How ‘Precision Nutrients’ Function as Medicine and Turned My Health Around
In my last article on my health journey, I mentioned the Blood Type Diet. For me, getting on the BTD train is like hitting the jackpot, as it has resolved most of my ailments since I was a teenager, particularly digestive problems and allergies.
Seeing that it worked so well, I went deeper into finding out my Secretor status. In the majority of the world’s population, blood type characteristics (antigens) not only show up in the blood cells but also in bodily secretions such as saliva and sweat. This actually partly serves to protect the body against certain infectious diseases. There is a minority population who does not have this natural protection and they are known as “non-secretors.” I found out, through a simple saliva test sent to a lab, that I am a non-secretor, or “nonnie.” This shed new light on my hypersensitivity to certain food and environmental irritants.
According to Dr. Peter D’Adamo, who discovered the importance of the secretor status in relation to our health: “Your secretor status drastically alters the carbohydrates present in your body fluids and secretions in addition to several important aspects of your metabolism and resistance. These factors include the activity of an enzyme called intestinal alkaline phosphatase, the overall composition of bacteria in your intestinal ecosystem, your propensities toward blood clotting, your level of carbohydrate tolerance, and your resistance to certain parasites and yeast.
In addition to allowing important diet refinements, knowing your secretor status can help you use nutritional supplements more effectively and intelligently and add to your awareness of illness and metabolic dysfunction you may be prone to because of your secretor genetics.”
Knowing my status, I was thus able to fine-tune my food intake based on the latest database of food values here:
Nutrient Value Encyclopedia
With a higher level of precision in my nutritional intake, my body started to feel better and better, especially in the digestion department. Then I went from knowing my secretor status to understanding my Genotype. Genotype is a different approach to find out how your particular genetic make-up influences your health, and how by eating and exercising according to what is best for your type, you can effectively switch on the “good” genes and switch off the “bad” ones.
Reading “Change Your Genetic Destiny” by Dr. Peter D’Adamo, I found out that I am a “Hunter.” I am most suitable to eating very lean animal protein, doing rigorous exercises frequently and minimizing my carb intake. As I am also close to being an “Explorer,” I am more sensitive than others to environmental toxins such as chemicals.
Soon after, I learned about a software called “SWAMI.” I used it to help me come up with an even more personalized diet plan. The food list generated by the smart software gave me “Superfoods” (divided into “Diamonds” and “Beneficials”), which, when eaten frequently, would help to cure diseases and strengthen my immune defense; “Neutral” foods, which I can enjoy occasionally but would not act like medicine; and “Avoids,” which are like toxins to my body. Within the “Avoids” category, there are “Black Dots,” which are foods I should avoid for six months’ “washout period.”
The pleasant surprise was that I got a few food items back, which were “forbidden” in the Blood Type Diet. Among them are certain hard cheeses — Manchego (sheep’s milk cheese), Parmesan and Romano. I also get butter and ghee (clarified butter) as “Beneficials.”
As type O’s should strictly avoid all dairy products, these “bennies” give me great delight. In fact, these dairy products help to “correct digestive imbalance by restricting the carbohydrates available to intestinal bacteria and yeast. Only the carbohydrates that are well absorbed are included so that intestinal bacteria have nothing to feed on. This helps to correct the bacterial overgrowth and the related mucus and toxin production.”
Most of the foods on this personalized diet plan are “right on.” What I mean is that when I consume the “Diamonds” and “Beneficials,” my body feels so good. But when I eat the “Avoids,” I get problems, either in the form of poor digestion, mucous/sinus problems, yeast infections, skin rashes or weight gain — not to mention the hidden damages that don’t show up immediately. And amazingly, the list confirms the suspicions I had for those foods that had always given me troubles in the past.
My body felt renewed as it gradually detoxified itself from harmful lectins and other substances that would eventually lead to chronic inflammatory diseases. My previous hypoglycemia and weak thyroid disappeared totally. This was such a relief as diabetes runs in my mother’s side of the family and my weak thyroid always left me with low energy and cold hands and feet. Averting these early signs of diabetes and hypothyroidism made me tremendously happy.
But the biggest surprise was when my bra size shrank by 1 full size. How did that happen? Prior to adopting this personalized diet, I had extremely fibrocystic breasts and I had a few large uterine fibroids. After I followed the SWAMI diet for half a year, the cysts in my breasts disappeared entirely. I no longer felt tenderness and pressure from the hard lumps that had accompanied me ever since I was a teenager. This was a major breakthrough — and something unexpected. As for the fibroids, I will write about them another time.
The SWAMI diet is truly amazing. Seeing how well it contributes to disease prevention and turns around existing health issues, I have been faithfully following it for more than 10 years now.
