Should you avoid certain foods because of your blood group? Here’s the truth

• The popular blood type diet claims that people with blood groups A, B, AB and O should follow different diets, but research has not established these benefits.

• Studies suggest that any health improvements may be linked to healthier food choices rather than a person’s blood group.

• Before eliminating nutritious foods because of your blood type, consider your nutritional needs, health goals and medical conditions.

Have you ever been told to avoid certain foods because of your blood group?

For some people, their blood type has become a guide for deciding what belongs on their plate, with popular claims suggesting that people with blood groups A, B, AB or O should follow different diets.

But how much truth is there to these claims?

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Dietitian, Nana Ama Dwamena explains the popular blood type diet and whether your blood group should really determine what you eat.

The idea became widely known through naturopath Peter D’Adamo’s 1996 book Eat Right 4 Your Type, which promoted the idea that people should eat differently depending on whether they have blood group A, B, AB or O.

Some versions of the diet recommend that people with blood group A, for example, avoid foods such as red meat and certain vegetables, while other blood groups are given different lists of foods to eat or avoid.

But despite how scientific the idea may sound, research has not established that matching your diet to your ABO blood group provides specific health benefits.

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According to a systematic review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, there was no evidence validating the claimed health benefits of blood type diets. The researchers found no studies showing that ABO blood type diets improved health outcomes.

Research published in PLOS ONE also found that some people who followed certain blood-type-style diets had improvements in some health measures.

However, those improvements were not linked to whether the person's diet actually matched their blood type. This means the benefits were more likely related to the foods people were eating rather than their blood group.

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A later study involving overweight adults reached a similar conclusion: matching the recommended diet to a person's ABO genotype did not change the observed effects, providing no support for the blood-type diet theory.

Nana Ama explains that  people may feel better after changing their diets not because of their blood group, but because they may have reduced ultra-processed and sugary foods while increasing whole grains and fibre.

Your blood group is medically important for reasons such as blood transfusions and certain aspects of healthcare, but that does not mean it should be used as a stand-alone guide for deciding which nutritious foods you can or cannot eat.

Instead, dietary choices should take into account your nutritional needs, health goals, preferences and any medical conditions you may have.

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For example, someone may need to change their diet because they have diabetes, high cholesterol, a food allergy or another medical condition. Those decisions are better made with appropriate medical or nutritional guidance than simply based on whether they have blood group A, B, AB or O.

If someone tells you that your blood group means you must completely avoid a particular nutritious food, it is worth asking what evidence supports that claim.

As Nana Ama says, before banning perfectly nutritious foods from your kitchen because of your blood group, check the evidence first.

Your blood type may tell you something important about your blood, but current evidence does not show that it should dictate your entire diet.