On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Donna H wrote:

> Hmm... I do recall D'Adamo I believe saying in a post to the boards at
> his website (www.dadamo.com) that you could literally take a bit of
> blood, drop it onto some food in question (food cut into tiny tiny
> bits), look at it under a conventional microscope, and if you were
> allergic the blood would clump up around it fast (whereas with other
> foods it wouldn't). I think I'm leaving out a crucial step here,
> possibly involving saline.

No, I think you're right.  Certain lectins agglutinate certain
types of blood.  I think that much is not controversial.  And to
his credit, D'Adamo has collected a fair amount of research
indicating that a significant amount of lectins get into the
blood through the gut lining.  The question is: What happens when
they get there?  What should happen is that the agglutinated
blood cells are handled by the macrophages and eliminated.  What
we don't seem to know is whether this process works well and, if
it doesn't, what the consequences are.

At one level, D'Adamo and the authors of Neanderthin appear to be
talking about exactly the same thing: the activation of the
immune system by proteins (lectins are glycoproteins) that the
body recognizes as foreign.  Both assert that this process has,
in the long run, negative health implications.  Both are somewhat
vague as to what these implications are, mainly because the
research that would answer the question just isn't there.
The basic premise of D'Adamo's theory (the lectin theory, not the
metabolic type theory) is that we are better off if we eat all or
mostly "friendly" lectins.  Oddly enough, that is very close to
the Neanderthin philosophy as well, except that Neanderthin has a
different idea of what counts as friendly.

Most people get blindsided by D'Adamo's claim that, for example,
type As thrive as vegetarians.  This claim -- dubious, in my view
-- has nothing to do with lectins.  It's quite possible to do a
diet that makes extensive use of meats while avoiding unfriendly
lectins.  Whether this would work as well as, or better than,
either Neanderthin or the recommended type A diet is an
interesting question that deserves an answer.

Todd Moody
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