For Extra Energy, Eat Right That Suits You

Ever notice how some people bounce off the walls with energy when they eat a high-protein diet, while other folks feel lethargic on the same meal plan? Or how some people seem to have boundless energy when they switch to a vegetarian diet that makes their pals feel fatigued and listless?

For decades, various researchers have taken a stab at the elusive holy grail of matching people to their perfect diets. And doesn’t it make perfect sense? It’s absolutely elegant: A type X would have great energy and health on a high-protein diet, a type Y would thrive on raw foods, and a type Z would function just fine on nothing but Cherry Garcia.

Recognizing the vast diversity in genetics, hormones, metabolism, ancestry, and a million other variables, many nutritionists and other health professionals have correctly intuited that it would be oh-so-wonderful if only we could identify those “types” so that we could determine what sorts of diets.

And indeed it would. Three have been numerous tests, from saliva tests to blood tests to sophisticated questionnaires, developed in an attempt to identify certain characteristics in a person’s makeup that would make it more likely that he or she would thrive on a certain kind of diet. William Wolcott’s metabolic typing is one such system, and Peter D’Adamo’s blood type system is another. (In the blood type system, for example, people with type O blood are believed to do much better on diet higher in meat than, say, a person with type A blood. This is a huge oversimplification, but hopefully gets the point across).

These systems have both their proponents and their critics. The practitioners of these systems devote a great deal of time, energy, and study to refining them so that they can help their clients pick t he foods that support them in health, and avoid those that don’t. One thing all these typing systems have in common is the belief that it’s not enough for a food to just be healthy – if you’re not suited to that food, it’s not healthy for you, even if it’s great for someone else. (An easy-to-understand example that doesn’t require any typing system to comprehend is a food allergy. Foods can be amazingly healthy, such as citrus fruits, tree nuts, and eggs, but if you’re allergic to them, they’re all wrong for you.)