Читать книгу The Blood Type Diet Cookbook - Lucy Degremont - Страница 39

Take care of your heart and arteries. In mainstream medicine elevated cholesterol is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. If one looks more closely one realizes that heart disease is not necessarily linked with elevated cholesterol. Studies have shown that not everyone with cardiovascular disease has a high cholesterol level. According to research into blood types and heart disease, blood types A and AB tend to have higher cholesterol levels than Os and Bs. Elevated cholesterol levels therefore seem to be more of a risk factor for heart disease in As and ABs than Os and Bs. Here is another one of those blood type links that could explain the partial success which the official “good for your heart” diet recommendations have in reducing cholesterol levels and heart attacks. These recommendations are close to what type As should be eating, so As will have good results with such diets. One of my patients who is an O was put on a diet of beans, grains and little meat. Her blood cholesterol level jumped from 199 to 233 in less than 2 years. After 5 months of following the blood type diet for type O and eating red meat and hardly any grains or cheese her blood cholesterol dropped from from 233 to 171. The reason I mention this type O patient here is because she was eating a type A diet although she is an O. The diet that enabled her cholesterol levels to drop was the diet appropriate for her blood type and not the generally accepted cholesterol-lowering diet.

Following your blood type A diet will help you reduce your cholesterol levels if they are high. Legumes and lentils, vegetables (artichokes, carrots, beetroot, garlic, onions, leeks), fruits (apples, avocados, grapefruit, pineapple), fatty fish with their beneficial oils (mackerel, sardines, salmon, tuna, herring), soya bean products, brown rice and oats, olive oil, walnuts and almonds – scientific studies have shown that all these foods lower cholesterol levels. Even if your levels are normal, you will benefit from this diet as it will prevent cholesterol levels from rising. You may eat eggs; although they do contain cholesterol they have never been shown to substantially raise cholesterol levels. High levels of cholesterol mainly come from the fact that our body manufactures it from sugar and synthesises it from fats. Some of us are better at this than others, As and ABs for instance.

Another factor in cardiovascular disease is the thickness of your blood. Around 80 per cent of strokes and heart attacks are due to a blood clot. Blood type A has more active blood clotting factors than type O, so As should eat foods that have been shown to help control blood clotting. Garlic is a very important one. Crush raw garlic in your salad dressings and use lemon juice instead of vinegar; the crushing and the acid from the lemon juice help release a substance called ajoene, a very potent anticoagulant. Onions are another amazing food that can neutralize blood clots, while fatty fish contain compounds that have anticlotting properties. And the good news for all wine lovers is that drinking one glass of good quality red wine with your main meal will help prevent blood clotting. Resveratrol – a substance produced by the fermentation of grape skins – has been shown to prevent blood platelets from clumping together. You can also drink red grape juice, but you will need three times as much to get the same benefit as one glass of wine. Another important drink is green tea, which contains a clot-dissolving compound called catechin. Finally, include olive oil and fresh pineapple in your diet as they have been shown to protect the arteries.

If you include all of these foods in your everyday diet you will be giving your body the best chance of long-term good health.