Important Information

[Guest guest]

Some interesting info from that article critiquing the Eat for Your

Blood Type Diet.

 

http://www.earthsave.org/news/bloodtyp.htm

 

" We recognize that there are significant metabolic differences

between people. It may well be that some of these differences may

propel certain individuals towards flesh consumption. It may be,

however, that the cause is not so much genetic, as acquired after

birth. Remember, virtually every person who reports adding meat back

into a previously vegetarian diet is an individual who was raised on

a meat-based diet.

 

Why is this important? The kind of foods one eats in their early

years may set biochemical patterns that last for a lifetime. For

example, the human body can synthesize from simpler molecules some

essential substances like carnitine (required for energy production)

and some long-chain fatty acids (EPA, DHA, etc., needed for hormone

function, membrane synthesis, etc.). People who eat meat ingest these

substances, pre-formed, in the muscles and other animal tissues they

consume. It may be that the body of a person raised as a life-long

omnivore becomes functionally dependent upon a diet that contains

these pre-formed nutrients. As adults, if they suddenly change to a

completely plant-based style of eating, where the foods are

essentially devoid of pre-formed carnitine, EPA, DHA, etc., they may

find themselves in a body with enzyme systems unable to synthesize

all the energy-generating compounds, fatty acids, and other molecules

they may require.

 

After months or years on a flesh-free diet, these individuals might

experience deterioration of their health or energy - only to feel

better upon resumption of meat ingestion. To the person, this may

seem like confirmation that they are " natural meat eaters. " Rather,

it may be evidence of an acquired dependency on flesh-borne nutrients

formed through early eating patterns. If this is the case, it may be

possible to prevent, repair, or at least compensate for these

imbalances through provision of additional nutrients, removal of

inhibiting substances in the diet, varying combinations of food,

etc., utilizing foods of plant-based origin. There is much to learn

about the subject and much research needs to be done.

 

In my experience, these problems are not encountered in people raised

on vegetarian diets from infancy. This effect might be especially

pronounced in long-term omnivores who make an abrupt change to a

vegan diet, as opposed to those who taper flesh foods out of their

diet more gradually. It may be that some " omnivore-from-birth " people

who desire to sustain themselves on a vegan diet may have to make a

more graded transition to completely plant-based foods, sometimes

over several weeks or months, to give the body time to " gear up " its

metabolic machinery. In other words, what appears to be a " natural

need for meat " may really be the need for an attenuated weaning

process from animal products in order to overcome metabolic patterns

begun early in life, created largely by cultural practices.

 

Through the Institute of Education and Research, we plan to study

these phenomena in detail and will attempt to identify any nutrients

that may be required in larger amounts when consuming vegetarian

diets. A goal of our research is to develop science-based guidelines

to aid anyone who chooses to nourish their body on exclusively plant-

based foods to do so with optimal benefits to their health and well

being.

 

An additional thought: Less than optimal function on a plant-based

diet (or any diet) may not stem from a " lack of meat " or a nutrient

deficiency at all, but rather from an individual's other health

conditions, like digestive dysfunction, malabsorption by the

intestine, parasite problems, adverse immune reactions, etc. To me,

these are far more likely mechanisms that could explain the " failure-

to-thrive " syndrome occasionally seen in vegetarians and vegans -

rather than a genetic mandate to consume flesh determined by their

blood type. Much more research is needed to obtain the answers to so

many questions in this essential but subtle science. "