Food for Thought

There seems to be so much confusion today surrounding food. Books on the subject abound. Anything from cookbooks to diet books, authored by a variety of people … from celebrity doctors, fitness gurus, and chefs to everyday people. I have quite a few of them on my bookshelf that I’ve used in my own life, for clients, and for research. While no one book contains all the answers, many contain golden nuggets of information.

What I’ve found over the years is that there are a handful of guiding principles that work. Some of these principles used to be common knowledge and were passed down from generation to generation. Somewhere along the way, we threw them out in favor of modern ways.

However, in order to either get, keep, or restore your health, you need to return to these time-honored principles while embracing and using modern day science and technology to make it doable in our time-starved society. This is the heart of The Sophoz Way: Old + New = A Well You.

Eat according to your origins

Like it or not, You are genetically programmed to eat a certain way that’s right for You and only You! Deep down I think most people know this, yet succumb to the latest fad diet. They come and go, but truth remains.

The truth is Your ethnic origins and Your fetal exposures influence Your health profoundly. Your blood type and Geno Type, a recognizable genetic type having certain physical and biochemical features, are the result. This is your baseline for health.    

Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo, creator of The Blood Type Diet, has been studying and writing on this subject for decades. It turns out that each blood type does best with certain foods and lifestyle practices. They affect your digestion, metabolism, immunity, food intolerances, stress response and aging.

Blood Type Diet in a nutshell

Blood type O is the oldest and most prevalent blood type. The origins started in Africa and later spread to Europe and Asia through migration of these early people. O’s thrive on lean, high quality beef, lamb, turkey, chicken and fish in addition to a low carbohydrate diet that’s balanced with vegetables and some fruit. Protein portions should not exceed 6 ounces though. More is not better. Wheat, most other grains and dairy are not well tolerated in this blood type because it causes significant inflammation.

Blood type A is the next oldest blood type. It first appeared in Asia or the Middle East and then spread to Western and Northern Europe.  A’s are well suited to being vegetarians. Besides vegetables and fruit, they do well with grains like amaranth, buckwheat, millet and rice. They also tend to do well with certain legumes. Animal protein can be eaten, but in smaller amounts. A’s are the exact opposite of O’s.

Blood type B first appeared in present day Pakistan and India and spread to Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. This blood type can enjoy a highly varied diet. It is the only blood type that tends to do well with dairy.

Blood type AB is the newest blood type. Less than 5% of the population has it. It came from the intermingling of Blood type A and B peoples. AB’s are a curious mix. They share the both the benefits and intolerances of blood types A and B, making it kind of tricky to navigate the world of food.        

Eat according to your location

Beyond eating organic, local, and seasonally as much as possible, eat for your climate. For example, how you eat in Phoenix in summer differs a whole lot from how you eat in New York City in winter. If you’re in a hot, dry climate, you’d want to eat more veggies and fruits than protein to keep your body cool and moist. If you’re in a cold, dry climate, you’d want to be sure to include protein and starchy vegetables to keep warm and moist.       

Eat according to your activity

This one is commonsense. However, because common sense is not necessarily common practice, I’ll just say it. The more active you are, the more you need to eat. The less active you are, the less you need to eat.

Eat cultured and fermented foods

Cultured and fermented foods have been a time honored tradition in many cultures throughout the world. It arose out of the need to preserve food. With the introduction of refrigeration, this type of food preservation became less popular. It’s unfortunate because cultured and fermented foods are teeming with probiotics that guard us against illness and disease. If you want to incorporate these foods into your life, they are available commercially or you can learn to make them yourself.   

Eat what serves you best

When you eat and live how you’re designed to be, you’ll be energized, focused, happy and trim. Your best food choices create a healthy digestion, metabolism, immunity, stress response and rate of aging that’s right for You. The science behind the choice of these favored foods focuses on your ethnicity, health history and a variety of bio-markers.

So … 

What you eat in large measure determines your health trajectory. Will you be sickly, overweight and prematurely aged … or healthy, lean, and young for your years? It’s your choice … daily! To get more information about The Sophoz Way and schedule your discovery call, click here.

Leave me a comment below and tell me the last diet you have tried.