My daughter has not had a glass of milk since the day I started on the Blood Type Diet. She never liked milk, and she resisted drinking it. When I read that milk was an avoid for Type As I felt so guilty. I said, "I will never make you drink a glass of milk again." She has a protein shake made with soy milk for breakfast every morning, and she eats yogurt several times a week, but she has not touched cow's milk. However at 14, her body needs calcium. I had been giving her 160 mg of magnesium and 400 mg of calcium a day.

She swims in a summer swim league, and she asked if I would consider swimming at night so that she could start getting in shape for the season. Three weeks ago we went to the pool together. She blew past me on the first lap, but several minutes later she was sitting on the side of the pool. She had a serious foot cramp. She stretched it and massaged it, but she was through swimming for the night. I knew it was her calcium so I added another 500 mg per day.

Last week she swam a little farther, but again had to stop because of a cramp in the other foot. This week she's taken 320 mg of magnesium and 1100 mg of calcium. She swam tonight completely free of pain.

When I started trying a new vegetable a week I was at a loss about what to do with some of them. If you've never had escarole, it helps to know that it's a type of lettuce! (I know half of you are thinking how can anyone not know what escarole is and the other half of you are saying esca-what.) I have lots of cook books, but most of them have fancy recipes with lots of avoids. I went to Half Price Books (a used book store) and found several vegetable guides. I bought one that described how to choose vegetables and how to prepare them.

This week the grocery had really fresh looking Swiss Chard. When I got home I consulted the vegetable book and learned that Swiss Chard is "two vegetables in one." The book said to strip the leaves from the stems and cook the leaves like spinach. They were very good, almost as good as beet greens. The book said the stems could be eaten either raw or cooked like asparagus. I prepared them both ways and we voted. My daughter and I both like them raw. I ate mine dipped in olive oil, she dipped hers in peanut butter. My husband preferred them cooked.