Atkins Veterans, Please Read
Written: Jul 19 '02 (Updated Jul 19 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: an elegant theory worthy of more medical exploration; book contains interesting explanations; relatives did well
Cons: inventor seems a little greedy; i am irredeemable
The Bottom Line: Mine was a comedy of errors, but: Atkins veterans, what do you think? (skip to the end)... I think there's something here...
|
|
|
| charwoman's Full Review: Eat Right 4 Your Type Diet |
I'm writing this more because I feel pretty sure there's something to this diet than because I have directly benefitted from it or been failed by it. I actually received the book by accident in a shipment of other books back in 1997. The Random Occurrence made quite an impression because I was beginning to experience a sort of downward spiral healthwise, with low energy, increasing joint pains, and digestive problems spanning all latitudes. My weight has always been a bit of a problem but weight loss was not my main motivation for keeping the book. After skimming the jacket flaps, I found the philosophy very sensible and appealing in its reason, and it jibed with what already seemed incredibly clear; that people are, in fact, different, with different requirements on every level. This is why, having lived primarily as a vegetarian for many years, I have never been one of those who felt that vegetarianism was best for everyone. While I do have ecological and personal objections to the vast human production and consumption of meat, as far as individual health requirements, it has always seemed to me that some people don't just ~want~ red meat, they actually function best with it. And others seem to do best on a diet of greens and tofu.
The basic premise
First, let me say that sueincyprus did an excellent job of summarizing the diet. And MsHootervile reinforced my curiosity over whether those who prospered (or should I say, 'became LESS prosperous'?) on the Atkins diet were probably types O and B, while those who did not were probably A and AB. In any case, D'Adamo (the author of Eat Right 4 Your Type) suggests that his work and the work of his father before him (both nutritionists) began to reveal a pattern correlating health, disease, metabolism and dietary responsiveness to the four major blood groups. While the plan is designed to optimize health, one side effect is often weight loss, and D'Adamo wisely saw this as a point which might attract sufficient interest to aid in dispersing his ideas. It's not that easy to sell a disease-free diet in a country where most women I know (myself included) can immediately see a silver lining of weight loss when told they have, say, walking pneumonia or dysentery
The idea is that specific foods, not just calorie types (fat, protein, carb) or general categories (grains, dairy, poultry etc.) have specific compositions that react differently with each of the four blood groups. Each of the types assimilates different foods easily and optimally, and of course has some foods that they cannot assimilate well. In addition, types A, B and AB create antibodies in reaction to environmental assailants, including foods. As I recall (I did not re-read the book before writing this), the production of these antibodies can play key roles in the development of diseases such as cancer. In short, each type is built to perform best and get maximum benefit from the fuel most appropriate for it, which makes nothing but sense as far as I'm concerned.
~Very~ Briefly:
* O's and B's are best suited to a high-protein, low-carb diet and will lose weight best under those conditions, especially if they can avoid wheat and corn
* A's are best suited to vegetarianism or even veganism and lose weight best omitting red meat
* AB's are antibody-generating mutants who can eat turkey but not chicken, goat but not beef, and so on (but still have more variety available to them than Os)
I 'knew' my blood type only because I remembered a nurse at a free clinic many years before telling me that I was type O, and volunteered that I really ought to donate blood if I wasn't a donor already since I was a universal donor. It didn't matter then that I couldn't remember my Rh factor (positive/negative) because the ER4YT diet doesn't make distinctions for Rh, only for the four main blood groups, O, A, B, and AB. So here I was reading that my natural inclination to vegetarianism was possibly the cause of the health problems I was accumulating! I was stripping my gears slowly but surely, giving my diesel engine unleaded fuel! I was doing almost everything wrong for type O, and I was willing to try almost anything to turn back the tide of Feeling Crappy All The Time.
Inconvenient? Yesireebob.
Being a vegetarian all those years meant I was no stranger to the health food store, so I had a better idea of how to begin than most would after being told to eliminate wheat, peanuts, and dairy from their diet. The assortments of gluten-free and wheat-free items available on the market can make it pretty convenient, if not cheap, to live with a modicum of dignity. Thanks to rising awareness of celiac disease (an allergy/intolerance to grain glutens of many kinds), there is even a boxed macaroni-and-cheese on the market made with rice pasta, for those moments when nothing else will do. And some of the alternative pastas are actually quite good, particularly those made with rice and the ones made with a combination of corn and quinoa. The benefits of a diet high in soy and the recognition of lactose intolerance have also widened the range of products available as dairy substitutes, and there's even a handful of yummy soy-butters out there to boot. Nevertheless, the only way to manage a wheatless diet (never mind the dairy) without paying a lot of money for substitute or convenience foods is if you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind cooking. I really didn't mind the part where I had to re-learn baking, for it was kind of a challenge and 9 times out of 10 something tasty resulted at the end. I did get accustomed to living without wheat, but found that I was eating with friends a lot less often, unless I could have them over for dinner and they weren't afraid to try something different.
It worked for them, anyway.
My husband is a type A, and way back when we first got together, before ER4YT and when I was still veg, I started feeding him hummus pockets, lentil stews, and pretend meats (snausages & shamburgers). Even though he wasn't really trying to exercise or slim down, he lost a noticeable few pounds and more importantly, his terrible cholesterol dropped to healthy, normal limits. He was eating like I was, which is how a type A is supposed to eat.
My father (who I was just getting to know about the time I got the book) is an AB, and I gave him a copy of ER4YT. He found that he needed to make very few adjustments to his existing diet to stick to the plan, and started dropping weight very quickly indeed; he said he wasn't eating any less, just eliminating the things he wasn't supposed to have. He also said that his energy levels were through the roof.
So here were two examples of people doing better on their prescribed blood type diets, one unbeknownst (my husband) and one on purpose (my father).
The only improvement I noticed was less joint pain and less digestive distress, but overall I was still not doing so well. It turns out that wheat has been identified as a possible irritant for arthritis sufferers, so perhaps that's why I did notice a slight improvement.
Another red herring
I never did become a regular blood donor because my veins are wimpy little rolling bastards, cursed by every medical worked ever tasked with getting fluids into or out of them. And have such low blood pressure they have to squeeze it out of me with a sardine key. Last year I did try donating for the first time, since I'd heard there was a shortage of O in our area. Got a bruise the size of a pancake and almost fainted. But most interesting of all,
I got a card back in the mail 6 weeks later saying that my blood type was A Positive. Just like my husband.
What the heck??? I have actually heard before of people getting different results from different blood type tests, and I'm sure the blood services people are more likely to be right than the surly nurse at the free clinic so many years ago. It doesn't really matter, though; in a way, it sucked, but in a way, it made sense, because I’d never really liked meat anyway. So I'm back eating more or less like I used to and feeling the same kind of Crappy I was feeling before and during the experiment with a type O diet.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...
…which does ~not~ mean that I'm going to keep looking for ways to feel better and regain at least some of my former vibrance. I'm pretty sure that working behind a desk is what's killing me, and there's no way to eliminate that from my diet at this point. I will say that at the fittest time in my life, I was exercising a great deal (intensive stretching, biking, walking, small free-weight training) and eating a low-fat diet that was mostly vegetarian but included a single can of water-packed tuna every or every other day. Of course, that was many years ago and I am now more reminiscent of Ratso Rizzo at the end of Midnight Cowboy, but I was nevertheless eating and living in such a way that would be beneficial to my blood type, which I currently assume to be A+.
However, I do think there's something to this diet, and that's what I meant; at worst (and I'm not at all saying that I think of this dietary philosophy as a 'miss'), this plan might be a prototype that simply needs refining. We often tend to discard good ideas (technological, medical, social) if they don't work exactly right the first time, and that's unfortunate.
For those who say that the theories in ER4YT are 'bogus', I say let's start with the already provocative medical tests that have been performed (and mentioned in D'Adamo's book and on his website) and expand on them. Science/medicine is famous for its history of NOT welcoming new ideas, primarily since scientists (like most humans) are usually too married to their own world views to entertain one that threatens to invalidate what they (think they) already know. I will say that D'Adamo's marketing sensibilities discredit him by making him seem like another snake-oil salesman, and that's unfortunate too. He might garner more professional respect by trying less to profit from his books and other products.
As for the feasibility of sticking to these diets (and remember that I'm only thinking about the health, not weight, benefits here), the market would need to respond to consumer needs better than it has been. Gone is the idea of making and selling what people want; now is the era of figuring out how to sell what you can make most cheaply. Add to this a certain asceticism in the health-food world (which seems to think people enjoy having to stir their peanut butter with a cement mixer before each use) and you can see the problem; but the market is, in fact, slowly coming around. For example, Luna Bars (Clif corporation) are but one of many popular products that thoughtfully exclude wheat and dairy from their formulation, and they seem to selling very well indeed. Newman's Own is also selling a delicious wheat-free fig Newton in their 'Fig Newmans' line. Depending on where you live, it's becoming easier to stick to these diets when you eat out, too. Sushi and thai noodles are good examples, and I can find either at lunch within a couple of blocks of where I work. But the change is happening slowly, and only with recognition from the medical community will it begin to be more widespread.
So, you Atkins veterans out there….
For those of you who tried Atkins and stuck with it, it would be interesting to know the blood types of those who found that it worked well and those who had a poor experience with it. According to the ER4YT theory, the Atkins diet would work well for Os and Bs (high protein diet, and for Os especially if they can keep the dairy down) but not so well for As and Abs (might easily have increased cholesterol problems from following such a diet, and would not be able to efficient metabolize a high protein diet, meaning low energy and probably not much weight loss). So, I really wrote this hoping to get some feedback from all of you who tried Atkins and know your blood type. What do you think???
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) 15$ addntl.
Food Variety Restrictions A somewhat varied menu
Restrictiveness of Portions Satisfying
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
charwoman
|
|
Location: Richmond, VA USA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks."-- Dorothy Parker
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.