The Blood Type Diet: Pros & Cons

They say we are what we eat but what we should be eating can be affected by what courses through our veins. 

The Blood Type Diet is the based around eating a diet based on your  blood type — O, A, B, or AB, and that this will help you trim down and get healthier. It follows the idea that the foods you eat react chemically with your blood type. If you follow a diet designed for your blood type, your body will digest food more efficiently. You’ll lose weight, have more energy, and help prevent disease.

Today we exam the pros & cons of the blood type diet and if it may be right for you.

Pros

The blood type diet encourages exercise. Research shows that regular exercise combined with a healthy diet can lead to weight loss and promote weight management.

Each blood type plan emphasizes choosing whole foods over processed foods, which is a healthy choice.⁴ The program also offers a wide variety of compliant foods for some of the blood types, which may make it easier to stick with.

Although each blood type comes with its own set of dietary restrictions, the program is not a low-calorie diet with unhealthy restrictions on calorie intake. Plans for types B and AB are more well-rounded and can provide most if not all of the necessary nutrients for a well-balanced diet. However, the plans for types A and O restrict certain healthy food groups, which is not a smart long-term eating plan for many people.

Cons

Eating for your specific blood type is not rooted in science. The available research on the blood type diet includes a study published in the journal PLoS One in 2014.⁵ For the study, 1,455 participants filled out questionnaires designed to determine how frequently they’d consumed certain foods during a one-month period.

In their analysis of the questionnaires, researchers found that following a diet similar to the diet prescribed for blood type A or blood type AB was associated with lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels.

Following a diet similar to the diet prescribed for blood type O was associated with lower levels of triglycerides (high levels of this blood fat have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease), while no significant association was found for the blood type B diet.