Metabolic Typing History And Evolution

By Ben Wilson

The theory took its first steps in the 1920's when a dentist, Dr Weston a Price travelled the world chart the nutrition, health and lifestyle of the different ethnic tribes around the world. He compared the effect of western food compared to their traditional food.

He found that the there was a large variance in types of diet eaten. He saw the Eskimos ate a diet of almost exclusively protein and aft, from seal, fish etc. opposite to this was tribal groups in South America who had an almost meat free diet. The two groups, and many in between these extremes had no cancer, heart disease, mental illness, very little tooth decay and were what could be said to be 'very good health'. When subjected to western foods these groups would succumb to the same degenerative conditions prevalent in the west. He went on to conclude that people had evolved to live off the foods before them through natural succession.

The different and individual nutritional needs were backed up by Dr Roger Williams in the 1950's in his book Biochemical individuality. His work reviewed thousands of medical studies. He found that there was a large variety in almost every measure of the human body from organ size and shape to enzyme and blood concentrations and effectiveness. Through his own studies and in review he showed how vitamin and mineral requirements for individuals varied considerably.
From this he coined the term, the Genotrophic approach to health. This states that if you fulfil your genetically inherited nutritional requirements you will optimize your health.

Biochemical individuality is expressed in the way we look. We all have eyes, ears and a nose yet none of us look identical. This is exactly what happens inside. We all have the same enzymes, organs and structures but they vary greatly in size, shape and efficiency. Hence do not handle the food he same.

The theory then took began to develop with two scientist each creating a system to treat patients. Dr William Kelly used the autonomic nervous system to classify and treat his patients while Dr George Watson used the Speed of oxidizing carbohydrates for his treatment protocols.
Both very effective systems they did not produce complete success and more strangely were complete contradictions off each other. Where one said a nutrient would do this, the other would say it would do the opposite.

This lead to the biggest break thought in nutrition to be made by William Wollcott in 1984. He is the founder of metabolic typing and who trained and allowed me to use his theory today.

The breakthrough was called the dominance factor and stated "In every person either the Autonomic system or oxidation system would influence the behavior of your whole body"
In simple terms the same food could have the complete opposite biochemical affect in two people. So an apple could send my body alkaline, but your body acidic. This means no food can be deemed healthy in its own right but only in relation to your body.

Subsequent to this various different scientific researcher and theories have been included within the theory in a quest for the true solution and bring us to where we are today with metabolic typing being the most complete and powerful nutrition system in the world

Metabolic typing today recognizes 10 systems within your body that need to be balanced for true health to occur. First you need to discover where your ten systems lie at the moment. Then consume the foods and nutrients that seek to balance these while avoiding any nutrients or external causes that will disrupt the systems. Using metabolic typing you can therefore answer the fundamental questions of nutrition: What to eat, how much to eat, what to avoid and all other surrounding issues, e.g. supplements, food quality etc.

If you would like to discover more about your metabolic type and know the answer to the fundamental questions above then sign up to why not consider my free weekly health and fitness newsletter.

Ben WIlson BSc (Hons) CSCS NSCA-CPT CMTA Dip Personal training London (Clapham) Rugby fitness training.com

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