Eat Right Diet (Blood Type Diets)

Graham Bennett
Bookmark and Share

This is the original version of the Blood Type Diet article I wrote in 2001 for the BEINZ Newsletter, Burning Issues, following a book review of Dr Peter D'Adamo's, The Eat Right Diet, which I published in the previous newsletter.

 

Eating For One’s Blood Type, The Dietary Dilemma

Graham Bennett BSc, ND, Chartered Natural Therapies Practitioner of Body Electronics

Since the book review on “The Eat Right Diet” in the last edition of Burning Issues, it seems that there has been a flurry of publicity for the blood type diet. Several health magazines and even mainstream publications like the Woman’s Weekly have published articles recommending this diet. A number of BEINZ members have also made enquiries about the diet or have tried it themselves and have been asking what the “BE official position” is on this.

The following article is a modified version of a reply I sent to one person. Having subsequently spoken to Dr Ray on the matter, he has shared some additional insights that are of great relevance to all who are working on the regeneration of their body. The issues cannot be covered all at one time here, because like the stomach, our minds need a little time to digest what we read.

I have recommended the book to several people over the last year on the strength of the experiences and reports from others. I’ve also experimented with it a little myself and have had a few interesting experiences that took a while to get some perspective on. As a result, I generally only recommend it to people who are not on any sort of BE programme (casual or work associates for example) and have retained certain provisos on its use, depending on the person.

Therefore let me begin by stating that the blood type diet is well researched and logically sound, as far as it goes. Most people’s concept of good health is the absence of pain or discomfort and a feeling of well-being. The blood type diet is very good at producing this since it is tailored to the specific biological needs of the individual that accompany their genetic makeup as far as blood type goes. This is what most people want and they want no more.

Their natural instinct is to want to feel good and fair enough too. Even if one is dedicated to regeneration and lovingly and willingly enduring healing crisis, a break is often in order for certain practical reasons and to keep one’s level of enthusiasm high. Without enthusiasm (love) for what one is doing with their diet, the best diet in the world will be of little restorative value.

However, it’s important to consider that the appropriateness of any particular diet is not just based on its nutritional merits. Certainly the blood type diet includes a wide variety of foods that could easily supply all the protein, essential fatty acids, carbohydrates, and micronutrients, etc if one chose a balanced and wise selection of the foods from the “highly beneficial” or “neutral” lists. From a purely physical or nutrient point of view, the diet has no problems and in fact makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn’t different bodies and blood types respond differently to the same foods?

Blood type is genetically determined and is thus part of one’s Constitutional Man, which as we know is only part of our whole being, containing the sum total of our ancestrally inherited programming. As is taught in a great number of modalities (including medical science), one’s constitution (DNA) never changes from birth until death and the best that can be done is to balance the body. Thus any diet designed to match one’s constitution is by definition designed to maintain the comfort zone of that constitution. Once one accepts the unchanging nature of constitution and decides to maintain it, one is from then on relegated to perpetuating that constitution.

We have to remind ourselves that our bodies are genetically programmed to decay and die and therefore that any path that attempts to overcome this programming will be met with intense resistance from within and from without. Where is this programming? The medical researchers claim they can see it in our DNA, and to a degree, they can. However, what they do not see is that the DNA is merely an indicator, a signpost to the real location of that programming which exists in our consciousness and which cannot be measured using the tools of science.

Bear in mind always that any dietary or health advice derived from scientific observation to the exclusion of any consciousness considerations will therefore always be attempting to work on the signpost, instead of the cause.

Orthodox nutritional merit and genetic constitution aside, the fundamental question is one of “purpose” when it comes to diet. Why do we choose one diet over another? What do we hope or intend to achieve from that diet? By now, those who are in pursuit of regeneration realise that healing crisis is a fact of life if one wishes to undo the damage that has already been done. One also realises that one can avoid healing crisis indefinitely if one is prepared to remain where one is or continue to slowly degenerate.

We have to remember that we are far more than just our genetic inheritance, we are an immortal spirit which has lived many lives with many different constitutions, that which we call the Natural Man. The Natural Man carries the total of our experience, learning, and ignorance for which we are directly responsible. The content of our Natural Man “stuff” must be dealt with and not forever avoided if we intend to leave this mortal plane.

I say the question is purpose. If your purpose is to feel good, either continually or occasionally, then you can achieve this by manipulating your diet in certain ways. We all know that some foods work as “comfort foods” for us. No problem, this is your choice and there are undoubtedly times when it is appropriate. However, healing crisis and perpetually feeling good are somewhat diametrically opposed so you’re going to have to make a choice. The Ray Programme diet is designed to provoke and support healing crisis, not maintain balance.

There are broadly two reasons for a particular food either promoting healing crisis or not. The first reason is a physical one, being simply based on the life force or vitality of the food and its nutritional value as such. For example, living, vital foods like sprouts are mineral and vitamin rich. One also has to provide the raw materials for the body on a mechanical level, enough carbohydrates for energy, enough protein for building the body and providing the components of the hormones, enzymes, cellular structures, etc, and enough essential fatty acids for cell membranes, nerve function etc. These are the physical reasons or prerequisites for healing crisis. When the body is strong enough because of the strength and vitality of the diet, it will tend to spontaneously enter healing crisis mode.

However, there is a second and more important reason that is frequently overlooked, and that is the emotional factor in our diet. Dr Ray has repeatedly stated that diet, as such, is only 10% of the picture. As such diet can be causative or preventative of healing crisis to a degree. The emotional side of diet is critical because it is our attitude to what we experience that very much determines how well we proceed through our healing crisis. Sure, we want to feel good and we will when the healing crisis is done. In fact, we’ll feel better than ever. Sometimes we notice that we “have to feel good, right NOW!” and our attention is so drawn to the “evidence of how we feel” that we forget why we’re doing this and seek out the comfort foods again.

A diet that always makes one feel good prevents one from ever experiencing the suppressed emotionality that one has around eating that then binds one in slavery to that diet.

Of course, there is more to it than this since there is a difference between feeling good because certain irritants have been removed and feeling good because one is comforting the body. Dr D’Adamo, author of the Eat Right Diet, states that one reason for feeling good on this diet is because of eliminating certain irritants, namely certain lectins (a type of protein), present in specific foods. These have an affinity for particular blood groups, causing agglutination (a clotting or clumping within the interstitial fluid not unlike the effect of mucoprotein). Thus by removing the irritants, one naturally feels better. This is of course why we educate people to avoid anything that is destructive to the body, whether they be environmental toxins, improper dietary factors, or whatever.

The question requiring greater discernment is, “what is irritating the body and what is healing it?” Some people are clearly more sensitive than others. Some foods are clearly devoid of any vital life force and cause toxicity problems in the body. Such foods should be avoided. The lines aren’t always so clear. For example, Dr Edward Howell cites the common observation of the allergic reaction some people have to certain live foods such as strawberries. Clearly the sensitive individual feels better by avoiding strawberries. Clearly the symptoms of an allergic response can be observed and linked to the strawberries, but are the strawberries an irritant for that person? Should they really be avoided?

Dr Howell categorically says “No!” His research indicates that a particular enzyme present in strawberries is the very thing required to cause the body to begin eliminating certain stored toxins, resulting in the symptoms, the so-called allergic response. Furthermore, as one continues to eat the strawberries (in a small enough dose to cope with the symptoms of course), the body eventually finishes the job of eliminating the toxins and no longer reacts to the strawberries at all. From a symptom point of view alone, it cannot be determined whether this is a desirable healing crisis or an allergic response to be avoided. It of course depends on one’s purpose and point of view.

Physical healing crisis involves the expulsion of toxins or abnormal tissue from the body, the symptoms of which often cannot be medically differentiated from the action of irritants or disease processes until after the healing crisis is complete. The illustration is simply that things are not always what they seem. Agglutination may well be occurring because of diet and blood type, but is it really a problem? Perhaps, perhaps not.

In discussing this with Dr Ray, he has described the blood type diet as “a balancing technique that keeps people out of healing crisis and therefore doesn't produce consciousness change". Some people are specifically using it for this purpose. If one fixates on any particular diet and uses it to avoid healing crisis, one consequently never tests one’s comfort zones or experiences regeneration. No diet is a substitute for exploration and self-control of one’s emotions and coming to an awareness of oneself as the one and only inner cause of all external events.

My personal experience on the diet was that giving up some of my favourite foods such as cashews, pistachios, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, etc etc was not easy. Curiously enough, I also found that having read they were “bad”, I suddenly noticed that I felt worse after eating them and felt really good after eating the “beneficial” foods.

I do not believe that this is simply a case of increased awareness of what was already happening, this was something new. Since a few people had been trying to get me to try this diet for about 3 years, I had already been thinking about how I felt after eating certain foods, and had speculated about which foods were “good” for me, not having yet read the book. As it turned out, I got some of them right and some of them wrong. Should I eat bananas or not? Frankly, once I’ve decided they’re bad for me, I may as well not bother. Alternately, I can bless and enjoy them without guilt or detrimental effect. The thing is that opinion dictates attitude and attitude dictates effect.

In all cases, it is the individual who needs treating, not their disease, nor their constitution. Thus any dietary programme needs to be tailored to one’s individual needs. Thus there are times when strawberries are the order of the day, regardless of one’s blood type. Bottom line? If you want to try the blood type diet, don’t do it in isolation of your BE practitioner and practice a relaxed attitude, otherwise you end up freaking out when you can't find a meal that isn't 100% compatible.

The main problem with the blood type diet is the question of vegetarianism. According to D’Adamo, from a constitutional perspective some of us are suited to being vegetarians and some simply aren’t and I know some people have concluded this for themselves. Again, if you look at the issues from a purely physical point of view, you might well conclude this is true and approach meat eating with renewed vigour, now that it’s “’OK’ to eat meat, the book said so (in fact it said I had to).” The diet has therefore been used as justification for returning to eating meat, followed by further justification because one “feels good doing it, therefore it must be working”. You’re going to have to imagine the “wrong answer buzzer” going off here.

I know a number of people who have been vegetarians for many years who have been advised by various practitioners of one sort or another to return to meat. My observation is firstly that any such “need” seems to be a passing phase, as if some temporary deficiency is satisfied by a few weeks of moderate meat, during which time the person feels better. After going back to vegetarianism, they also feel better, which I believe reflects the release from the energetic influence of the meat (emotionally). I think the key with such an approach is to know when the right time to change is.

In each case where a dedicated vegetarian has had to contemplate eating meat, the very act of serious contemplation (without any action) has produced piles of healing crisis on a physical and emotional level as a core belief is challenged. I find more and more that many of the healing crises experienced by people are only in a small way attributable to their diet, per se. Not that diet is unimportant, just that a larger factor in both their healing crisis and recovery is their attitude and the degree to which they confront their resistance. You can imagine how deeply someone would be influenced by the thought (let alone the act) of eating meat when they have not eaten it for 20 years because of spiritual or health convictions. Over the years they have chosen a position and have had to defend it rigorously to friends and family and perhaps made great sacrifices in the name of this position. To then consider eating something they consider total anathema but which their body has been craving is quite a profound experience.

There's no doubt that meat has certain chemical properties that have the ability to make the body feel better and to be better, in the short term. For example, as a concentrated animal protein, meat contains (and produces) a lot of uric acid, which has a stimulant effect in the body similar to caffeine. That same uric acid, as an ammonia metabolic waste, also collects and pollutes the body over time, as the body can only eliminate a certain amount per day.

Vegetarians often develop symptoms of a Vitamin B12 deficiency several years after giving up meat, since the body can store several years supply of B12. Although most vegetarian foods indeed contain much less B12 than meat, the problem isn’t one of quantity ingested, but rather one of quantity absorbed. To a degree, highly concentrated sources of certain nutrients can make up for a deficiency in absorptive ability. It may even be that after eating meat for a number of years the body has adapted in terms of the secretions it produces for the uptake of those nutrients such that it will take several more years before fully adapting to lighter foods as the body becomes less toxic.

Thus quantity and concentration can apparently make up for shortfalls in absorption in the short term while the body continues to become polluted and more dependent on this method. A better approach is to fix the absorption problem by cleaning out the excess mucous in the intestinal tract and getting the stomach lining functioning properly so it can secrete the Intrinsic Factor that synergises B12 absorption in the intestines and the hydrochloric acid that ensures protein digestion can proceed to completeness.

The real problem with most people is digestive weakness caused by long standing enzyme deficiency, low hydrochloric acid levels in the stomach (possibly both caused by insufficient sources of raw protein), and poor eating habits and attitudes. It is often said that, “there are a lot of sick vegetarians around.” That’s true, but there’s also an awful lot of sick meat eaters around too, they just don’t know it.

When a certain level of ill health is reached or perhaps after years of a certain diet that perhaps one is not biologically or constitutionally suited to (maybe because of blood type or lack of a particular enzyme, etc), long-standing deficiencies eventually develop which the body is forced to adapt to. It then develops a secondary "mode" of operation which is sub-standard but operable. Hence the “top-up” idea some people have adopted to eating meat.

But again, we’re back to purpose. Are we going to eat meat because we think it would help our body (temporarily) or are we going to fix the problem at its root cause? The real problem with eating meat is not at a physical level. Any apparent benefits it has at a physical level are far outweighed at the emotional and spiritual end of the scale.

From an "I AM" perspective, I think you'd have to consider that as an Ascended Master, Saint Germain knows what he's talking about. He has given clear instructions on the subject of not eating meat. In “The Magic Presence”, Volume 2, Chapter 5 from the Saint Germain Foundation, he says:

“The great harm of meat-eating is that the flesh of the animal records the feeling of fear it experiences when killed. The animal has an emotional body, and the vibration of fear recorded previous to, and at the moment of death, qualifies the flesh. The quality of fear is absorbed by the emotional body of the human being who eats it. It also causes a certain substance to condense into the brain which dulls the intellect and prevents the finer impulses from flowing into it from the “Mighty I AM Presence”.”

We're used to considering our diet from a purely physical point of view, where the idea is to force the body into submission and be healthy because we're eating a certain food or not eating a certain other food. I do not believe this is the right approach in the long term.

In effect, by eating meat one is valuing the apparent benefit to the physical body above one’s spiritual progress. The irony is that without the Light of God illumining our mind, we have nothing. That “certain substance” that “condenses into the brain” and “prevents the finer impulses from flowing into it” is from meat and prevents our ability to make spiritual progress.

In Dr Ray’s words to me on the subject, “The vegetarian diet increases the ability to perceive. Eating meat makes one feel good but without being able to progress spiritually.” Most spiritual teachings give some sort of dietary advice, and that advice most commonly states that those on a spiritual path should not eat meat. The real question is, are you on a physical path or a spiritual path? Those on a physical path would do well to follow the laws that govern the physical body, for certainly there are laws governing the physical body. Those on a spiritual path would do well to follow the laws that govern their spiritual progress.

There is no contradiction here. As we exist in mortality, we follow the physical laws to the best of our ability, yet unless we apply higher laws pertaining to our spiritual progress then we will remain bound in mortality. Thus we recognise the physical laws as lower laws from which we gradually move on to apply higher laws that then require us to behave differently.

In chapter 10 of “Autobiography of a Yogi”, the swami Dyananda berates a young and inexperienced Yogananda on the subject of food at a time when Yogananda first experienced a day and a half of fasting, feeling that he might therefore die.

"Never believe that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will inevitably see that His devotee is maintained. Do not imagine that rice sustains you nor that money or men support you. Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life breath? They are His instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!"

Never believe that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! In other words, our allegiance should be to God, even if this is at the apparent expense of our physical diet.

Professor Arnold Ehret, perhaps the most famous faster, stated that the body derives neither strength nor vitality from food, but rather from the body's purity, wherein the removal of obstruction from the body allows it to properly utilise Pranic energies.

One author in the early 1920's, George W Carey, taught that food only provides energy for the body in order for it to extract nutrition from the air and that the air provides the material for the entire substance of the body. Apart from minerals, all the chemical constituents of carbohydrates, fat and protein (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) are also in the air we breathe. And if you subscribe to biological transmutations, then even the minerals can all be synthesised from oxygen and hydrogen! Furthermore, the pattern for the structure of every protein required in the body as an enzyme, hormone, antibody, or cell structure is encoded into our DNA.

Food can force the body into healthy submission to some degree, but I believe the divine plan is for us all to rise above our emotional and physical dependence on food. It is after all not the physical substance of the food we are intended to absorb in any case, but rather the “life-giving essence” with which our "I AM Presence" can charge it. Think about the crystal cups of clear sparkling liquid manifested by the Ascended Masters. It is not the chemical (physical) properties of such things that produce the grand result, but rather some other divine essence.

It might sound like I'm recommending eating nothing and waiting for a "miracle" glass to appear. No, but while we continue to look for salvation in food, in other words, while we continue to place our absolute faith in the "reality or truth" of the external world (or diet), we are somewhat missing the boat.

The blood type diet has its place, it may even be a necessary step for some who are already enmeshed in meat eating or who are not yet ready or willing to take on a more rigorous approach geared towards healing crisis and regeneration. People get in a bind sometimes and see few opportunities to get out of it. So be it. But if we do have a destination in mind (which I think we do), then better to not take too much of a detour and not move on at the appointed time.

The blood type diet addresses the issue of balance on a constitutional level. This has a place, but what are you doing to free yourself of unconsciousness and the resulting entity involvement? What are you doing to attend to your items of karmic incompletion arising from your Natural Man? One must be wise in one’s choice of diet and attitude so that effort and attention to the physical level does not exclude spiritual progress.

 

In Love, Light, and Perfection,
“I AM”
Graham Bennett

 

Follow the navigation links below to read more in this series about nutrition. Or, follow this link to find out about the nutrition books I recommend.

 

 

 

You can also read the abridged version I edited for Healthy Options magazine here.

 


Search Healthy Being website...
Custom Search