Metabolic Type

For full understanding of metabolic typing and for a questionnaire to determine your type, please read Bill Wolcott’s book: The Metabolic Typing Diet
Online self-test

Some info on this website as well: http://www.metabolictypingdiet.com/index2.html

Metabolism is simply the sum total of all the chemical and biological activities that are necessary to sustain life. Although these life functions -- or metabolic activities -- are many and diverse, they can be summarized as follows: nutrition, transport, respiration, synthesis, regulation, growth and reproduction.

Compared to the blood type and glandular type which are the same throughout a person’s life, our metabolism can change when we are ill. We require energy for proper metabolism. The air, water, sunlight, and food ( nutrients ) which we acquire from our environment are used by our body to produce this vital, life-sustaining energy.

The raw materials in the foods we eat (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc.) are particularly important, since they're used by our bodies to repair, rebuild and heal tissue. But foods and nutrients are also essential because they provide the fuel that is oxidized (burned or combusted) in our cells to provide energy for all metabolic activities.

The metabolic types

One important factor that is used to determine your metabolic type is your rate of cellular oxidation and based on the rate of oxidation you can be one of 3 types:

• slow oxidizer - requires low-fat, low protein, high carbohydrate diets
• fast oxidizer - needs high-protein, high-fat, low carbohydrate diets
• mixed oxidizer - needs relatively equal amounts of protein, fats and carbohydrates

Your rate of cellular oxidation is not the only factor that determines your metabolic type, but it is a very important factor - and one that is largely determined by your genetic heritage.

Below are brief highlights of the three basic Metabolic Type diets:

• The Protein Type Diet

  In general or simplistic terms, if you are a protein type it means one of two things -- either your cells tend to burn carbohydrates too quickly (meaning you're a fast oxidizer), or the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system is stronger and more dominant than the sympathetic branch. This means you need a high-protein intake in order to strengthen your sympathetic system, and in turn acidify your too-alkaline metabolism. Or you need protein to slow down your overly rapid cellular oxidation rate, thereby alkalinizing your too-acid metabolism.

  Protein types do very well on a diet that includes plenty of high-density, high-fat proteins known as "high-purine" proteins. These include foods like red meat, dark meat chicken and turkey, and various kinds of seafood such as salmon, tuna, herring, sardines, mussels, caviar and anchovies. Most protein types can also eat freely of whole fat foods in the form of cheese, eggs, cream and milk. It's especially important for protein types to include a significant amount of protein at every meal, and to moderate their intake of carbohydrates (grains, vegetables and fruits), especially the carbohydrates that are high in sugar and starch.

• The Carbo Type Diet

  Generally speaking, if you're a carbo type you need a higher percentage of carbohydrates in your diet in order to strengthen the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system, which is weaker than your sympathetic system, and thereby alkalinize your too-acid metabolism. Or you need more carbohydrates to speed up your naturally slow cellular oxidation rate, thereby bringing it into balance by acidifying your too-alkaline metabolism.

  Carbo types typically do well on a low-fat, relatively low-protein diet -- one that includes liberal amounts of carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. However, carbo types need to remember that a "low-protein" diet does not mean a "no-protein" diet. In fact, most carbo types will find that they need to include protein at most meals, but they need to focus on leaner, lighter meats, seafood and poultry than protein types. They should restrict their consumption of red meat in favor of light meat chicken and turkey and lighter seafood such as haddock, cod, perch, sole, catfish and flounder.

  If you're a carbo type you should stick to low-fat dairy products, but you can eat a very wide selection of vegetables, fruits, and grains. However, many carbo types, like protein types, do best by focusing on vegetables that contain low or moderate levels of sugar and starch.

• The Mixed Type Diet

  If you're a mixed type, it means you're somewhere in the middle of the other two types, which have more pronounced or clear-cut metabolic imbalances. You actually need to eat a mixture of protein type foods and carbo type foods. This will accomplish two things:

  1. it will support both sides of your autonomic nervous system -- both the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch; and
  2. it will keep your cellular oxidation rate, which is neither too fast or too slow, in balance.

  Mixed types need to consume relatively equal ratios of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. They also need to eat a mixture of high-fat, high-purine proteins and low-fat, low-purine proteins. The same applies to all of the other foods contained on the protein type and carbo type diets -- including grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits.

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