May 27, 2008

Blood Type Diet and Hamburgeusas de Tres Carnes

I have been gluten free for two years now and almost all of my symptoms have dissipated. Recently some of my skin issues began to reappear and despite all my time at the gym I was not seeing results. I began researching additional food intolerances and diets. While at Barnes & Noble with my boyfriend doing research into books of exercises for women and he found the Blood Type Diet by Dr. Peter D’Adamo and he decided to get it for me.

After reading the book, almost cover to cover, I found that a lot of what Dr. D’Adamo proposes makes an awful lot of sense to me, especially in terms of things that I have already figured out about my system and it’s reactions. The premise of the book, and the diets that are outlined in it, is that each blood type developed among a group of people that were living in a certain way; hunter gatherer, agricultural society, etc and that each blood type has certain needs. Foods that are beneficial and foods that are not meant to be eaten.

Dr. D’Adamo proposes diets; food plans designed for optimal health of each blood type rather than the four letter word ‘diet’ which usually outlines a weight loss plan. He posits that when you are fuelling your body with the correct foods in the correct amounts, and participating in an exercise regimen that is recommended for your blood type, your body will rid itself of toxins stored in the fat and you will ultimately reach your own body’s ideal weight, and be healthier overall.

As I said, this makes a lot of sense to me. I know some people would think this is just a bunch of hogwash, but really, I don’t see how eating lots of lean protein, fruits and veggies and cutting back on grains is really going to hurt me. I’m not into fad diets, most of which strike me as being extremely unhealthy in the long run.

One thing that really caught my attention was that Dr. D’Adamo marks gluten as a food (well really an component present in foods) as being highly detrimental to type O systems, such as myself. He also points out that grains and simple carbohydrates in general are not recommended, something else that I had noticed in myself when eating gluten free breads ad bread products.

Dr. D’Adamo outlines each blood type and explains in what kind of environment each one evolved. Type O evolved as hunter-gatherers, Type A evolved in agricultural areas, and type B evolved much later than that in city dwellers, type AB comes from a blending of the two. He highlights foods that are beneficial, neutral, and detrimental for each blood type and how often they should be eaten. He also recommends various exercise and exercise plan designed for each blood type

I plan to follow this diet in a sensible manner for a few months and see what happens. After two weeks I already feel better in general, in my mind and the way I feel in my body. I’ve really stepped up in preparing more of my own foods, and more food for my boyfriend too. I’m trying to designs meals and snacks, especially things that travel well to be eaten on the go, for the both of us, around the highly beneficial foods for type O.

Last week I wanted to fix something that I could take to work for lunch everyday that would be healthy, satisfying and used a number of items from the type O beneficial foods list. I created this three-meat burger mixture that turned out really well, eaten with a salad or wrapped in lettuce.

Hamburgeusas de Tres Carnes

½ Lb. lean ground beef
¼ Lb. veal
¼ Lb. lamb
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
¼ bunch parsley
½ c. fresh spinach
1 egg white
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. sea salt with kelp and dulce

Finely chop onion, garlic, parsley and spinach; either by hand or in a food processor. Mix veggies, ground meat, spices and egg white until well mixed. Form into patties and grill.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Eating Right for Your Type. We have a vibrant community of individuals that have been eating this way for years. Great receipe. I will be sharing this with my Blood Type Diet Class on Long Island later today. Thanks, Andrea Blood Type A Secretor (secetor status is described in more detail in Dr. D'Adamo's later book Live Right for Your Type)

Peppermint Twist said...

The Blood Type Diet (and also Dr. D.'s newer Genotype Diet) are literally AWESOME, I can attest to this personally (I followed the BTD for years and now follow the GTD). The profound health benefits just keep coming, thus making the experience of Dr. D.'s diets truly "The fantastic journey". Glad you have discovered it, and, as the previous commenter mentioned, there is a great support community at wwww.dadamo.com. Peace out!

Anonymous said...

The Blood type diet is the best diet for me and I've researched diets for at least 5 years before realizing that the only foods I did well on..are the foods for my blood type by Dr. D'Adamo.

He is a scientist ahead of his time..Maybe the others will catch up in 25-50 years..

Anonymous said...

Wonderful reading your blog. I also follow the B/GTD (I'm an A Warrior). Come join us on the BTD forums!

Naomi Devlin said...

I often look at patient's blood type if they seem to struggle with certain food groups but don't have allergies. Especially those with thyroid underfunction. I think that there are a lot of O type coeliacs out there who would really benefit from scaling back the grains, sugar and pulses and following a more hunter gatherer menu.

Tough if you married an A or B type though! Luckily we're all O here and the SCD diet has many similarities to the O blood type.

It sounds like a great recipe (although I don't do veal) I love the parsley and spinach. We sandwich our burgers between two slices of beef tomato, or grilled portobella mushrooms.

x x x

Vittoria said...

Thank you all fo stopping by, it's nice to finally be getting some comments.

It's nice to hear so many success stories about BTD.

I would be interested in checking out the forums if someone would be kind enough to direct me to them.

Naomi- I knew there was something that drew me to your recipes, they
all look so intreguing. You could use this model for burgerswith just about any meat. I make them with turkey for my boyfriend, who is also O and I thik next time I'm gonna do 50/25/25 turkey, lamb, and bison for myself. Hiding those vegetable is there is just one of the many ways I'm trying to improve my boyfriends diet, since hewon't eat "green food" (Some cultural prejudice I suspect) I realy enjoy your site and I would be interested to learn more about the SCD die as well.

Again, thanks all vor stopping by, keep commenting!

Anonymous said...

The forums are at www.dadamo.com. There is a link to forums on the left, as well as a link to yummy recipes for each, or multiple, type(s). I wish you success with BTD. I recommend it to anyone who will listen!