There are many reasons why knowing your blood type is important not only for the medical side, but also to know a little more about yourself and how your body is preforming.
Knowing your blood type can explain things like the best foods to fuel your body, how your body uses and absorbs certain nutrients, what enzymes you process better than others, and what chemicals your body has a hard time producing or may over produce, it can even go as far as to what type of personality traits you can have.
Each blood type have different set of characteristics. They are susceptible to different illnesses, different diets may work better, and even down to the type of exercise that’s better for their body as a whole.
I am A+ blood type, for years I have had issues with stress and have found different ways to deal with it. That’s exactly what I was doing “DEALING” with it, I didn’t know why I would get stressed or what caused me to stress. After doing some studying I found that A blood type has a high level of a stress hormone call Cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone produces by the adrenal gland, it helps the body use glucose and fat for energy. Keeping the cortisol levels steady is key, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, laughing, dancing, aerobic exercise, yoga all help to reduce the over production of cortisol.
The type of diet that is most beneficiary to A blood type is more of a low-fat and plant-based. Fresh greens, fruits, whole grains, legumes, beans seafood. Should avoid meat and high carb dairy products, kidney beans and lima beans. Also, greasy, processed and junk food. [1]
The reason is, A blood type produces low levels of hydrochloric acid and alkaline phosphatase but high levels of intestinal disaccharide, a digestive enzyme, which in turns makes digesting animal protein not as easy. [2]
Whereas O blood type benefit the most with a diet that consists of vegetables, fruit and animal protein, they favor the production of hydrochloric acid in excess which aids in the breakdown of animal protein. O blood type need a good source of iodine, they tend to suffer from sluggish metabolism and low thyroid.[3] They should avoid drinking coffee because of the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach when mixed can cause peptic ulcers.
Now if you're B blood type, you're quite lucky, you can include a variety of foods in your diet and is considered to have the most balanced and wholesome diet. You have the potential to thrive in changeable conditions unlike A and O. B type should avoid eating chicken, because it contains agglutinating lectin. Lectin are diverse proteins found in foods, the have agglutinating properties that affect your blood and lining of your digestive tract. [4] Some foods will cause fatigue, fluid retention, and hypoglycemia – drop in blood sugar.
I encourage you to look into your blood type and see if you're feeding your body with the right fuel.
[1] http://www.buzzle.com/articles/a-positive-blood-type.html
[2] http://www.bewellbuzz.com/wellness-buzz/eating-blood-type-a-a/
[3] http://www.bewellbuzz.com/general/eating-blood-type-o/
[4] http://www.dadamo.com/txt/index.pl?1007