Part III.

> >Plus, I still wonder about the blood type connection, since
> >autistic people are so heavily represented in the A group.  I
> >noted with interest that Loren Cordain mentioned the influence of
> >lectins on the immune system.  According to D'Adamo, rice
> >contains no lectins that offend the immune systems of type A
> >people.
> >
> What are lectins?

Lectins are glycoproteins in foods that trigger responses in our
immune systems.  They are the "foreign proteins" that Neanderthin
talks about.  Lectins are more concentrated in plant foods,
because most of them get destroyed when eaten by animals,
including us.  Some, however, do not get destroyed and enter the
bloodstream.

Here is where it gets controversial.  According to Audette and
Gilchrist, the lectins that will activate your immune system are
the ones that entered the human diet too recently to have been
adapted to.  According to Peter D'Adamo, the ABO blood type at
least partially determines which lectins your body will identify
as foreign.  To take an example, he claims that peanuts contain a
lectin that is actually beneficial for people of type A blood but
harmful for those of type O blood.  He bases these claims mainly
on laboratory experimentation.  When you add certain lectins to
one type of blood, agglutination occurs.  This means that the
blood cells clump together and are then attacked by immune cells.
So far, there is nothing controversial.  The controversy begins
with his claim that agglutination and subsequent immune system
activation leads to health problems -- essentially the same claim
that is made in Neanderthin.  It's controversial because it is
hard to document.  The only real documentation that D'Adamo can
give is the fact that certain health problems favor certain blood
types, in the context of SAD.

Type O is the oldest type, the "paleo" type.  Interestingly,
D'Adamo's type O diet resembles Neanderthin fairly closely.  Type
A appeared next, then B, than AB.  It's interesting that your son
has a problem with beef, since D'Adamo claims that beef has a
lectin that type As should avoid.  Turkey, chicken, and certain
fish are the preferred meats for type As.  Certain cheeses --
feta, mozzarella, farmer -- are also acceptable.  Soy is
supposedly beneficial for type As.

This message is getting too long.

Frankly, I don't know what to think about the blood type diet.  I
do think that anyone who takes Neanderthin seriously has to take
seriously the possibility that D'Adamo is correct, since his
underlying theory is the same, just taken one step further.
Whether the avoidance of all the wrong lectins would help with
autism is an intriguing but still untested possibility.

Todd Moody
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