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["Fred Enga, Astechman" <fenga AT astechman.com>]

LOL.

I read this with interest.  Sorry that I missed sending in a reply.

Just for laughs, I am a 60 year old male, AB+, who smokes a pipe (tobacco
only), who drinks like a fish (all forms of alcohol except a particularly
nasty German liquor made from artichokes called Cinar), who lives on a diet
of dairy, fish and meat, eats rye breads, has no health problems, is
overweight and unconcerned about it, has a collestoral level that my doctor
is jealous of.

I just thought I was typical Norwegian!

Cheers

Fred Enga

-----Original Message-----
From: homestead-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:homestead-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of EarthNSky
Sent: October-17-08 10:54 PM
To: Homestead List
Subject: [Homestead] Health Generalizations, Part II

A few general comments and statements:
34 people sent me a survey.  I will not name names or say who is what,
other than I really, really wish Gene had sent in a survey.  I wanted to
see his survey more than anyone else's, but alas, he did not complete
it. I had my little personal theory that Gene is a Type A, and I wanted
to see if I was right.  Am I right, Gene? I suppose you could be a B, or
and AB, but I can't imagine you as an O.  My guess in order is A, AB, B
and then O on likelihood. Lemme know.


There were 24 men and 10 women
46% were 50-60 years old, the largest group
38% were 60-70 years old, therefore 84% of respondents were 50-70 years old.
Four people did not know their blood type, but my guess from their
responses to other question is that they are type O.

Eliminating the 4 from the all the stats,
45% were O
27% were A
18% were B
5% were AB

For the sake of this dirty little experiment, I did not consider rh factor.
To compare the above to the population at large in the US
O represents 44-45%
A represents 40-42%
B represents 11-20%
AB represents 4%

So with respect to the population of the US as a whole, all races, we
are a bit under for type A blood.  The lack of type A people was a real
surprise, however if the unknowns are A, then we come closer to the
average.  I think would lay money that the unknown group are all O's not
just because that is the most likely outcome, but because I know you
guys and I think you fit the O stereotype more, you big carnivores you. ;)

First, I need to say that I added a few questions to throw people off.
It was a health survey, and the irrelevant questions related to health,
but not to the information I was looking for.  Answers to those
questions were all over the board or uniformly the same, so it was an
easy data toss.  The marijuana question and the water source questions
were eliminated.
Education did not seem, contrary to the opinion of the Surgeon General
and others, to make a difference in a person's conception of their
overall health.  We have a wide range of answers on education level,
from High School to PhD.  The PhD people did not seem to have any
healthier of a lifestyle or fewer health problems than the lowest
educated person, so I could see no correlation there.  There was no
relation between education and diet, or education and blood type.  The
frequency that a person eats out also did not seem to make any
difference in their overall health (you gotta remember how basic this
was) nor could I see any correlation to blood type.  Blood type A ate
out just as frequently as type O's.
Whether or not a person homesteaded did not relate to health, but I did
notice that Type A people were less likely to raise animals, so that
would fall in line with the theory.
Surprisingly, most of you do not drink, but a few drinkers were found in
all blood types.  Based on what you told me about how much you drink,
type O people drink the least and type A and B people drink the most. It
was a tie. That is consistent with the theory since A's and B's crave
the grains.<g>

Other generalizations:

Type O
Every person that said they were O was overweight, most by at least 20
pounds.  Only one smoker/former smoker was found outside of this blood
type.  This type was also the 'sickliest' with arthritis, diabetes, HBP,
and other medical issues prevalent.

Type A
There was no one that described themselves as a big meat eater.  I saw
comments of 'vegetarian', 'not much meat', 'lots of fruit', etc. on the
diet section.  Weights varied from not overweight to 100 pounds
overweight.  Like I stated above, Type A's seem to like the grain
beverages. There was only one 'former smoker'.

Type B
Very similar to type A people across the board.  One person was a former
vegetarian who eats meat now and another claimed to eat 'very little
meat' and mostly fruit.  There were no smokers or former smokers here.

Type AB
Only two people had this type, both were 'never-smokers' but ironically,
both used marijuana occasionally or had used it occasionally in the
past. Both people also described themselves as lacto-vegetarian.  It was
really strange.  One person described themselves as 'slightly overweight
but not worried about it' and the other was 25 pounds overweight, but
did not list an amount they wanted to lose.  The thinner person had more
health issues.


Conclusion:
While I realize that this was a very small sample of people and that I
did not ask your race, your fitness level or the amount of exercise you
perform, I was actually surprised at how uniformly people fell into
categories.  I personally read part of the book and I disagree with some
of the finding and suggestions-can't think of anything right off the bat
because I am tired-but whatever; but there may be a kernel of truth that
certain blood types benefit from certain diets, that is, diets that
reduce or exclude some items, but that is a gross generalization and
there most certainly will be exceptions.

I am most definitely a O person.  I love my meat and protein.  I have
the diseases that some of you also have.  I am a former smoker.  I fit
right in with the O's.

I think we see the weight/overweight variation because of health and
fitness level.  I'm not sure how much blood type affects weight, but
that carnivorous diet that all of us O's have certainly pack the pounds
on us.  Ironically, you can't easily make the jump that vegetarian is
healthier though because we aren't looking at all the variables.  It
does seem however that the more meat in the diet, the heavier we are.

Now that you know what this is all about and how everything shook out,
if anyone wants to talk about their specific type, go right ahead!
Also, if anyone has any burning questions I'll try to answer them.

Bev
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