Blood Type Diet? A stranger on the bus meeting

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Riding public transit as frequently as I do, I come into contact with all sorts of folks, some stranger than others. The other day, though, on the way home from work, another rider just jumped into a conversation between some of my co-workers–she started talking about how you should eat according to what your blood type is.

I don’t know who this person was; I’d never seen her ride the bus before. I have to admit that I was intrigued by what she was saying (not that I give it credence, mind you, just found it interesting), so I asked her some questions. The weird part was that she looked at me, then told me that I needed to make sure that I took B-complex vitamins every day - like she was diagnosing me from looking at me. I mentioned that I take a multi-vitamin daily, to which she replied that some vitamins don’t work well with other vitamins and/or minerals.

I then asked her if she was talking about homeopathic medicine or auyervedic (sp?), but I don’t think that was it. She then said something about in her homeland they work and use herbs a lot. I couldn’t tell where she was from–maybe somewhere in eastern Europe or even the former Soviet Union. Then the bus stopped at the subway station and both of us got off, so that was the end of my meeting with the blood type diet lady.

I did a search online for blood type diet and found a site, but it was really hard to make heads or tails of what the actual diet is. There’s a really long, involved process that you go through online; I went through about 10 pages, then lost interest. laughs Much of it was pushing stuff that they had for sale! And it’s hard to explain what the theory was - I didn’t “get it” at all - behind why your blood type determines what you should and shouldn’t be eating. It has to do somewhat with your genetic material. I think.

At any rate, it was kind of unusual, and yes, it freaked me out that this person was diagnosing me. Anyone else know anything about the blood type diet thing, btw? Just curious!

#2

Here’s a review of one book on the topic from Quackwatch:

http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/NegativeBR/d’adamo.html

I remember seeing a documentary on “questionable medical theories” many years ago, the blood type diet folks were at the same healing fair as the crystal power folks, the retinal diagnosis people and others in the same vein (no pun intended).

#3

Yes. The book was given to me. I haven’t read it.
I’d like to point out, though, that it was given to me by a friend that died of a really bad mysterious set of illnesses having to do with the blood, and I loaned it to my step mom who died of lung cancer.
Books kill people!?! :eek:
:smiley:

#4

Ayurvedic.

Sort-of-related story: While riding a bus, I got into a conversation with a woman I had never seen before. After talking to me for a while about her boyfriend, the wedding center her parents ran, and other fairly normal topics, she suddenly declared that I should study art. I’m one of those guys who can’t draw a recognizable picture of anything more intricately detailed than a basic house or car, but this lady apparently thought I had a sensitive soul or something.

#5

I looked into blood-type diets a few years ago but it lost credence when my book said to go for cantaloupe on one page but to avoid it on another page. (I was into cantaloupes then.)

#6

Thanks for the input, folks. Sternvogel, you do run into all types on the bus systems; it’s still strange, though, when someone says something like that to you out of the blue. laughs FTR, I can’t draw a straight line even with a ruler.

That blood type diet - eat right for your blood type - does indeed sound very hoax-y. The reasons given don’t make much sense either. Type O should eat a high protein, low carb diet–because that is the diet that our ancestors ate way back when Type O was first identified (or something along that line).

#7

I had a physical therapist, of all people, start babbling at me about it. I was tempted to want to believe her because I’m O, and an excuse to a lot of fats and meat would be nice.

#8

In my opinion (and it’s entirely IMHO), it seems plausible that certain diets are better for different people (i.e some people will do better on high-grain diets, some will do better on high-protein), but it seems highly unlikely that it has anything at all to do with your blood type.