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Can You Actually Lose Weight On The Blood Type Diet ? | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
What is the Blood Type Diet & can it actually help you to lose weight? Discover now in this brand new 90s diet trend review. Everyone’s favourite nutrition expert, Richie Kirwan, is back for a brand new series — “Nutritionist Reviews…” The PhD researcher will take a closer look at popular diet trends and athlete supplement routines to separate the facts from the fiction. In this episode, we're taking a look at the Blood Type Diet which was written by naturopath Peter J. D'Adamo, who claimed that people react differently to different foods depending on their blood type, making them more or less likely to gain weight. It's a diet that's especially close to Richie's heart as he was so convinced by it as a teenager that he actually gave it a go himself. Watch to find out whether he's changed his mind on it since... Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition Chapters: 00:00 - Coming Up! 00:22 - Introduction 00:36 - Disclaimer 00:55 - What is the eat right for your type diet? 01:30 - How does the Blood Type Diet work? 04:31 - Does the Blood Type Diet work in the real world? 08:31 - Got any questions? *********************************
View Video Transcript
0:00
today we're going to talk about a diet
0:01
that has a special place in my heart eat
0:03
right for your type because i was stupid
0:06
enough to follow it myself when i was a
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teenager i'm really stupid if you
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remember teddy text cassette tapes and
0:11
blockbuster video there's a good chance
0:13
you lived through the 90s and just like
0:14
any decade the 90s had its fair share of
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diet trends one of which we're going to
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look at today
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[Music]
0:21
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:23
kirwan and today we're going to talk all
0:25
about a diet that became popular in the
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90s and which luckily for us didn't
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survive long after that decade we'll
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talk about how it worked what it claimed
0:32
to do and what was wrong with it we'll
0:34
also talk about what actually works for
0:36
weight loss as always i want to point
0:37
out that i'm not recommending any
0:39
particular diet in this video in fact
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i'm going to be really blunt right now
0:43
and tell you that i don't think you
0:44
should follow any specific diet at all
0:48
you can follow sensible nutrition
0:49
guidelines and eat well without putting
0:51
a name on your diet now with that said
0:54
let's get started eat right for your
0:56
type was written by dr peter d'adamo and
0:59
published in 1996. apparently it has
1:01
sold over 7 million copies worldwide and
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it's a new york times bestseller this is
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a classic example of why you shouldn't
1:08
assume that a popular book is a good
1:10
book at least when it comes to nutrition
1:12
i think i should also point out that the
1:13
author is not a medical doctor he is a
1:16
naturopath which basically is a doctor
1:18
of alternative medicine i'm just saying
1:21
if you see the prefix doctor or the
1:23
suffix md on a nutrition book it's
1:25
always worth looking in to see what type
1:27
of doctor they actually are so the
1:30
concept of the diet is that your
1:32
blood type influences the type of diet
1:34
that you should follow apparently dr
1:36
diadamo got the idea for the blood type
1:38
diet because certain blood types have
1:40
been associated with higher risk of
1:42
certain diseases and there is genuinely
1:44
some evidence for this but remember what
1:46
i've said before oftentimes with fad
1:48
diets people take a little bit of real
1:50
science and twist it into something that
1:52
it isn't just because there's a link
1:53
between blood type and certain diseases
1:55
doesn't mean there's a link between
1:56
blood type and a certain diet
2:01
the blood type system is based on
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the fact that we have different types of
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antigen on the surface of our blood
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cells and on other tissues in our body
2:08
and according to the book these can
2:10
interact with molecules from our food
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known as lectins lectins are basically
2:15
proteins that we find in different foods
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some of which can cause your blood cells
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to stick together or agglutinate which
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can result in a number of health
2:22
problems at least that's the theory i'm
2:24
not going to go into all of the
2:26
different diet strategies for each of
2:27
the different blood types but i will
2:29
give you a little bit of an idea of what
2:30
each blood type should do according to
2:32
dr dia damo's website type o is the most
2:35
common blood type and apparently this
2:36
group fares best on intense physical
2:38
exercise and animal proteins and less
2:40
well on dairy products and grains
2:42
apparently the leading reason for weight
2:44
gain amongst type o's is the gluten
2:46
found in wheat products and to a lesser
2:48
extent lentils corn kidney beans and
2:51
cabbage taipei's are more naturally
2:53
suited to a vegetarian diet high in
2:55
whole grains and foods that are fresh
2:57
pure and organic
3:00
and they can derive significant benefit
3:02
from calming centering exercises like
3:05
yoga tai chi
3:08
type b's have a robust immune system and
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a tolerance digestive system and tend to
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resist many of the severe chronic
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degenerative illnesses and do best with
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moderate physical activity requiring
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mental balance such as hiking cycling
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tennis and swimming they should avoid
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chicken and foods that encourage weight
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loss for them include green vegetables
3:25
eggs beneficial meats whatever that
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means and low-fat dairy type abs are a
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combination of type a and type b
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obviously enough and apparently lack
3:35
enough stomach acid to metabolize meats
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efficiently and the meat they do eat
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tends to get stored as fat the book
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recommends that type a b focus on foods
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such as tofu seafood dairy and green
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vegetables if they are trying to lose
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weight one thing that d'adamo does is he
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writes a very compelling story around
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the evolution of different blood types
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stemming from our evolutionary history
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in africa and out into asia and in
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europe and how this relates to how and
3:58
why blood types evolved to work best for
4:01
specific foods it's an excellent story
4:04
to read in that it really draws you in
4:06
and makes you believe that all of this
4:08
is true and that is exactly how some
4:11
books become best sellers they may not
4:13
be scientifically accurate but they've
4:15
got a great story so much so that i have
4:18
to admit that when i was a teenager i
4:19
read eat right for your type and i was
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completely bought into the idea of blood
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type diets for a couple of months
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because i was a stupid teenager that
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didn't know any better
4:30
there are only two scientific studies
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that i'm aware of that have looked at
4:34
the effect of someone's blood type on
4:36
how they respond to a diet one was a
4:38
study that put everyone on a plant-based
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or vegan diet and then compared what
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happened to people with type a or type o
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blood you know what they found no
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difference at all the vegan diet had the
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same beneficial effect in type a's whole
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according to the book should be on a
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mostly plant-based diet and typos who
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according to the book should be eating a
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diet heavier in animal products and free
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from grains and dairy both blood types
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lost similar amount of weight similar
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amounts of body fat and lowered their
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cholesterol levels and improved their
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glucose control another observational
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study looked at what people ate and
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grooved people according to which of the
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blood type diets their diet most
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resembled then it compared that to the
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actual blood types of the participants
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they found that the type a diet more
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plant-based lower meat consumption was
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associated with lower bmi waist
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circumference blood pressure cholesterol
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triglycerides insulin and insulin
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resistance they found that the type a b
5:31
diet had similar effects except it had
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no effect on waste circumference or bmi
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and they found that type o diets higher
5:37
in meat and lower in grains were
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associated with lower triglycerides but
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the thing is the actual blood diet of
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the person didn't matter if you were a
5:46
type a or a type b or a type a b if you
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followed the type a diet you would still
5:50
get the benefits if you followed a type
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a b diet you would still get the
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benefits now the important thing to
5:56
remember here is that none of these
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studies actually looked at the effect of
6:00
putting people onto a type a style diet
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or a type o style diet according to
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their blood type to do that would be an
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enormous experiment to give you an idea
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you would need four groups all of the
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same size
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one for each blood type and then within
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that blood type you would need four
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other groups one for each blood type
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diet you would also need a control group
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that kind of experiment would be
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incredibly expensive incredibly
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difficult and very time consuming to run
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so it's not surprising that it's never
6:29
been done before amazingly there is also
6:31
a systematic review of blood type diets
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for anybody who doesn't know a
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systematic review is when you search the
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scientific literature for all of the
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evidence you can find related to a
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specific scientific question in this
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case blood type diet and health or
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weight loss and you know what they found
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using the exact words from the results
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section of the study no studies that
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showed the health effects of blood
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type diets were identified in other
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words there is absolutely no evidence
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that eating according to your blood type
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has any benefit on any aspect of your
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health or weight loss
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here's the thing in order to follow a
7:07
blood type diet regardless of the type
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of diet it is you will need to eat a lot
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of whole unprocessed foods in order to
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make sure you're not consuming any of
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the foods you shouldn't be eating for
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your blood type eating fewer processed
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foods and eliminating entire food groups
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like dairy or grains or meat is an
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example of automatic calorie restriction
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just by doing that you're eliminating a
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huge amount of calories from your diet
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because your food options are
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automatically a lot lower it's not like
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you can go into a restaurant and say hey
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i'm type a make me a meal suitable for
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my blood type please
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in reality this is a very restrictive
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diet more or less so depending on the
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specific blood type you are and it has
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absolutely no scientific backing for its
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effectiveness but if you follow any of
7:49
the diets you will lose weight because
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you have a lot fewer food options the
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key point i want to make about fad diets
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like this despite all of the different
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stories and all of the different
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explanations they give for how they work
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they all cause weight loss in the exact
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same way they make you eat fewer
8:05
calories because they greatly limit your
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food options the truth of the matter is
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if you want to lose weight the most
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effective way to do so is to find a way
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of eating that you enjoy that you can
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sustain long term hyper restrictive
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diets like this may work for a small
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group of people who can stick to them
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long term but for the majority people
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flexibility in what you can eat without
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crazy food restrictions is a much better
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strategy for long-term weight loss
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success so i hope you found this
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interesting and if you've ever tried the
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blood type diet or if there are any
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other diets you'd like me to review let
8:36
me know in the comments below and
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remember like and subscribe to the my
8:39
protein youtube channel for more great
8:41
evidence-based nutrition information
8:47
[Music]
#Healthy Eating
#Nutrition
#Obesity
#Special & Restricted Diets
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