Am on the Mercola.com mailing list and got an email through saying he'd made his Nutritional Typing test available online for free if anyone's interested...
This is a link to his page introducing it if you don't know anything about it
http://products.mercola.com/nutritional-typing/ (is a bit 'salesy' but the test is free, link at the bottom)
Here's a link straight to the test:
http://nutritionaltyping.mercola.com/ You need to sign up, which will put you on his mailing list I think, but you can always unsubscribe :-)
Some background info:
Mercola's test is a simpler (and supposedly improved) version of the William Wolcott Metabolic Typing test (
http://www.metabolictyping.com/). The basic premise is that there is no one diet that suits everyone and our dietary needs are determined by our genetic heritage however, because most people have very mixed bloodlines, it's difficult to tell what our genetic cues are.
The test asks a load of questions to determine your 'Nutritional Type' - broadly speaking Protein, Carb or Mixed type (Metabolic Typing goes into more detail on oxidisation rates, autonomic nervous system balance and other factors) - these types steer you in terms of macronutrient ratios and particular types of foods with different chemical balance but there's a lot of emphasis on listening to your body and tuning the diets to yourself. Mercola also advocates eating a high proportion of your diet raw, including meats!
I've done both the Metabolic (2-3 years back) and Nutritional tests and came out as a Protein type on both. I liked the additional detail in the Metabolic test (particularly if you read the book). Mercola says he has been using Metabolic Typing for 10 years with patients so he offers his Nutritional Typing version as an improved alternative.
Either way the food chart recommendations were the same and looking back over many years of different diet adventures the Protein type fits well with my experiences. The stuff about how the same nutrients affect people differently is quite interesting - I found that the fruit & veg recommendations fit perfectly with all the stuff I used to like as a kid before I knew anything about 'nutrition' (spinach, mushrooms, avocado, apples etc) - and the stuff I shouldn't eat does indeed usually give me indigestion / heartburn or energy / alertness / hyperactivity problems. There's also some interesting stuff about different types of protein for different Metabolic / Nutritional types - high purine protein vs lighter meats, all related to oxidisation rates.
I read a couple of posts a while back about Dr Mercola himself and I would agree that he does seen a bit 'about the money' - it's definitely got worse over the last couple of years, so much so that where I used to point friends at an interesting article I now won't because there's so much blatant sales going on. This is a shame as the health info actually is quite good once you get past the marketing - however I was pleasantly surprised by the Nutritional Typing being free when he used to charge $40 for it...
Also, in the 6-8 years I've been reading the newsletter he has had the balls to change his stance & recommendations on things based on new evidence - something not a lot of doctors I've met ever seemed willing to do. For example when I started reading he was a big advocate of veg juicing but now doesn't recommend it for Protein types and only in moderation for mixed types - which was a pain as I'd spent £200 on a juicer a year before the change! Still, fair play to him for holding his hand up and saying he was wrong. The only slightly worrying trend is that he always used to be pretty anti-supplement but is increasingly saying they're ok in certain circumstances - coincidentally enough whenever he has a product to cover it...
Anyway, thought the test might be helpful for people - especially if you're stuck on the should I low-carb / zero-carb or should I eat fruit questions as the science seems to make a lot of sense - just look past the sales stuff on the main site (he doesn't actually try to sell you anything on the test site!)
