Blood Type “A” Nutrition Program

***All foods referenced are organic, free range and NATURAL***

Please note that while the foods listed here are based on Dr. D’Adamo lists for blood type A, I have organized them with different priorities in order to match the philosophy of the H2 Nutrition Program.

Blood Type A Characteristics (from Dr. D’Adamo)

  • Flourishing vegetarian
  • Needs fresh, organic and pure foods
  • Sensitive immune system
  • Stores meat as fat
  • Has low stomach acid
  • Combats stress best with low to moderate level aerobics and sports, yoga, meditation, walking, dance, etc.
  • Does very poorly on meat, dairy, vinegar, kidney and lima beans and too much wheat
  • Does well with some fish, vegetables, natural soy and pineapple

PRIMARY NUTRITION

For more read here.

Primary Energy

Secondary Energy

  • Sun
  • Fun
  • Love
  • Family
  • Career
  • Friends
  • Oxygen
  • Sexual energy
  • Earth’s energy
  • Physical activity
  • Spirituality/God/etc.
  • Food
 70-90% Total Energy Source 10-30% Total Energy Source


MAIN FOODS

Protein

  • Carp, Cod, Grouper, Mackerel, Monkfish, Pickerel, Red Snapper, Rainbow Trout, Salmon, Sardine, Sea Trout, Silver Perch, Snail, Whitefish, Yellow Perch, , CORNISH HENS, TURKEY, ABALONE, ALBACORE (TUNA), MAHI MAHI, OCEAN PERCH, PIKE, PORGY, SAILFISH, SEA BASS, SHARK, SMELT, SNAPPER, STURGEON, SWORDFISH, WEAKFISH, WHITE PERCH, YELLOWTAIL
  • Eggs
  • Natural soy and tofu
  • Raw Dairy****
  • Quinoa****
  • Gelatin and bone broth
  • Yoghurt****
Carbohydrates

  • Fruits and veggies
  • Jerusalem Artichokes and Parsnips
  • Amaranth, Buckwheat, Rye Flour, Oat Flour, Rice Flour, QUINOA
    • White/basmati rice***
    • Honey**
    • Potatoes****, sweet potatoes****, pumpkins, squashes and yams****

**Only if you are relatively healthy and active

***White rice is the least nutrient-dense carbohydrate here, so it should not be a staple.

****Be aware of potential stomach issues, and avoid if necessary

~All CAPITAL words are neutral foods, as opposed to ideal foods, so focus on ideal foods when possible.

Fats

  • Coconut oil
  • COD LIVER OIL
  • Olive oil (cold, not cooked)
  • Raw dairy****
  • GOAT MILK
  • GREEN OLIVES
  • AVOCADO
  • WALNUTS
  • MACADAMIA NUTS & OIL
  • FARMER, FETA, GOAT CHEESE, GOAT MILK, KEFIR, LOW FAT MOZZARELLA, LOW FAT RICOTTA, STRING CHEESE, GREEK YOGURT
Fruits

  • Cranberries, Grapefruit, Lemons, Pineapple, Apricots, Blackberries, Blueberries, Boysenberries,Cherries, Dark, Green and Red Plums,  Dried and Fresh figs, Prunes, Raisins, Canang, Casaba, Crenshaw, Christmas, Musk, Spanish, Watermelon,  KIWI, KUMQUAT, LIMES, POMEGRANATES, STRAWBERRIES, APPLES, NECTARINES, RED CURRANTS, PEACHES, ELDERBERRIES, PEARS, GOOSEBERRIES, PRICKLY PEARS, BLACK GRAPES, RASPBERRIES, CONCORD GRAPES, STAR FRUIT (CARAMBOLA), GREEN GRAPES, GUAVA, RED GRAPES, LOGANBERRIES, LITCHI, BLACK CURRANTS, DATES, PERSIMMONS, CANANG, CASABA, CHRISTMAS, CRENSHAW, MUSK, SPANISH, WATERMELON
Veggies

  • Beet Leaves, Broccoli, Chickory, Collard greens, Dandelion, Escarole, Garlic, Horseradish, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leek, Romaine lettuce, Okra, Red onions, Spanish onions, Yellow onions, Parsley, Alfalfa Sprouts, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Tempeh, Green Beans, Domestic artichoke, Pumpkin, Carrots, Turnips, ARUGULA, ASPARAGUS, BAMBOO SHOOTS, BOK CHOY, CARAWAY, CELERY, CHERVIL, CORIANDER, CUCUMBER, DAIKON RADISH, ENDIVE, FENNEL, FIDDLEHEAD FERNS, BIBB LETTUCE, BOSTON LETTUCE, ICEBERG LETTUCE, MESCLUN LETTUCE, ABALONE MUSHROOM, WATERCRESS, ENOKI MUSHROOM, PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM, TREE OYSTER MUSHROOM, MUSTARD GREENS, GREEN ONIONS, RADICCHIO, RADISHES, RAPPINI, SCALLION, SEAWEED, SHALLOTS, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, MUNG SPROUTS, RADISH SPROUTS, SNAP BEANS, STRING BEANS, GREEN PEAS, PEA PODS, SNOW PEAS, BEETS, CAULIFLOWER, WHITE CORN, YELLOW CORN, WATER CHESTNUT, RUTABAGA, ALL TYPES OF SQUASH, ZUCCHINI, JICAMA BEANS

 

SECONDARY FOODS (choose only one of the following, per day)

  • Chicken*
  • Carbohydrates:

Essene bread, Ezekiel bread, Rice Cakes, Soya Flour Bread, Sprouted Wheat Bread, Kasha, Soba Noodles, Artichoke Pasta, BARLEY, CORNFLAKES,CORNMEAL, CREAM OF RICE, KAMUT, PUFFED MILLET, OAT BRAN, OATMEAL, PUFFED RICE, RICE BRAN, SPELT, WHEAT BAGELS, BROWN RICE BREAD, CORN MUFFINS, FIN CRISP, GLUTEN FREE BREAD, IDEAL FLAT BREAD, MILLET, OAT BRAN MUFFINS, 100% RYE BREAD, RYE CRISPS, RYE VITA, SPELT BREAD, WASA BREAD, COUSCOUS, BARLEY FLOUR, BULGUR WHEAT FLOUR, DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, GLUTEN FLOUR, GRAHAM FLOUR, SPELT FLOUR, SPROUTED WHEAT FLOUR, SPELT NOODLES, QUINOA, BASMATI RICE, BROWN RICE, WHITE RICE, WILD RICE

  • Beans/Lentils:

Aduke beans, Azuki beans, Black Beans, Pinto beans, Red Soy Beans, Domestic Lentils, Green Lentils, Red Lentils, Black-eyed peas, BROAD BEANS, CANNELLINI BEANS, FAVA BEANS, WHITE BEANS, CHESTNUTS

  • Fats :

Butter, Ghee, Kefir, Flax seed oil, Peanuts, Peanut Butter, Pumpkin seeds, ALMOND BUTTER, ALMONDS, FILBERTS, HICKORY, PIGNOLA (PINE), POPPY SEEDS, SESAME SEEDS, SESAME BUTTER (TAHINI), SUNFLOWER BUTTER, SUNFLOWER SEEDS

*Chicken meat has a high Omega 6 ratio, especially dark meat and skin, which is why it is a secondary food.

1-Day per Week Foods – THE CHEAT DAY

  • Anything you want! Bread, cake, etc. Reward yourself for staying true to your goals – unless of course you don’t like it or it upsets your stomach. The goal is that this day becomes healthier and healthier as you become healthier.

APPROVED CONDIMENTS, DRINKS & SPICES for Blood Type A

  • Drinks & Teas

Alfalfa, Aloe, Burdock, Chamomile, Echinacea, Fenugreek, Ginger, Ginseng, Green Tea, Hawthorn, Milk Thistle, Rose Hips, Saint John’s Wort, Slippery Elm, Valerian, Coffee (Decaf and Regular), Green Tea, Red Wine,  CHICKWEED, COLTSFOOT, DANDELION, DONG QUAI, ELDER, GENTIAN, GOLDENSEAL, HOPS, HOREHOUND, LICORICE ROOT, LINDEN, MULBERRY, MULLEIN, PARSLEY, PEPPERMINT, RASPBERRY LEAF, SAGE, SARSAPARILLA, SENNA, SHEPHERD’S PURSE, SKULLCAP, SPEARMINT, STRAWBERRY LEAF, THYME, VERVAIN, WHITE BIRCH, WHITE OAK BARK, YARROW. WHITE WINE

  • Spices
 Barley Malt,Blackstrap Molasses, Garlic, Ginger, Miso, Soy Sauce, Tamari, AGAR, ALLSPICE, ALMOND EXTRACT, ANISE, ARROWROOT, BASIL, BAY LEAF, BERGAMOT, BROWN RICE SYRUP, CARDAMOM, CAROB, CHERVIL, CHIVES, CHOCOLATE, CINNAMON, CLOVES, CORIANDER, CORNSTARCH, CORN SYRUP, CREAM OF TARTAR, CUMIN, CURRY, DILL, DULSE, HONEY, HORSERADISH, KELP, MAPLE SYRUP, MARJORAM, MINT, DRY MUSTARD, NUTMEG, OREGANO, PAPRIKA, PARSLEY, PEPPERMINT, PIMIENTO, RICE SYRUP, ROSEMARY, SAFFRON, SAGE, SALT, SAVORY, SPEARMINT, BROWN SUGAR, WHITE SUGAR, TAMARIND, TAPIOCA, TARRAGON, THYME, TURMERIC, VANILLA
  • Condiments

Mustard, JAM/JELLY FROM ACCEPTABLE FRUITS, DILL PICKLES, KOSHER PICKLES, SWEET PICKLES, SOUR PICKLES, RELISH, SALAD DRESSING*

*LOW-FAT FROM ACCEPTABLE INGREDIENTS

AVOID (unless it’s your cheat day)

  • Spices: Capers, Plain Gelatin, Black Ground Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Peppercorn Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, White Pepper, Apple Cider Vinegar, Balsamic Vinegar, Red Wine Vinegar, White Vinegar, Wintergreen
  • Drinks/Teas: Catnip, Cayenne, Corn Silk, Red Clover, Rhubarb, Yellow Dock, Beer, Distilled Liquor, Seltzer Water, Club Soda, Cola Soda, Diet Soda, Other Soda, Black Decaf Tea, Regular Black Tea
  • Condiments: Ketchup, Mayonnaisse, Worcestershire Sauce
  • Processed foods (if you have to ask, it’s processed)
  • Vegetable and industrial seed oils
  • No-No list
  • Candy and sugar, even the “healthy” sweeteners
  • Wheat, oats, barley and natural or cereal grains
  • Foods that make you bloated
  • Alcohol – If a glass of wine or beer a day helps you unwind and feel better, then do it. This is not a diet, it is a nutrition program that you can mold to meet your needs. Moderation is king. Just know that alcohol affects your digestive juices immensely, especially if you already have poor digestion.


THE 3 PHASES

1) Eliminate, Cleanse & Reset

2) Reintroduce

3) Refine (correct & continue)

1) By starting the H2 Nutrition Program, you will undoubtedly be eliminating some crappy foods from your diet. This will automatically initiate phase I by naturally cleansing the body and resetting it to where it should be – this is the most difficult, yet imperative time for any nutrition program.

If you are relatively unhealthy, this can be an unpleasant process that proves too much for many people to overcome because of the symptoms associated with detoxing and withdrawals – so hang in there, use your cheat days and do whatever it takes to stick with this program until it becomes a lifestyle.

2) Once you have eliminated unhealthy foods for at least one week, ideally three weeks, you can introduce them back (if you think you can’t live without them or you want to test food sensitivities), one at a time to see how your body reacts. You may find that foods you ate everyday are the cause of bloating, cramping, aches and pains, fatigue and mental fog.

This process will tell you if you are sensitive to specific foods, and therefore should stay away from them and only eat on occasion. You can eliminate one or many foods a time, but you can only reintroduce one at a time in order to observe the true affects of that specific food without any interference from other foods being introduced.

3) This is a journey that can take a lifetime, so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. If you observe your body and stay dedicated to improving your health through nutrition, then you will find the best foods for your body and lifestyle: this is ONLY done through trial and error of your own efforts. You can learn more detailed ways to cleanse the body here.

NOTES & GUIDELINES

  • This program is for relatively healthy people who are free of major diseases. If you have diabetes, hypothyroidism, metabolic syndrome, candida overgrowth, gut dysbiosis, etc., then you may need to modify accordingly, which of course takes a lot of research on your part or working with a professional. Go to the Vital Statistics and Tests for Optimum Health page to learn how to figure out how healthy you really are and go here to learn how to troubleshoot high cholesterol.
  • Match your carbohydrates and serving size to your energy expenditure, i.e. if you sit all day you don’t need a lot. Carbs = fuel.
  • Don’t eat big dinners or dense foods late at night.
  • This program is basically void of grains, but if you tolerate some NATURAL grains in your diet, stick with them. Just don’t eat them because you heard they were good for you though, because for most people they are not, especially the way they are prepared these days.
  • Not all vegetables are easy to digest, and some have a lot of indigestible fiber that leaves some people bloated and gassy – if that is you and you know what veggies I’m talking about, avoid them because they are rotting in your gut and causing health problems.
  • As mentioned above, fiber can be an issue, so understand that fiber-rich foods and grains can be the cause of many stomach and health problems. Read more here on The Fiber Menace.
  • Nuts and seeds are high in Omega-6 fatty acids, which promote inflammation, so limit yourself to about 4oz per serving and make sure they are prepared properly: read more here.
  • Do not eat a food often if it is an avoid food for your blood type
  • Make sure to have some type of carbohydrate with each meal, otherwise your blood sugar can drop and you are prone to hunger, fatigue, cold hands, headaches and more.
  • None of this nutrition program will make you healthy if you don’t eat and sleep on a schedule while managing your stress.
  • What you eat for breakfast is your foundation for the entire day: make it count.
  • If you don’t have time to eat right or prepare your own foods, then be prepared to make time later for treating the diseases poor nutrition causes.

Protein – Fat – Carbohydrate Ratios

Don’t believe any of the pre-fabricated ratios promoted out there, i.e. the 30-30-40 diet or whatever. We are all different – our own body can even change its needs for certain nutrients on a day to day basis. For this reason, it is up to you to observe your body and how it reacts to different ratio’s of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and then notice how it can change on a given day depending on the season and your activity level. The blood type foods give great hints to what direction your body likes to balance itself.

You may need to log your meals and post-meal symptoms for awhile to get a good idea of the best ratios. If you are bloated and sluggish after a meal, it is the wrong ratio and or the wrong foods.

FOOD SENSITIVITY

Depending on your history (antibiotic use, infections, exposure to toxins, poor nutrition, etc.) or blood type, you may be very sensitive to certain foods. Only your own observation and intuition will tell you which foods, as food allergy tests are very inaccurate, no matter how good they say they are.

For these reasons, please be aware of how your stomach reacts to the following foods – if you are sensitive to any of the following, eliminate them until you figure out the cause, which could be many things and often takes the detective work of an experienced, holistic health care professional. Or, you may simply need to balance yourself for awhile and heal your gut, then all of these foods will become easier to tolerate.

  • Cow’s milk and dairy
  • Beans and lentils
  • Seeds and nuts
  • Gluten
  • Soy
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • All cereal grains
  • Quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, etc.
  • Tapioca
  • Rice
  • Potato
  • Corn
  • Sesame

 

NUTRITION TOOLS

At Hallford Health we love options, so I have a bunch of nutrition tools for you to try out and see which work best for you. These links will take you to my main nutrition blog; try to learn and apply a new tool every week, eventually utilizing as many tools as possible on a daily basis.


PLEASE NOTE:

 Regarding blood type foods: I realize that this is not an exact science and that there are exceptions to which foods do well with certain blood types and people, but in my experience this set of guidelines is the best start for individualizing anyone’s diet. It is then up to the trial and error of you and your doctor (if necessary) to find which foods make you feel the best.

– The Blood Type Diet is a registered Trademark of Peter J. D’Adamo, N.D. and this blog is not affiliated with or sponsored by Dr. D’Adamo.

– These blood type lists, recipes and meal plans are based in part on the work of Peter D’Adamo, N.D.