Diet Philosophy Part II: On Personalization

In my private practice, when structuring and personalizing diets for patients, there are four filters that I typically bring my patients through and the information that we collect can help determine the best foods for them to eat. We identify blood type, nervous system type, and functional medicine diagnosis based on functional medicine labs to identify the innate deficiencies through patterns picked up and evidence we find in the blood work. Before making dietary recommendations, I look at these four factors:

  • Blood, Nervous System and Genetic Typing
  • Systemic Imbalances found through Functional Medicine Lab Testing
  • Eastern and Western Medical Basics
  • Your personal preferences and the reality of your situation

From here, I can make recommendations with confidence as I have found them to align beautifully. For example, a person with a parasympathetic dominance and O+ blood type, will most likely do well with a diet higher in animal protein while an A+ with a sympathetic charge typically does well with a plant-based focus. Now, I know this is a bold statement but I have never seen anyone do well with gluten and dairy. So typically, a tier-one diet in my practice eliminates gluten and dairy and is highly focused on high quality, simple whole foods such as: protein, healthy fat, fruit, vegetables, starchy plants, nuts and seeds and gluten-free grains- from here, I bring it through the filters above to personalize. For women, diet can also cycle throughout the month. I like @floliving’s model for this. For part one on my diet philosophy, feel free to check here.

What’s The Blood Type Diet?

The concept behind the blood type diet is related to our ability to digest determined types of foods (based on blood type), so that we may choose a proper diet that will improve our digestion, which will in turn help maintain ideal body weight, improved energy levels, disease prevention, and much more. In my practice, I’ve found that many people, including medical professionals, do not actually know their blood type- but finding out may be really helpful!

Here, we will focus on blood types. Dr. Peter D’Adamo, a naturopathic physician, published his book Eat Right For Your Type in 1996, and here are some recommendations from Dr. D’Adamo based on different blood types!

  • O Blood Types typically do well eating high-protein foods (lots of meat), vegetables, fish, and fruit. O blood types should limit beans and legumes. If your goal is to lose weight, eating red meat, broccoli, spinach, and olive oil is best. Wheat, corn, and dairy are to be avoided.
  • A Blood Types should lean more towards fruits, vegetables, tofu, seafood, turkey, and whole grains, but limit eating meat. For weight loss, A blood types should eat seafood, vegetables, pineapple, and olive oil. Dairy, corn, and kidney beans should be avoided.
  • B Blood Types should choose a diverse diet that includes meat, fruit, seafood and whole grains. To lose weight, these individuals should choose green vegetables, liver, and licorice tea. Chicken, corn, peanuts, wheat, gluten and dairy are to be avoided.
  • AB Blood Types should eat tofu, lamb, fish, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. For weight loss, eating tofu, seafood, green vegetables and kelp are best. Chicken, corn, buckwheat, kidney beans, and dairy should be avoided.

In my practice, as a baseline I recommended eliminating processed foods, gluten and dairy from all diets. For more information on this and a list of alternatives for gluten and dairy, feel free to check our Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Guide here!

Elimination Provocation Diet

If you’re experiencing ongoing symptoms like digestive issues, brain fog, fatigue, acne etc. in reaction to food, you might be interested in learning about the elimination diet and how it can relieve some of your symptoms. You don’t need a food sensitivity test to begin! The gold standard is what we call the elimination provocation diet, which is a short-term protocol [typically 2 – 6 weeks] that eliminates specific foods that can be at the root cause of these health issues. These foods are then reintroduced one at a time to monitor the reactions your body has when consuming them again. The main purpose of an elimination diet is to identify food sensitivities and intolerances. This can help determine which foods are a systemic mismatch when someone is experiencing symptoms and can’t pinpoint what exactly is causing them.

For more information about structuring and personalizing your diet, please feel free to check out these resources:

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More Resources From Dr. Brooke Stuart + Let Go & Grow®

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