Customer Reviews

Live Right 4 Your Type

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I thought that Eat Right for Your Type was one of the most helpful self-help health books I had ever read. Live Right for Your Type is much more valuable than that one. If you have read neither, read this one. If you have read and liked Eat Right for Your Type, you will find this book a great improvement on that one.

If your life seems strangely out of kilter and you and your doctors can't quite put your finger on what's wrong, I strongly urge you to read this book. It may well contain important clues for creating more "wellness" for you from the correct application of self-discipline in your eating and activities. The basic weakness of most scientific studies and almost all health books is that they look at average results for the whole population. The studies cited in this book are based on seeing major differences in the body chemistries of people with different blood types. In the same way that you can drown in an average of six inches of water (if that average expresses a range from 10 feet deep to half an inch), the average health advice can make your health worse in some cases.

Eat Right for Your Type was first published in 1996. That pioneering book summarized hundreds of research studies to define healthful eating for people with each different blood type. The underlying mechanism for this relationship is that your blood type influences your body chemistry in ways that create vulnerability or resistance to disease and an efficiently operating body. The four blood types are O, A, B, and AB. Type O people need the most animal protein (especially beef. Type A people need lots of vegetables. Type B people should eat a varied diet. Type AB people should eat smaller, more frequent meals.

Based on that book, many people reported remarkable gains in health, vitality, and weight loss after changing what they eat. In my case, my weight is now 31 pounds less than on my old way of eating (one that my Mother, who has Type A blood, had encouraged all my life -- but I am a Type O person). Many such case histories are reported in Live Right for Your Type.

Live Right for Your Type includes all of the diet information of Eat Right for Your Type, and adds to it insights into personality development, stress management, digestion, disease, and aging. Space does not permit explaining each of these links here, but personality traits are related to different ways that brain chemicals are created and processed by people with different blood types. Type O people, for example, are more easily stimulated into "fight or flight" responses and stay in them longer.

Genetic influences are the beginning of how these factors influence you. Your genes for blood type and other traits come from your parents. From these genes, you get a phenotype (one of the four blood types), a secretion status (whether you secrete antigens into your other bodily fluids or not, as well as into your blood), a Rhesus Factor (positive or negative), and your MN blood type (MM, NN, or MN). All of these concepts are well explained in the appendix of the book. There are also instructions for how you can send away to be tested so you will know what your characteristics are (a total cost of $51.40). In the main body of the book are many explanations of how each of these factors have been associated with the different aspects of life.

The heart of the book though comes in four sections where all of the information about each of the four main blood types is summarized. Yup, there I was in the Type O group with my quick temper, inclination to stay stressed out once stressed, oversensitivity to caffeine and alcohol, impulsiveness to create variety, and blissful reaction to exercise. Dr. D'Adamo definitely had me pegged.

To me the greater insight was when I looked at the type for my wife. I had become concerned about some health vulnerabilities she was experiencing. Yup, there they were. And the things that help her were the items listed. I heaved a big sigh of relief. Whew! It's natural.

If you want to take all of this further, there are instructions in the book for how to get more instructional material and to order special food supplements for each blood type. Normally, I find such offerings offensive. In this case, I had the opposite reaction. I don't know where else to get information that will help me, and I want to know more.

Unlike many books that are based on one study or one hypothesis, this book is built on hundreds of studies. These are cited in the back of the book. Although I did not look any of these up, these seemed to be from reputable sources. There is some speculation in the book. I was fascinated to see that some of the brain chemistry related genes are located next to the blood type genes in DNA. We don't know enough yet to know what that means. It may mean nothing, but it is certainly interesting to think about.

After you have finished following advice in this book and feeling better, I suggest that you think about people you care about who are potentially living and eating in ways that don't match their blood types. Please do share this book with them. You will be giving a very precious gift.

Live more naturally, in keeping with your true physical self!

Speaking as a person who has been following the diet as put forth in the author's original, now classic book "Eat Right for Your Type" for over three years, I can tell you unequivocally that this diet has the power to profoundly change your quality of life and health for the better! I originally went on the blood type diet in 1997 because I was morbidly obese and needed to lose weight, but I have stayed on it and will stay on it for life because it has given me very deep health benefits that I never could have predicted or realized without it. The new book "Live Right for Your Type" goes into great detail on how to further refine the diet and exercise plan in order to minimize weaknesses inherent to your blood type and maximize your strengths, resulting in achieving optimal health. It provides greatly expanded food lists that also offer even more further fine-tuning of the diet with secretor/non-secretor lists (read the book to find out what the heck I'm talking about there!!!), which can be an important key in the diet as well. Whether you start out on this journey in order to lose weight, you have a specific chronic problem that you want to try to address through diet (and the book goes into detail on overcoming many health challenges by customizing the diet to treat these, instead of using drugs as orthodox medicine so often resorts to without trying simple dietary means first), or you are healthy and you just want to support your health in the best way possible for a lifetime, I highly recommend this book. I went on the blood type diet to lose weight, which I have, but it has given me so much more-it has helped me overcome previously uncontrollable food cravings, made my menstrual cycles regular and helped alleviate PMS symptoms, helped tremendously with an upper-respiratory problem, given me great energy, and returned my body and mind to a feeling and sense of balance and deep health. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! I can't say enough about this book-do yourself a favor and buy it, read it and put it into practice! You'll never want to look back!

This book is a welcome addition to the original Eat Right For Your Type (ER4YT.) I am so used to ER4YT method, where you select foods based on your blood type) that it is almost second nature to me.

Now Dr. D'Adamo adds more information about life style, degenerative diseases, more info on minor blood types and secretor versus non-secretor to fine-tune the ER4YT way of eating. This theory has a lot of proponents in Japan (where they have a similar theory that tries to predict actual behavior from blood type.) I don't think blood type is a solid indicator of behavior, but I definitely feel much, much better if I follow these guidelines. And maybe I will avoid some health problems down the road.

It isn't hard to avoid the foods and select from the list of beneficial or neutral foods. Beneficial foods are ones that actively will help your health; neutral foods are ok to eat, but have no special benefits. You can even indulge in the occasional "avoid" food once in a while if you are healthy. If you are ill, however, you can maximize your recovery by sticking to the beneficial and neutral foods. This is not a difficult way of life and this book has done me more good than any other diet or health book I ever read.

Before reading D'adamo's book, I suffered from being tired and unable to concentrate. After years of feeling this way, I decided to change my diet. I cut out sugar and white flour and only ate whole grains and vegetables like my vegetarian husband. I also created a journal that recorded how I felt after each meal in an effort to weed out foods my body didn't respond well to. I did this for three months and became more and more frustrated. The moment I put food in my mouth, I could count on being tired for the rest of the day.

Then I picked up D'Adamo's book and read it. I found out I was type O blood and began trying his diet--even though I was skeptical. I was shocked at what I discovered! I noticed a difference right away when I severely cut down on grains(wheat entirely) and added fish and red meats to my diet! I noticed that whenever I slipped up and ate wheat or oats, I was tired afterwards. What a discovery!

Months later, I started exercising again and decided to test for myself what kind of exercise made me feel the best. I noticed that, once again, I fit D'Adamo's profile perfectly. I was very impressed and surprised that quick walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes left me feeling tired whereas vigorous excercising on the stairclimber for the same amount of time left me fealing invigorated and energized!

In addition to the above discoveries, I also realized the link between my allergies and grains. I now KNOW that when I pop something in my mouth that is not a vegetable or protein, I am going to sneeze within a couple minutes. My body just doesn't respond as well to the environment if I am not equipping it properly with healthy foods and exercise!

No one believes me when I say his book has credibility because it seems ludicrous that so much importance on diet can be based simply on someones blood type! I agree, it does seem implausible that with all the genetic factors, blood type would play the most predominant role... I truly don't understand how it could even be that simple...maybe there is more to it? But... What I do understand, and can testify to, is that I had felt tired and fatgued and for the first time in YEARS, I felt alive again. No other diet--or doctors pills--made me feel like I do now!

I continue to share with others that his recommendations worked for me in hopes that others who are suffering from illness or poor health will at least TRY it!

If you follow the guidelines in this book, you will find your life changed for the better! Most people look at a book like this for weight control only. However, this book will not only provide that, if needed, but, more importantly, give you the guidelines to your optimum health.

I have lost weight (55 pounds), following the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" guidelines, and have kept it off for over 2 years. This is without any hunger, calorie counting, fat gram counting, or carbohydrate counting. Just balanced eating of the foods that are good for my particular blood type. This new book, "Live Right 4 Your Type," gives even more in-depth refinement to those food lists.

My greatest benefit, however, has been in the area of my general health. I have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis since 1986. My neurologist considers me "one of the lucky ones," because my ms has not progressed as fast as most patients he sees. I give much of the credit, to my stability, to following the guidelines put forth by Dr. D'Adamo. Perhaps I would have stabilized anyway?? I don't know for sure, but one thing I do know is that whenever I stray into eating foods that are listed as "avoids" I suffer the effects. For instance, wheat will cause numbness and tingling in my extremities to flare up, along with migraine headaches. This is only one example.

Give the guidelines in this book a chance. You only have your good health to gain!!

After reading these bad reviews by people who don't understand why the food lists are one way in Eat Right 4 Your Type and foods are deleted and added to the list in Live Right 4 Your Type, may I just say "DUH". Didn't they read the part in Live Right 4 Your Type where Dr. D'Adamo states that his first book was written in 1998 and since then, technical advances have made more new research available to him so as to be able to refine the food lists for each type? Oh, I guess they skipped that part.

I am following my plan and slowly eliminating the avoid foods and adding more beneficial foods. I've notice the big change in my energy and ability to exercise. I'm happier and look forward to the days now. On a low carb diet I was tired all the time, depressed and had no energy. I find the science fascinating and the bad reviewers should actually try something before they start knocking it. I noticed none of them even bothered to give the plan a chance to see if they felt better or not.

For the past four years, I have been a committed follower of D'Adamo first book, Eat Right 4 Your Type. Following the type O diet has changed my life, as I have lost weight, become more balanced and focused, and have stopped the yoyo dieting that was a constant practice. I am pleased to report that this new work solidifies a lot of the material presented in Eat Right, explores the scientific underpinnings of blood type in fascinating detail and provides much more than a weight loss program... rather a program for lifelong health. As a read, it is very factual yet wonderfully understandable. The sections on blood type genetics, stress and metabolism alone set this book apart as unique. Heartily recommended!

I'll admit to being a health nut. In fact, I wrote for health magazines for years. I read my blood type carefully in this book and also in ER4YT, and the diet recommendations don't exactly jibe. ER4YT tells us that a type AB should drink coffee. LR4YT says avoid it at all costs. Confusing for a coffee lover. I'd give it up if I really believed it was dreadful for me, but which book do I believe?

Both books say that type ABs lack stomach acid. I have too much. Both books tell me to eat a great deal of soy. I don't like it and neither does my digestive system. D'Adamo doesn't really discuss exceptions to his rules...he just plunks them down like they're the word of God.

Under the section on seasonings, both books list ONLY curry and parsley as beneficial for ABs. However, none of the individual ingredients in commercial curry powder are listed as beneficial and some are in the avoid column. That's true of curry powder from health-food stores too. I read dozens of recipes for curry powder online and they all contain "avoid" ingredients. So how can curry be beneficial?

In this book, the lists of beneficial, neutral, and avoid foods are listed in small type on tables covered with a dark grey screen. I find them difficult to read and the pages unattractive. ER4YT was presented in an easier format. I'm also put off by the gloom-and-doom prognoses D'Adamo gives for ABs. He assumes he's talking to sick people, not well people. I'm much healthier than he thinks an AB has a right to be, and would much prefer it if he would concentrate on positive suggestions to improve my health in general. He does list some supplements that are good for ABs, but doesn't go into enough detail about how much to take.

I'm inclined to believe that blood types matter, but because of these and other discrepancies, small but significant to me, I think Dr. D'Adamo's theories are a work in progress. I am following the diet for my type about 90% of the time. But the book does not give me any perspective on whether following 90% of its suggestions mean anything whatsoever. Is it all or nothing? If you eat one "avoid" food does it throw you off altogether, or can you make up with it by eating 3, 6, or 12 beneficial things?

This book presents a ton of supposedly scientific evidence, but it sorely lacks reader-friendly touches that would endear it to me.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that after 3-4 years of following our blood type plans from the first book (Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type), the additional, more individualized information in this new book added even more benefits to our health & well being. During the past few years we have collected a drawer full of prescriptions, herbs, enzymes and other supplements that never had any positive impact on my husbands digestive problems. We've spent lots of money on both traditional & alternative medical tests and treatments. We have been thrilled to find that the solution lay in following the Type A guidelines for digestive supplements, food combining. The exercise and lifestype guidelines have also been helpful and interesting. This book will be one of greatest investments in your health you can ever make.

If you haven't already read Dr. A'Damos other books, it's OK. You can start with this one. It has more updated information than "Eat right for your Type". In my opinion, this book is a lifesaver. I not only lost weight effortlessly by eliminating "Avoids" from my diet, but I also required less sleep, and my Cat Allergy became dormant. Since I got lazy, and started eating Foods that I should Avoid... The cat allergy was the first thing to come back. I've put on a few pounds as well, to be truthful. I can tell the world, from personal experience, that if you follow exactly what is contained in this book, there will be tangible benefits.