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Sunday 26 September 2010

Blood type B

Went to dinner the other night with an italian friend who has convinced me to investigate the idea of eating a diet that suits one's blood type. He swears by it, and I have to say - for a sixty year old, he looks about 40, so in a tragic fit of feminine desperation at the very idea of the prospect of ever being 60, which looms closer every day, I'm going to give it a go.

The theory is that depending on your blood type, there are certain things that you just can't eat because when digested, they poison your system. My main no-go chicken and pork, but goat, lamb, mutton, rabbit and venison and apparently beneficial. Tomatoes too, and nuts, and shellfish are off the menu (including frogs and snails, but they don't say anything about puppy-dog's tails.) Wheat will be hard to give up - apparently it's really bad, but rice is cool. Of course, this means that half of my culinary repertoire is off the menu - fark, no tomato! Eek.

I want someone to invent Foogle - a search engine that only searches recipes into which you type in all the stuff you can't have and only gives you repipes you can make. This would so be useful for those moments when you've got bugger all in the fridge.

So that's what I'm doing today - trawling the net for recipes that don't contain any of the following:

Meats:
Chicken, Cornish hens, Duck, Goose, Patridge, Quail, Pork
Seafood:
All Shellfish (crab, shrimp, lobster, mussels, oysters, crayfish, clam, etc), Anchovy, Barracuda, Beluga, Eel, Frog, Lox, Octopus, Sea bass, Snail, Striped bass, Turtle, yellowtail
Oils/fats:
Canola, Corn, Cottonseed, Peanut, Safflower, Sesame, Sunflower
Dairy:
American cheese, Blue cheese, Ice cream, string cheese
Nuts:
Cashews, Filberts, Pine, Pistachio, Peanuts, Pumpkin seeds, Sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds
Beans:
Lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, Beans (pintos, aduke, Azuki, Black)
Grains:
Wheat (bran, germ bulgur, durum, whole and white), Shredded wheat, Cream of wheat or any products such as flour, bread and noodles made with these grain products; Wheat (bran, germ bulgur, durum, whole and white), Shredded wheat, Cream of wheat or any products such as flour, bread and noodles made with these grain products; Buckwheat, Corn (cornflakes, cornmeal) and any products such as flour, bread and noodles made with these grain products;Amaranth, Barley, Kasha, Seven-grain, Wild rice, Couscous; Bagels, Muffins (Corn and Bran), Bread (Multi-grain Rye, Whole wheat), Soba Nooldes, Wild Rice, Couscous
Vegetables:
Artichoke, Avocado, Corn, Olives, Pumpkin, Radishes, Sprouts, Tempeh, Tofu, Tomato
Fruits:
Coconuts, Persimmons, Pomegranates, Prickly pear, Rhubarb, Starfruit
Spice:
Ketchup, Allspice, Almond extract, Gelatin, Pepper (black and white)
Herbs:
Aloe, Coltsfoot, Corn silk, Fenugreek, Gentian, Goldenseal, Hops, Linden, Mullein, Red clover, Rhubarb, Senna, Shepherd's purse, Skullcap
Beverages:
Distilled liquor, Seltzer water, Soda

15 comments:

  1. I've heard of this particular dietary system before. Keep me posted? I'm curious.

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  2. The way I am with hay fever at the moment, I'm prepared to fall for any kind of quackery, but this does seem to make sense. Check the link out up the top.

    Wheat is obvious - it always makes me feel lethargic and ill and I gave it up some time ago. I'm starting with the three worst foods for my type - corn, tomato and poultry. I eat a lot of chook, cook a lot of italian and so no pasta or polenta. Be interesting to see if it reduces my allergies. Tomatoes apparently really get into the joints of Btypes, which might explain why my old back injury is always inflamed.

    We'll see.

    They reckon it only takes a month to really notice the results.

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  3. Did you do the questionaires to figure which you were? ( I have heard of this one before..... I will see if I can find the cookbook in Borders... for you.)

    maggs

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  4. No Mags - you need to have a blood test. It's not that easy apparently - I give blood so I know my type. The hospital won't give it to you for some reason - even though I imagine they have to find out what your type is if you have surgery. Don't know why.
    Flinthart? Does Mrs F have any idea why it's difficult to find out one's blood type?

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  5. I advocate a diet based on one's shoe size. I know it sounds goofy, but it works. The diet is based on the theory that what is good for the body is the same thing that is good for the sole.

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  6. So Boylan, when you do a little sole dancing, you shake your tootie?

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  7. This is part of an trend which began in Japan of ascribing characteristics to blood groups, dating guides, jobs, and even meant to define your personality. Even to the point where there Prime Minsiter felt he had to annouce his blood type. Wiki has a good piece on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_types_in_Japanese_culture
    I wouldn't put much stock in it, given there is no correlation between blood group and one of the most common food allergies which would affect what diet you should follow such as Coeliac disease.

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  8. Based on that, and knowing my blood type is B+. I'm thinking it might be easier to change my blood type than my diet : (

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  9. I reckon Paul Nicholas Boylan is getting close, but being blood type O, I base my diet on something even more practial. I eat what's in the fridge!

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  10. Getting close to what? I'm not sure I like what you are implying, Stafford.

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  11. Hughesy try some local honey, as local as possible.

    Also have a listen
    http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/rss/Healthtrip

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  12. Have heard about this and have heard various claims that it works.

    The food list is pretty good, even though its short on aged beef and pork!

    I see lots of whisky and soda in your future!!

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  13. Hey Hughesy

    I've heard anecdotal reports that it agrees with some people but in my last semester of nutrition there was still no evidence to back it up.

    Its been a while since I looked at it but I remember that I'm supposed to be eating lots of foods that I'm horribly allergic to - like seafood - so there's no way it was ever going to work out for me.

    The best way to test for allergies is get your GP to run an allergy test. I don't think its covered by medicare, it costs a few hundred dollars but its very precise. They will test for wheat allergies on the medicare rebate thing though, and it can be deceptive as if you do react to wheat it doesn't necessarily mean that you're coeliac. As far as I know they still need to stick the tube down your throat and take a sample to see if the cilia in the small intestine have the characteristic flattening and loss of absorptive surface that you find in Coeliac disease. Not that it's so much a disease as an intolerance.

    Hope you're staying dry after the Big Wet.
    Quokka

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  14. So... hook up those recipes I'm right here with ya

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