Adapting your diet to your blood type has no health benefits. On the other hand, increasing your vegetable protein intake would be beneficial.
- Some diets are based on foods to be consumed according to the blood group to which one belongs
- In fact, there is no link between blood group and diet.
Cretan diet, ketogenic diet, Dukan diet: there are a multitude of food programs known for their ability to make us lose weight. Not all of them are good to follow, either because they risk putting us in danger, or because they are simply ineffective. In the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a research team tested the effects of the diet based on blood type. According to the latter, people with blood group A would derive the most benefit from a diet rich in plants. Conversely, people in group B should adopt a high protein diet.
A vegetarian diet with positive effects
To test this hypothesis, the researchers analyzed the effects of an all-vegetable diet on a group of overweight people. For 16 weeks, half of the participants followed this type of food program. The other part of the group has not changed its habits. The first observation of the scientists is that a vegan diet is beneficial for the metabolism: the participants who adopted it during the study burned more calories after meals, compared to the control group.
Blood type has no impact
Secondly, the scientific team studied the precise links between blood group and diet. They analyzed the weight, the level of lipids in the blood and the blood sugar of the different participants. Then they categorized those results by blood type. Their conclusions are formal:we found that blood type made no difference“says lead research author Neal Barnard.”While the blood type diet claims that a vegetarian diet is better for people in type A, and worse for those in type B, it turns out to be beneficial for everyone, regardless of the blood groupThe researcher adds that there is no evidence that a high meat diet is good for anyone.
More vegetables, less meat!
“Our study shows that all blood groups derive positive effects from a vegan diet, based on consumption of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, especially with regard to weight loss and cardio-metabolic health in adults. Overweight“, he adds. If adopting an entirely vegetarian or vegan diet can present risks for certain categories of population, when it is not completely balanced, official directives encourage us to increase the share of plants in our meals. In January 2019, Public health France just updated its recommendations. To be in better health, the body suggests that we reduce the amount of meat consumed, and increase the proportion of pulses in our diet, as well as that of vegetables and fruits.
