This week I get to be a little lazy.  I left a comment for a fellow Soulcaster named Polarheart.  He'd read a book called "The Right Diet for You" and he offered to share its magic formula.

The book essentially argues that diet should be dictated by your blood type; you eat what you are.

This was my reply:

There are TWO universal blood types.
The Universal Donor is O- 
The Universal Recipient is AB+

A and B are both superficial proteins (they are detectable on the surface) of Red Blood cells, the cells responsible for carrying oxygen to your body.

The + refers to a protein first found in the blood of Rhesus monkeys.  You'll sometimes see it called Rh+ or Rh-.

If you are AB+, you have all three proteins.  ANY blood you get will not offer any significant proteins your body doesn't already have.  When the body detects proteins it doesn't make itself, it tries to get rid of it with the immune system.

If you are O-, you have none of the three proteins and almost anybody's blood would cause your immune system to react to disastrous effect.

The three proteins, A, B, and Rhesus are made of the same amino acids as all the other proteins in our body and we get them all in abundant amounts form the food we eat.  Blood cell protein is not going to be seriously affected by any diet changes and I'm EXCEPTIONALLY skeptical that they are an important indicator of a dietary need.

This book sounds like 100% horse hockey and most folks would do better following the simple advice they hear periodically.  Fruits vegetables, cut out on the sweets.  It's not that simple, but at least it's fairly accurate.

I don't mean to call out Polarheart on this.  I do take issue with turkeys that want to make money telling people certain foods are perfect for them specifically.  This may happen some day.  Genetic analysis may indeed indicate which foods would be particularly suitable for our purposes, but I'd sooner guess that nutritional needs are easily solved by a combination of many different foods.  The components any analysis would tell us to take in could be achieved by a specifically formulated liquid you could take by IV, or you could simply eat enough of a wide variety of foods that would exceed these minimal levels. 

The trouble you would take to find this perfect "you cocktail" would be unlikely to be worth the effort.  When exceeding the minimum requirements would probably be a more pleasant endeavor than concocting a specific menu to just get by.

It would be something like current efforts to customize drugs; looking at enzymes that need to be activated or deactivated by a molecule that doesn't occur in nature.  Similarly, custom made genes may be inserted to replace sub-optimal ones in our genomes, eliminating health problems permanently from the inside.  (This would not be as profitable, so don't hold your breath.)

The tendency of people to believe in a diet that provides abundant energy, rock hard abs, and a mind like a steel trap seems to be inextricable form the public consciousness.  How many times must we tell the king that Rapunzel cannot possibly spin straw into gold despite how desirable the outcome?


* DM


Next:  Dyingman's future body. 

Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
10 minutes hard cycling. (intensity 5 out of 10)
Weights: 3 days - 100 lbs. - 6 cycles of 5,5,5,10 repetitions (2 cycles/day)

Current Fitness Record: (since last entry)
1 x < 2 min cycling - average intensity 3.5 - 65 cycles  (Pulse = 126 at last check 2-2008)
0 day - 65 lbs. - 0 cycles

Pulse: 70
Blood Pressure:  109/76  5/19/08
BMI 24


Workout Partner's Progress:  Position Vacant

RECENT SYMPTOMS : None.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS:  Clicking knees, Pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right.  Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSIS: Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble (c. 2006) onto landing of concrete stairs. Injured knee joints from sprinting (c. 2007)

ONGOING TREATMENT: Tri-Annual dental visits.

DRUG REGIMEN:  Aspartame.  (3 diet sodas daily)  Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily.  two colas.)
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK:      Good health.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS:   Fish Oil supplements.  Axillary vacuum curettage.

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