Metabolic Typing Diet

Metabolic typing began with Dentist Weston Price, who was interested in the link between western dietary habbits and degenerative disease. Dr Price travelled the world looking at the diets of indiginous cultures. What he unveiled was that there is no one diet to suit everyone, and there were vast differences between what dietary needs of various cultures depending on their climate, envionment, local produce, genetics and culture.

His research was continued by many pioneers including Roger Williams, William Kelly and George Watson, and was later popularised by William Wolcott, Trish Fahey, Horald Christal and James Haig.

The metabolic Typing diet is based on the principle that people's metabolisms function differently, and the differences come down to two factors.

The first factor is autonomic nervous system dominance. The autonomic nervous system is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The sympathetic branch helps burn energy and the parasympathetic helps conserve energy and digest food. The researchers of the Metabolic Typing Diet claim that in each of us, one of these branches is more dominant in the digestive process.

The second factor is based on the rate of cellular oxidation. This refers to the rate at which cells convert energy into food. Some people are fast oxidizers which means that they rapidly convert food into energy. Other people are slow oxidizers meaning that they convert their food more slowly. On the Metabolic Typing diet, fast oxidizers are recommended to eat more protein and fats to balance their system and slow down the conversion of their food into energy. Slow oxidizers are recommended to eat more carbohydrates, which sustain them sufficiently, and reduced protein.

The Metabolic Typing Diet divides us into 3 basic metabolic types:

Protein Types - these people are fast oxidizers/ parasympathetic dominant. Protein types tend to need to eat fairly frequently and have a tendancy towards fatigue and nervousness. They often crave salty or fatty foods. They may have tried low fat or low protein diets and found themselves weak, tired or hungry on these diets.

Carbohydrate types - these people are slow oxidizers/ sympathetic dominant. They often have weak appetites, are able to tolerate sweets quite well, and have problems with weight management.

Mixed types - these people are neither fast or slow oxidizers, and are not parasympathetic or sympathetic dominant. They are a miture of both types, with average appetites and are usually able to control their weight quite easily.

It is recommended that protein types eat a diet that is rich in protein, fats and oils, particularly high-purine proteins such as organ meats and red meats. The carbohydrate intake of a protein type should be low. The Metabolic Typing diet states that this metabolic type fares very poorly on vegetarian diets.

Carbohydrate types should eat diets that are high in carbs and low in protein, fats, and oils. They should eat light, low-purine proteins such as white meat and fish.

Mixed types should eat a mixture of foods from those of a protein type and those of a carbohydrate type.

When I first discovered the Metabolic Typing Diet I had been a strict vegetarian for 20 years, vegan for 7 of those years, and had lived off a high raw foods diet for 5 of those years. I was also severly disabled with Chronic Fatigue Sydrome/ME. For a long time I had clung to the belief that I would be much iller if it wasn't for my "super healthy diet".

I was advised to take a Metabolic Typing Test by my Naturopath Shirley Kay. I turned out to be a definate protein type and after much wrestling with my conscience I began to eat meat again.

My energy levels improved almost immediately. On a vegetarian diet I had always had to eat every two hours and was constantly hungry and obsessed with food. This diminshed when I started to eat more meat protein. I had been a massive advocate of the vegetarian diet for almost two decades, and had been forced to eat humble pie! Of course, changing my diet was not the only thing that I needed to do to overcome ME/CFS, but it certainly helped tremendously.