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"Eating for" a blood type?

El_Spectre

Lizard Scum
El_Spectre
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
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A question for any haematologists around... a coworker was telling me about a book he's reading about how a) the different blood types evolved in the last 10,000 years or so and b) that certain foods - for example, grain - don't digest properly for people with an "older" blood type.

This feels like BS to me, and everything I can find on the net are just references to this book.

The only decent argument I can think of in favor of this is that there are regional/"racial" differences in blood type ratios.

Anyone have any insight on this? Thanks.
 
Well, we have 50,000 genes. Many diseases need a combination of 2 to cause grief. Those 2 facts give us 2,500,000,000 combinations of 2 bad uns. Makes us alll unique. Why would anybody think we can be divided into 4 groups? Why would they think that genes for blood are the same genes for pancreas secretions, liver enzymes, intestinal musculature, gall bladder size, saliva production, insulin secretion, or teeth design, just to name a few variables in digestive science? What would the other 49,999 genes encode? They can't all be eye color.
 
Bs

And I was able to come up with a conclusion of total BS by clicking on the google toolbar in my browser and typing in "specific diet blood type", total time to determine BS was under 30 seconds, the link Gurdur gave is in the top 5 results.


:-)
 
I don't believe that the blood group antigens appeared only 10,000 years ago. Internet searches on the evolution of blood groups did not reveal the answer. Anyone know?
 
same problem

I spent some time reading and was unable to find any evidence at all that the different blood types showed up 10,000 years ago. Somehow, this makes me really doubt that statement.
 
Our resident vets may be able to tell us: Do animals have blood types?

(if yes, it is highly unlikely that humand should not also have had them "always").

Hans
 
Yes, but they're different from human blood types.

As I understand it, blood type is only a tiny bit of one's full histocompatibility tissue type, and just seems to be important because of coincidental molecular mimicry effects which mean that these particular antigens are very important as regards blood transfusion. They don't really have much importance otherwise.

Oh, except that Kumar thinks that because he's group O, that makes him a giving, generous person. Funny that, I'm group O too.

Rolfe.
 
Capsid, cool link!

From Richard Dawkin's The Ancestor's Tale:

"Some polymorphisms can be quite stable - so stable that they span the change from an ancestral to a descedant species. Astonishingly, our ABO polymorphism is present in chimpanzees. It could be that we and chimps have independently "invented" the polymorphism, and for the same reason. But it is more plausible that we have both inherited it form our shared ancestor, and independently kept it going during our six million years of separate descent, because the relevant diseases have been continuously at large throughout that time. This is called trans-specific poymorphism, and it may apply to far more distant cousins than chimpanzees are to us."

But this is where he gets really interesting, and I think the reason that that passage stuck in my mind well enough that I remember it a year after reading the book:

"A stunning conclusion is that, for particular genes, you are more closely related to some chimpanzees than to some humans. And I am closer to some chimpanzees than to you (or to 'your' chimpanzees)."

(the bolding is mine in case the point was lost in the out of context quoting).

Apologies to Dawkins for the long passage, but reading that sends a shiver up my spine, felt a need to share it.
To all - the book is amazing, if you haven't read it take a look. I remember walking around like a zombie for about two weeks while I was making my way through it. It was simply impossible to put it down for the five seconds required to fall asleep.
 
Roboramma, I just requested it from my library network. I think I might look at my ultra-hairy boss a little differently after I read it.
 
Roboramma,

I had not heard of that and it is very interesting.

I would think it could be used to help determine the origins of humans. In this example, humans must of derived from ancestors with the A, B and O genes. This would make it more likely that we are evolved from a relatively diverse groups of proto-humans instead of a more inbred group. Clearly, a few people (2 in this case) could have all the genes but if this type of polymorphism is common, it makes it less likely.

CBL
 
CBL4 said:
Roboramma,

I had not heard of that and it is very interesting.

I would think it could be used to help determine the origins of humans. In this example, humans must of derived from ancestors with the A, B and O genes. This would make it more likely that we are evolved from a relatively diverse groups of proto-humans instead of a more inbred group. Clearly, a few people (2 in this case) could have all the genes but if this type of polymorphism is common, it makes it less likely.

CBL
Click to expand...

The ABO blood group is controlled by one gene with 3 alleles. It is consistent with human migration patterns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type

And there is the Rhesus factor too.
 
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I got a phone call from a relative earlier today, and amongst other topics she told me more about her adherance to this blood type diet thing.

Her whole family, including children aged from 4 to 12 are on it. She took them to a doctor to get their blood types tested. She has to cook separate meals for some of them.

I just ummed and ahhed for a minute until she told me that I shouldn't be eating wheat. I told her I'd take my chances. It crossed my mind to really challenge her, but we've spent our entire lives with me "being right" about everything and now she's finally found something of her own I just didn't have the heart.

* sigh *
 
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