Food For Old Souls

On my way back over the mountains from Barcelona, via Puigcerda and Ax, I stopped off overnight with my friends, Sarah and Pascal, in their lovely house overlooking hectaires of virgin woodland near Castillon. It was a damp evening but we could not resist eating on their top floor terrace, with its stunning views of unadulterated woodland. We were amply rewarded with just a fleeting glimpse of the setting sun, like a mirage in the desert, which turned the sombre hues in front of us into a radiant backdrop for an Impressionist's palette. But I digress.

After the obligatory 'aperro' of 'pastis', Sarah produced a delicious supper of deliciously sweet and juicy melon with Bayonne ham, followed by homemade bread, salad, grilled summer vegetables and local cheese, all washed down with a couple of bottles of her father's renowned 'Moulin Rouge'. She declined the ham because, she said, her blood group was 'A' and therefore she was supposed to eliminate all meats from her diet. Fascinated by this apparent non-sequitur, I asked her why. She then, at great length, began to explain to me the theory behind the notion that one's blood type is the key to long term health and the avoidance of disease. I had to confess that I had never heard of a link between blood type and suitable diet.

Blood types are as fundamental as creation itself. I should know, because my favourite aunt nearly died because of a mistake during a transfusion. Sarah has researched these links because she and her partner, Pascal, have decided to start a family and she does not want to run the risk of a second miscarriage. I listened attentively, as I continued to eat my way through supper in complete ignorance of my own blood type requirements. Sarah's food choices suited me down to the ground because I strongly believed that a largely vegetarian diet was the healthiest option, for all of us. And then I forgot all about it, in the chaos of getting ready for our new 'locateurs' at Bardies, and the prospective long journey home.

Then yesterday, scrummaging through the abandoned books in our local 'hospice shop', I discovered a book called 'Eat Right For Your Type' by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo. Not for the first time was I struck by just how often it is in life that supposed coincidences mirror actual events. It was a pound well spent, a revelation indeed, although I have to confess that I still couldn't resist half a bar of Green and Black's orgasmic milk chocolate by my regular mid afternoon lull! I'm not natural convert material at the best of times, so I like to absorb these Damascene moments slowly.

It transpires that blood type is a cellular fingerprint, an extension of the groundbreaking findings related to human DNA. Furthermore, over the last half century we have been able to use biological markers such as blood type to map the movements and groupings of our ancestors. Change in climate and available food produced new blood types, which enabled human beings to acclimatise to different environmental challenges and survive. As the human race moved around and was forced to adapt its diet to changing conditions, the new diet provoked adaptations in the digestive tract and immune system necessary for it to first survive and then thrive in each new habitat.

These changes are reflected in the development of the blood types, which appear to have arrived at critical junctures of human development. Around 40,000 BC, our Cro-Magnon Type 'O' ancestors, the oldest of the blood groups, dominated the food chain, hunting in packs and utilising tools and weapons to their predatory ends. Meat, protein, was their fuel and as population growth resulted in good hunting becoming scarce, the migration of the human race, out of Africa into Europe and Asia, began.

Type 'A' blood initially appeared somewhere in Asia or the Middle East between 25,000 and 15,000 BC, in response to new environmental conditions, which heralded agriculture and animal domestication. This radical change resulted in an entirely new mutation in the digestive tracts and the immune systems of these Neolithic peoples, one that enabled them to better tolerate and absorb cultivated grains and other agricultural products. The genetic mutation that produced Type 'A' from Type 'O' was extraordinarily fast, enabling Type 'A' to emerge as more resistant to infections common to densely populated, urban, industrialised societies. Eventually, the gene for Type 'A' blood spread beyond Asia and the Middle East into western Europe, carried by the Indo-Europeans. Over time, the digestive system of the hunter-gatherers lost its ability to digest its carnivorous pre-agricultural diet.

In complete contrast, blood Type 'B' emerged from the Himalayan highlands sometime between 10,000 and 15,000 BC, a mutation perhaps due to climatic changes. It first appeared in the Caucasian and Mongolian tribes of the steppes, who by this time dominated the Eurasian plains. Two distinct Type 'B's' emerged, between warlike tribes to the north and west, expert horsemen and dairy consumers, and an agrarian and peaceful group to the south and east, who utilised little, if any, dairy produce, whose diet suited them less well. Type 'B' blood is found in increased numbers from Japan, Mongolia, China and India up to the Ural mountains, with quite a high incidence amongst Germans and Austrians, historically on the cusp between the two rival civilisations.

Type 'AB' blood is rare, found in less than 5% of the population, and may be attributed to Attila the Hun and his fellow conquering hordes. It emerged from the mingling of Type 'A' Caucasians with Type 'B' Mongolians and shares the tolerance of both. This unique quality of possessing neither anti 'A' or anti 'B' antibodies minimises their chances of being susceptible to allergies and other auto-immune diseases, but this can prove to be problemmatical when Type 'AB' fails to produce any opposing antibodies because it cannot distinguish difference from 'self'. There is no evidence for its existence beyond 900- 1,000 years ago so it is the youngest of the blood types.

So where does all this get us? Apparently, even in the 21st Century, our immune and digestive systems still maintain a favouritism for foods that our blood type ancestors ate. According to Dr. D'Adamo, eating the correct diet for our historic blood group will restore the natural protective functions of our immune systems, rebalance our metabolisms and clear our blood of dangerous agglutinating lectins [the 'glue' that enables organisms to attach themselves to other organisms in nature]. Many food lectins have characteristics that are close enough to a certain blood type antigen to make it an 'enemy' to another. A good example would be milk, which has 'B' like qualities that would make a Type' A' person begin the agglutination process in order to reject it.

Because the lectin process is resistant, it doesn't get digested but stays intact, causing potential harm. Once the intact lectin protein settles somewhere in the body, it clumps the cells together and targets them for destruction as if, they too, are foreign invaders.This clumping can cause irritable bowel syndrome in the intestines, cirrhosis of the liver, or block the flow of blood through the kidneys, to name just a few possible effects. No wonder a bacon sandwich makes me feel dreadful afterwards!

As a Type 'O', which I used to think was the most boring blood group of all, I've just realised why my weight has ballooned since I've started many faddy diets. The only diet that ever worked for me was the 'Scarsdale Medical Diet', much maligned after his early, apparently unrelated, demise. It's a predominantly protein and vegetable diet, with no wheat and no dairy [apart from one little slice of Dr Vogel's bread for breakfast], the perfect diet for a Type 'O'! No wonder I've failed on all those healthy, high grain and vegetarian diets, my ancestors were running round after wild beasts with cudgels and flint arrowheads. Even the trusty cabbage soup diet is a 'no,no' because cabbage inhibits the thyroid function of Type 'O's.

I'm having trouble reconciling conflicting medial opinions here, especially with regard to the relationship between meat consumption and the incidence of bowel cancer, but, in truth, I know that a high protein diet works for me. I'll let you know how I get on over the coming months as I try to work out recipes for a new regime. Food for old souls, indeed. Meantime, I think there's still some Dolcelatte left over from an Italian inspired lunch that I did for my old schoolfriends. Oh, and a big pot of Rachel's Organic Gooseberry Yoghurt....and those freshly foraged blackberries I was going to put in a crumble with our windfall apples......Ah well, tomorrow is another day.