accept type B and reject type A antigens
• Blood type AB will accept any other blood type
• Blood type O will reject all other blood types

The link between blood type and food is found in components of foods called lectins, and these lectins can mimic the blood type antigens. Simply put, when you eat food containing lectins that are incompatible with your blood type antigens, the lectins target an organ or bodily system and cause the blood cells in that area to clump together. This clumping is then associated with tissue destruction and can be a major factor in the development of disease.