Eat Right 4 Your Type®

Live Right 4 Your Type

Have many food values changed from the first book?

Please explain the two-tier system in Live Right 4 Your Type.

What food values have been corrected since publication?

What items have been deleted from the food lists?

What food values have been added?

Where can I find the most up-to-date values?

Some people on other internet boards claim that blood testing for secretor status is superior to the saliva test. Is that true?

The fruit frequencies seem a quite low.



Have many food values changed from the first book?


A small number of foods have had value changes since ER4YT.

Virtually all of the changes are lectin-related (leeks, pinto beans, sunflower products for type O, changes to certain mushrooms for type A and AB, for example). Many of these newer values are the result of determinations which are way beyond the level of sophistication that I was using back in the 1980's. In particular, the molecular biology of lectins and cancer cells is still beyond my current capabilities, so we must rely on the literature for that research. Many dietary lectins can have a mixed function; some effects good, others bad. Sometimes we learn of one before the other. Pinto beans, leeks and mushrooms are good examples of lectin-containing foods with complex and mixed biological effects. Because knowledge of these relationships continues to expand (for example, the link between polyamine production and lectins was not understood well at the time of ER4YT) some begin to look better (mushrooms) while others begin to look worse (pinto beans). The added criteria of nonsecretor reaction have generated a yet higher level of refinement in the food value arena.

Please explain the two-tier system in Live Right 4 Your Type.

The logic behind the 'two-tier' system is to allow for both a very simplified, less stringent method of following the diet (for example in individuals who only know their ABO status and wish to follow the diet loosely) and a more in-depth method (for individuals who also know their secretor status, or need more detailed information).

Tier One is the basis of the diet for everyone.

If you simply wish to maintain and enhance your current level of health, use only Tier One as your basis of beneficials and avoids, and simply add the tier two foods to your neutral category. You'll be doing the 'most important' beneficials and avoids. You can consider this version the 'Blood Type Diet Lite' as it is easy to follow and only requires that you know your ABO type.

If you are a secretor, or want to do the 'full diet' but only know you ABO type, you add the tier two values to your plan. Tier Two avoids and beneficial values should be used as written if you are seeking to resolve an illness, heal from injury, lose weight, bear up under added stress, or to alleviate chronic fatigue or other health issues. This is the "turbo" version of the diet, designed to speed healing and provide added protection against disease.

If you are doing the non-secretor version of your ABO plan, you are automatically doing the tier two values, so relax!

Note: if you are a nonsecretor and MM, use the nonsecretor values in preference to the MM values. For instance, tomatoes are to be avoided by type A secretors; they are neutral for type A nonsecretors. With the MM variant, they are considered "beneficial." This applies to secretors only.

What food values have been corrected since publication?

• On the second page of acknowledgements, the company's name should read "The Republic of Tea."

• Page 106 contains references to "ODC."  This is "ornithine decarboxylase," an enzyme involved in the production of polyamines. 

• On p. 209, type A vegetables: it says 1 cup, cooked or " dry;" it should say "raw."

• On p. 265 of the type B diet, the lines "Onions are also a powerful friend to Type B. They contain significant amounts of the antioxidant quercetin, a powerful antimutagen," and "Artichoke is quite beneficial to the liver and gallbladder, weak spots for Type B."  were mistakenly transcribed from the type A diet.  Onions are generally Neutral for type B secretors, and Beneficial for type B nonsecretors.  Artichokes are a B-secretor Avoid and a B nonsecretor Neutral.

• Broad Bean and Fava Bean have also been consolidated, as they are identical in common parlance.  The new listing is Fava (Broad) Bean, and its values are Beneficial for A secretors; Avoid for AB secretors and O nonsecretors; and Neutral for all others.

• Green/Snap/String Bean is a consolidation of the separate items appearing in LR4YT, and has the values Tier I Beneficial for all As, Neutral for all other types.  The separate values listed in LR should be disregarded in favor of this combined value.

• Under FRUITS, and under VEGETABLES, the serving frequency should read "per day" rather than "per week" for all types.

• For type AB, on page 317, Blackberry/blackberry juice is listed as Beneficial  for AB secretors and Neutral for AB nonsecretors. This is backwards; it is NEUTRAL  for AB secretors, BENEFICIAL for AB nonsecretors.

• Ezekiel Bread is upgraded to Tier I Beneficial for A and B secretors and AB nonsecretors.  

• Oat/Oat Bran/Oatmeal is listed as Neutral for type A secretors; its status is Tier I Beneficial.  

• Wheat (Whole Wheat Products) is listed in error as a Tier II Neutral for type A secretors -- its value is Avoid.  

• Wheat Bread (Sprouted Commercial, Except Essene and Ezekiel) is changed from Beneficial to Neutral for type A secretors and type ABs; and from Neutral to Avoid for type B nonsecretors.  

• On p. 271 it says "Walnut oil and black currant seed oil are highly beneficial for type B secretors."  This should read "type B nonsecretors."

• The values for Mustard (Prepared) have been refined for all types based upon four possible preparations:  with wheat and vinegar; with wheat, vinegar-free; wheat-free with vinegar; wheat- and vinegar-free.    

• In the type B diet, Salad Dressing should read "Salad Dressing/OK Ingredients" and the item Tamari should read "Tamari (Wheat-free)."

• Worcestershire Sauce is changed to Avoid for type O secretors.

• The value of Mustard, Dry in the type A Herb/Spice list has been upgraded to Beneficial for secretors and nonsecretors.  

• Yeast (Brewers) should read "Yeast (Brewers/Nutritional)."  Its value is changed from Neutral to Beneficial for type AB nonsecretors.

• The type A listing for Tea (Black Regular) should read Tea (Black Regular/Decaf). 

What items have been deleted from the food lists?
Several items have been removed from the food list:

• Lox and Herring/Kippers.  These foods may or may not be smoked; and may include varying spices, vinegar, etc. which should be evaluated individually.  The item Herring remains, indicating the fresh fish, as does Salmon. 

• Mollusks, Mint and Malt, due to redundancy.  Several types of mollusks and mints, as well as Barley Malt (to which "Malt" referred) are valued separately.

• Red Bean, as it is a term commonly applied to several different kinds of beans.  

What food values have been added?

• Invert Sugar values are Neutral for type A secretors, and Tier I Avoid for all other types.

• Avocado Oil: is Neutral for type A.  Note: since avocado can be problematic for the other blood groups, they should consider this item a Tier I Avoid, no different from avocado. Until further elaboration, this Avoid status should be observed by group O nonsecretors as well.

• Lecithin is not given a specific value in LR4YT.  It is Neutral for all types.  For type Bs, egg lecithin is slightly preferred over soy lecithin, but either is OK.

Where can I find the most up-to-date values?

TYPEbase4, a searchable food value database by blood group, now displays all updated values on listed foods. While further amendments will be few, this Errata and Clarifications Page will serve as our change log, showing any additions or modifications made relative to the food lists in Live Right 4 Your Type.

Some people on other internet boards claim that blood testing for secretor status is superior to the saliva test. Is that true?
Dr. D'Adamo had this to say about differences in secretor testing: "Having done 5000 Lewis typing tests in the clinic over the last 15 years, and about 400 salivary inhibition studies, I can safely say that saliva testing is more accurate than blood. The reason being that the agglutinations that are used to determine Lewis types are very delicate (weak antibody reaction) and can easily be misinterpreted, unlike ABO which makes a big glop that you cannot miss (strong antibody). I've even seen conflicting results from two different MedPath labs, especially if the staff is not trained well enough." Blood and secretor typing is discussed in great detail in this article: Blood Grouping Systems and Typing Techniques

The fruit frequencies seem a quite low.
There is a typesetting error in the chart. The frequency is supposed to read 'per day' not 'per week'.