Blood type, Genotype, and SWAMI: a journey of self-discovery

The Center for Personalized Nutrition,
courtesy of natural awakenings

Perhaps the most fascinating thing to befall me this year was a trip to the D'Adamo Center for Personalized Nutrition, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had been perusing the Center's main website, Eat Right for Your Type, upon recommendation from my friend Genevieve, who's been thriving on the blood type/genotype diet for over a year. And I had gotten my blood tested to find out my type (O+) and "secretor status." Genevieve had warned me, "If you find out you're a 'non-secretor,' run, don't walk, to the D'Adamo clinic."  I ran.

I arrived at the Brooklyn office sweaty and excited. Dr. David Levi greeted me warmly and gave me a brief tour of the center and its mind-boggling array of enervating supplements, customized for each blood type. I could barely contain my excitement as he logged into SWAMI, the software program designed by Dr. D'Adamo to help "type" an individual using biometric and physiological data and family history. SWAMI assigns a genotype (Hunter, Gatherer, Explorer, Warrior, Nomad, or Teacher) and provides a customized set of dietary and lifestyle recommendations after aggregating information about an individual's blood type, genotype, and other relevant information.

Dr. Levi examined my fingerprints, measured my leg and torso lengths, checked for the presence of a certain cusp on my teeth, gave me a tasting strip with a bitter flavor that not everyone is genetically programmed to taste (I tasted it--yuck!), and helped me through a long questionnaire about physical and mental proclivities and symptoms as well as family history. He input my blood type and secretor status into SWAMI, and we held our breaths as the software deliberated...

Explorer! I knew it!  I'd skimmed Change Your Genetic Destiny and narrowed it down to Gatherer, Hunter, or Explorer. Explorer always felt the most like me; Explorers frequently present as "medical enigmas," are very sensitive to caffeine, are typically mesomorphic to meso-ectomorphic with a large amount of muscle mass, are often non-secretors, and are more prone to migraine than other types, among many other characteristics. The line that tickles me most from the Explorer description is "A properly balanced Explorer will expostulate and complain constantly of their day-to-day health issues, all the while being in constant demand to provide funeral eulogies for their less long-lived friends and relatives."

My SWAMI report includes a generous supply of information on Dr. D'Adamo's theory of healthful eating based on one's individual genetic makeup; the Explorer type; and a long list of foods, broken down by food group, that are either particularly healthy/healing foods for me, harmful "avoids," or "neutrals." Dr. Levi also gave me a second folder containing recipes that emphasize my "superfoods" and omit avoids.

I returned home with a sense of triumph and delight, ready to toast over champagne with Genevieve (another Explorer!), even though some of the dietary recommendations for my type are pretty onerous, such as eliminating wheat from my diet. (Yikes!  That's, like, impossible! I live for Italian food!)

I'm not sure whether I'll ever have the courage to fully realize this dietary change. But I think I'm already on the road to better health, emphasizing my "superfoods" and minimizing "avoids," and reveling in my unique genetic profile, making what I hope to be better choices every day to support my health and well-being.

To foods that heal,

Marisa