Eat Right Diet (Blood Type Diets)
Graham Bennett
I published a book review of Dr Peter D'Adamo's, The Eat Right Diet, in 2000, from which I received a number of questions. I wrote a response to these questions, which first appeared in the January 2001 edition of the BEINZ newsletter, Burning Issues. At Dr Ray's suggestion to take the article to a wider audience, I rewrote it for publication in the July 2001 edition of Healthy Options Magazine, an extremely edifying editing experience. It is this "slashed and burned" version that appears here. A link at the bottom of this page will take you to the original, less polished version.
To add a little context for those not familiar with the book, the basic premise is that different foods may be classed as highly beneficial, neutral or to be avoided, based on one's blood type.
The Blood Type Diet, A Spiritual Dilemma
Graham Bennett BSc, ND, Chartered Natural Therapies Practitioner of Body Electronics
Dr D’Adamo’s blood type diet is logically sound, as far as it goes, since 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 in terms of blood type.
Blood type is genetically determined and is thus part of one’s constitution. 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.
A more important and frequently overlooked reason for healing is emotionality. My belief is that diet, as such, is only 10% of the picture, being only partly causative or preventative of healing. The emotional and mental aspects are critical because it is our attitude that very much determines how readily we heal. Without enthusiasm (love) the best diet in the world will be of little restorative value.
Thus, a diet that always makes one feel good can prevent one from ever experiencing the suppressed emotionality that one has regarding food, therefore binding one in slavery to that diet.
My training and experience in Body Electronics indicates that fundamental change is possible. If one fixates on any particular diet and uses it to avoid a healing crisis, one consequently never tests one’s comfort zones or experiences regeneration. No diet is a substitute for exploration and mastery of one’s emotions and coming to an awareness of oneself as the one and only inner cause of all external events.
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 cannot be measured using the tools of science and carries the total of our experience, learning (and ignorance) for which we are directly responsible.
D’Adamo states that certain lectins (various proteins found in specific foods), have an affinity for particular blood types, causing agglutination (a clotting or clumping within body fluids and tissues). Thus by removing these irritants, one naturally feels better.
But what is irritating the body and what is healing it? Dr Edward Howell explores the allergic reaction some people have to certain live foods such as strawberries. A sensitive individual feels better by avoiding strawberries and the allergy symptoms can be observed and linked to the strawberries, but are the strawberries really an irritant?
Howell states that a particular enzyme present in strawberries is actually the very thing required to enable the body to eliminate certain toxins, resulting in allergy-like symptoms. Furthermore, as one continues to eat the strawberries (in a small enough dose to cope with the reaction 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.
The illustration is simply that things are not always what they seem. Agglutination may well be associated with diet and blood type, but is it really a problem? Perhaps, perhaps not. Does this too depend on one’s purpose?
In all cases, it is the individual who needs treating, not their disease, their symptoms, nor their constitution. Thus any dietary programme needs to be tailored to one’s individual needs and purpose. There are times when strawberries are the order of the day, regardless of one’s blood type or sensitivity. I might add that there is no universal agreement on what foods truly are compatible with each type, as indicated by the work of Dr Laura Powers quoted by Gabriel Cousens in his book, Conscious Eating.
According to D’Adamo, from a constitutional or blood type perspective, some of us are suited to being vegetarians and some simply aren’t. From a purely physical point of view, one might well conclude this is true and approach meat eating with renewed vigour, now that it’s “’OK’ to eat meat, the book said I had to.”
Meat has certain chemical properties that can make the body feel 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. The quantity of protein and other nutrients such as Vitamin B12 may make up for absorption shortfalls in the short term, but a better approach is to fix the absorption problem.
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.
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.
The Ascended Master Saint Germain gives 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 healthy submission 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.
In the words of Dr John Whitman Ray, “The vegetarian diet increases the ability to perceive. Eating meat makes one feel good but without being able to progress spiritually.” Those on a spiritual path would do well to follow the laws that govern their spiritual progress. These encompass the physical laws and go beyond them. Thus we recognise the physical laws as lower laws from which we gradually move on to apply higher laws pertaining to our spiritual progress that then require us to behave differently.
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 reactivity arising from suppressed emotionality? 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 attention to the physical level does not exclude spiritual progress.
“Without the Light of God illumining our minds, what do we have?”
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 original unabridged version of this article here.