science

Metabolic typing

Metabolic typing is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Metabolic typing rather than just read about it. In short: Metabolic typing is a pseudoscience whose proponents believe that each person has a unique metabolism, and that the proportion of macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) which are optimal for one person may not be for a second, and could even be detrimental to them. Metabolic typing uses common visible symptoms related to the skin, eyes, and other parts of the body to assess different aspects of a person's…

Key takeaways

Metabolic typing belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Metabolic typing to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Metabolic typing from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Metabolic typing is a pseudoscience whose proponents believe that each person has a unique metabolism, and that the proportion of macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) which are optimal for one person may not be for a second, and could even be detrimental to them. Metabolic typing uses common visible symptoms related to the skin, eyes, and other parts of the body to assess different aspects of a person's metabolism and categorize them into broad metabolic types. In addition, some proponents of metabolic typing use tests such as hair analysis to determine a person's metabolic type. A number of somewhat different metabolic typing diet plans are currently marketed, though the validity and effectiveness of metabolic typing have yet to be established.

Background Metabolic typing was introduced by William Donald Kelley, a dentist, in the 1960s. Kelley advocated basing dietary choices on the activity of one's sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. In 1970, Kelley was convicted of practicing medicine without a license, as he had diagnosed a patient with lung cancer based on a fingerstick blood test and prescribed nutritional therapy. He continued to promote a metabolic typing diet through the 1980s. The practice has been further developed by others including Harold J. Kristal and William Wolcott.

Effectiveness Some metabolic typing companies use a battery of blood and urine tests performed by reputable laboratories, but interpret the results in an unconventional and medically questionable fashion. During a 1985 investigation into one such firm, an investigator sent two separate samples of his own blood and urine for analysis. He received two drastically different "metabolic typing" reports and dietary plans. Both plans involved the purchase of dietary supplements costing several dollars per day.

Metabolic therapies "Metabolic therapy", including administration of laetrile, was promoted for cancer patients by John Richardson in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, until his arrest for violating the California Cancer Law and revocation of his license by the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) website describes metabolic therapies as "strict dietary and detoxification regimens touted to prevent and treat cancer and degenerative diseases", a term and definition different from that used for metabolic typing in this Wikipedia article. The MSKCC website notes, in relation to three such anti-cancer therapies, that "...retrospective reviews of the Gerson, Kelley, and Contreras metabolic therapies show no evidence of efficacy."

Metabolic diet William Donald Kelley, in his book , classified the Metabolism of an individual into three categories. Few are fast oxidizer, few are a slow oxidizer. Some have a normal rate of food oxidization called mixed oxidizer. Based on this rate of oxidization the Diet (nutrition) for an individual varies. Since fast oxidizers oxidize food quickly, they are advised to rely more on fat protein efficient diet. This diet will help them to bear hunger. Meanwhile, slow oxidizers are given carbohydrate efficient diet. Eating more proteins or fats can cause Abdominal pain in them. Mixed oxidizer eat a mixture of fat and protein efficient diet.

See also List of ineffective cancer treatments

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Metabolic typing

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Metabolic typing claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Metabolic typing before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Metabolic typing ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Metabolic typing

In research: Metabolic typing appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Metabolic typing in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Metabolic typing is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alternative cancer treatments, Diets, Pseudoscience, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Metabolic typing outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Metabolic typing in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Metabolic typing means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Metabolic typing out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Metabolic typing in simple terms?

Why does Metabolic typing matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Metabolic typing?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Metabolic typing.