I'm studying a book on the Christian Disciplines, and this week has been about celebration as a discipline. That was a strange concept to me at first, but the more I think about it, the more I see its truth in the Christian life. I've also seen some interesting parallels to the Blood Type Diet.

The author says "Without a joyful spirit of festivity the disciplines become dull, death breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees. Every discipline should be characterized by carefree gaiety and a sense of thanksgiving." "Without joyous celebration to infuse the other disciplines, we will sooner or later abandon them."

If I think of the Type O diet in terms of what I can't have, my meals will become dull. If I perpetually feel sorry for myself and dwell on the avoids, I will sooner or later abandon the BTD.

I focus on the beneficials - the variety of colors and tastes that are building my health. I look for neutrals that add interest and variety. I approach cooking with joy, and eating with even more joy. I spend very little time grieving for avoids. They made me feel bad - why should I miss them?!? I enjoy my health and my energy.

The author writes, "If we fill our lives with simple good things and constantly thank God for them, we will be joyful."

Again I think of the BTD. Simple, good food. Not highly processed. Not full of chemicals. Not requiring hours of stirring a complicated sauce. Simple, fresh food the way God made it. I do indeed thank God for food like that.

The author writes, "The decision to set the mind on the higher things of life is an act of the will. That is why celebration is a discipline…It is the result of a consciously chosen way of thinking and living."

As that statement is true in my spiritual life, it is also true in my physical life. At first the discipline of the BTD is not natural or easy. But as I consciously choose to live this way, the benefits become apparent. Joy as well as thanksgiving follow.

Jesus said. " Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Matthew 6:25 The God who made me does not want me worrying about what I will eat. He provides an abundance of fresh, simple, healthy choices. I eat to have energy, enthusiasm, and joy for the other activities of my day.

"I bought some rice flour but really don't know how to use it. Do you use it the same as white flour or totally different?" asked Linda, a reader of my Blog.

I have something of a love/hate relationship with rice flour. I love it because it is a beneficial grain for the Type As in my family. I also find that of all the neutral grains, rice and rice flour suit me best as a Type O. They don't seem to lead to cravings and water retention the way so many other grains do.

I hate rice four because its texture is like sand. Living in a country where finely ground white wheat flour is made into delectable delicacies like Krispy Kreme donuts, Sara Lee cakes, and Marie Calendar pie crust, has raised my expectations to a level that rice flour cannot meet.

I don't use rice flour alone as a substitute for white flour. I usually make a flour blend that is 1/2 to 1/3 rice flour. Spelt/rice and rye/spelt rice are two blends that I often use for muffins and cookies. The taste is good and rich. The texture is quite acceptable.

I began to change my mind about rice flour as I tried recipes that were specifically designed for it. The first of those recipes was for rice muffins. It was on ReciBase at one time, but has been removed. I copied it in my blog on March 2, 2005, so you can find it in my archives. This is not only a delicious muffin recipe, but it is versatile and works well with a variety of fruit additions.

I tried onion rings made with rice flour and they were great. The gritty texture made the oven baked onion rings crunchy and more like fried rings.

This morning I tried the rice waffle recipe that Vicki posted on a recent Forum thread. I just checked and the thread is gone, so I hope Vicki doesn't mind my copying her recipe.

Brown Rice Waffles

2 cups brown rice flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons molasses

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cups compliant milk or water (I used soy milk, Vicki used almond milk one time and water the other times)

2 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons melted ghee or oil

Directions:

Combine egg yolks, oil, milk, and molasses

Mix dry ingredients together and slowly add to liquid ingredients.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake in hot waffle iron.

They smelled delicious. My daughter said, "These are really good." When my husband asked for seconds, I jokingly asked, "Are they as good as IHOP?" He seriously replied, "They are at least as good."

This success inspires me to try a rice flour yeast bread I found a while ago but have never baked.

So, Linda, if you use rice flour by itself as a substitute for white flour you will probably be disappointed. But if you blend it, or look for recipes that have been created to use it to the best advantage, you will suddenly find that it is a favorite staple in your pantry.

Our pastor had dinner with us Saturday night. It was nice to get to know him on a more personal basis. I wanted to fix something that would be healthy for all of us, but not too weird (no Swiss Chard or seaweed!). I settled on salmon, broccoli, rice, Romaine salad, and a veggie tray. I had worked most of the day Saturday, so I didn't have time to bake a dessert. At the last minute I decided on frozen yogurt topped with cherries. It was my one avoid of the weekend, but it was neutral for my husband and daughter.

Speaking of seaweed, that is the next category in my Superfoods brochure. Since seaweed is beneficial for Type Os, I won't find any noteworthy neutrals here. I will say that if you haven't tried seaweed, my two favorite ways to eat it are using sushi nori papers for wrap sandwiches and reconstituting seaweed flakes to use as a substitute for noodles.

Seeds - are recommended for estrogen-like compounds and fiber. The brochure recommends flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds are beneficial and I eat them weekly. Sunflower seeds are avoid for Type O.

Tea, the brochure says, contains over 4,000 antioxidant compounds - I didn't know that! They recommend green tea, white tea, black tea, and oolong tea. Green tea is beneficial and I drink it 4-5 times a week. Black tea is avoid. Heidi says oolong and white teas are also avoid. Rooibos is a neutral tea that Dr. D. recommends for Type Os. I had some last year, but somehow it never got back on my shopping list. I need to buy some more.

Tomatoes - the brochure calls tomatoes a superfood because of lycopene. I will quote Dr. D about tomatoes: "Tossing a tomato into your salad is not going to give you all that much lycopene. Tomatoes have a very high water content, so…you only find high concentrations of lycopene in tomato paste." He has a chart that shows guava, watermelon, papaya, and grapefruit (all neutrals) with higher lycopene than fresh tomatoes. Watermelon used to be a summer only food, but I'm starting to see it year round in the grocery store. I need to adjust my thinking and serve watermelon in the winter. (I could have served watermelon for dessert on Saturday instead of the yogurt!) I bought a papaya last week and had it in my breakfast mix this morning.

Turkey - This is the only meat recommended in the brochure. Ironically turkey and ostrich are the only meats that are not avoid for one blood type or the other. We do eat a lot of turkey because it is acceptable for both my Type As and me.

The last two categories are whole grains and yogurt. Yogurt is avoid for me. I cook for my Type As with a lot of grains that are beneficial for them and neutral for me. I find that I do better when I eat very little grain*, so I don't plan to increase neutral whole grains. However, I did spend a few cents more to buy whole grain brown rice flour as opposed to white rice flour.

Neutral foods add variety to the Type O diet. Choosing neutral food with a high nutrient content is even better.

* No longer grain free. click here for more info

A common criticism of my work with blood type and diet seeks to brand the BTD theory as a ‘pseudoscience.' Now, according to most accounts, a pseudoscience is ‘any body of knowledge, methodology, or practice that is erroneously regarded as scientific, and which fails to meet the criteria met by science generally.'

According to most accepted sources, a pseudoscience can be identified by a combination of certain characteristics. So, let's see how the BTD measures up:

Asserting claims or theories unconnected to previous experimental results.

It is amply demonstrated in the scientific literature that ABO blood type and secretor status possess biological significance outside of the realm of transfusion science. Roughly 1/3 of all published studies on blood type polymorphism measure some sort of physiologic response, typically having to do with digestion, immunity and circulation.

Asserting claims which cannot be verified or falsified (claims that violate falsifiability).

Falsifiability is the notion that if something cannot be made false, it cannot be proven or disproved. For example, the notion of constructing an anti-cancer diet for type A could be said to be logical based on the fact that virtually 90% of all published studies show a higher rate of malignancy in type A over the other types.

To say otherwise (i.e that type O had a higher occurence over type A) would be to falsify this fact.

Using type A again, we could also say that a cardio-protective diet would be more appropriate in type A, since virtually all published studies show a higher rate of heart and artery disease in type A over the other blood types. Again, to say otherwise would be to falsify this fact.

Not only do we know the occurrence of these facts, we have biomedical reasons for their existence; for example, many types of cancers mimic the type A antigen, and with regard to heart disease, type A has higher levels of cholesterol and more arterial inflammation than the other blood types.

Other studies show that type O have more of a type of inflammation made worse by wheat, whereas non-secretors have lower level of intestinal enzymes that help the body assimilate fats and calcium. Every fact behind the Blood Type Diets neatly falls within the framework of being falsifiable.

Asserting claims which contradict experimentally established results.

No aspect of the characterizations or recommendations of the Blood Type Diets contradict established experimental results. In fact, the inherent flexibility of its doctrine help explain information and results which would otherwise appear aberrant, such as the inability of herd type epidemiology to produce cogent answers to the ongoing debates in nutrition, and the simultaneous persistence of multiple heterodoxies (paleodiet, vegan, etc.)

Failing to provide an experimental possibility of reproducible results.

All aspects of the Blood Type Diets are eminently testable. Ongoing research is monitoring at a variety of recognized biomarkers (soluble endothelial factors, breath hydrogen, to name two) and their modulation as a direct result of adopting a specific blood type diet protocol. Unfortunately, one of the more dire consequences of our internet fueled ability to mudsling to a scale unknown previously is that nascent ideas can easily die stillborn under a barrage of ad hominem and ad hoc attacks, inhibiting serious consideration from independent researchers. This can be especially dangerous to subsequent scholarly analysis; though any scientific theory should be able to withstand the scrutiny of honest research, even if its ultimate goal is to disprove its claims.

Failing to submit results to peer review prior to publicizing them.

I have authored a number of peer-reviewed papers that examined the influence of specific dietary patterns on individuals of differing ABO groups. Predictably enough, they attracted little or no attention at the time of publication. It was only when I wrote a book for the general public, did any of my work attract any sort of attention at all.

By claiming a theory predicts something that it has not been shown to predict.

The characterizations of the digestive strengths and weaknesses of the ABO blood groups and secretor types are a matter of public record; any one with the interest and free time can explore the existing research on MEDLINE or any of the citation services. As I have said time and again, I have merely reassembled and reorganized prior, largely disorganized material into a cogent collection of facts, That as I understand it, is the basis of virtually all scientific development. Paradoxically, if my training as a naturopathic physician was a liability with regard to my ability to develop this theory in a conventionally scientific environment, it was a distinct advantage with regard to the development of a vista broad and flexible enough to knit the disparate facts about blood type, diet and physiology together in the first place.

By a lack of progress toward additional evidence of its claims.

I think the emerging sciences of nutrigenomics and metabolomics will for the first time give the Blood Type Diets the type of intellectual and conceptual framework necessary to allow for their proper place in science to be established. Far from inhibiting or lacking progress towards additional evidence, the Blood Type Diets probably need at least another decade to allow for the genomic discoveries to penetrate traditional medical sensibilities.

This last point illustrates what would be a much more resourceful way to depict the Blood Type Diets: As Protoscience.

Protoscience is a term sometimes used to describe a hypothesis which has not yet been tested adequately by the scientific method, but which is otherwise consistent with existing science or which, where inconsistent, offers reasonable account of the inconsistency. In essence, a Protoscience is an area of science which is in its formulative stages. Some authorities substitute ‘Frontier Science' for Protoscience. I can accept that as well.

In general, pejorative terms like ‘Pseudoscience' are often employed by skeptics and critics, and may often have ulterior motives behind them, such is the politics of science and health care these days.

However, just as we have pseudoscience, let us not forget that we also have ‘pseudoskeptics' as well. A pseudoskeptic is an individual who claims to support "reason" and the "scientific worldview", but frequently uses logical fallacies, attempts to silence opponents, and employs various invalid strategies of persuasion. Funny enough, pseudoskepticism is a class of pseudoscience, masquerading as proper skepticism.

Historically, how many protoscientific discoveries (Galileo's Astronomy and Harvey's discovery of the circulation of blood are two that come to mind) would have at the time of their publication been classed as pseudoscience when in fact they were on the very frontiers of discovery?

Pseudoskeptics have often taken their shots at me and my work. Yet I wonder how some of these folks get away with a skeptical stance about something they appear to know so little about? How often is what we call skepticism is just the simple lack of curiosity?

Now, is this a tome in defense of the inalienable right to be protoscientific?

Hopefully not.

There is a lot of junk out there. Just the other day I received a hostile email from a book reader who chastized me for not 'being honest' about the 'whole secretor thing.' Apparently my lack of honesty in this person's mind centered around my withholding the knowledge that we can change our secretor status with color therapy.

Note: I used quite a bit of material from the Wikipedia for his blog. Paradoxically, Wikipedia features one of the more pseudoskeptic representations on the BTD to be found. But hey, I still love it.

A fast food advertiser in the yearbook kept me waiting for 45 minutes to pick up a check and ad copy. While I waited I watched onion rings, French fries, and chicken nuggets bubbling in a vat of fat. I was glad to get out of there and return to the subject of the best neutrals.

My favorite health food market was handing out a brochure on "Superfoods". Whenever they recommend an avoid, I ignore their advice. But I was interested in what neutrals they considered as nutrition packed.

Legumes - which the guide says provides an excellent source of hearty low-fat plant protein. Hmmm seems like I read almost those same words under Legumes in the Type A Food List. They recommend dried beans, edamame, and fresh green beans. I had to look edamame up on Google to find out it was a fancy name for soy beans. I had practically stopped eating soy while I was unsure of my secretor status. Now that I know soy is neutral, I should at least add soy powder back to my repertoire. I wish I were better at picking good quality fresh green beans. I seem to get the stringy ones when I buy fresh, so I usually go for canned.

Nuts - are recommended for protein and heart health. Specifically recommended are almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, and walnuts. Walnuts are beneficial and I eat them often; Brazil nuts are avoid and I haven't eaten them since I started the BTD. I do enjoy both almonds and pecans.

Oats - they recommend for fiber and energy. Because oats are beneficial for As, I frequently cook with oat flour. I just don't eat much grain - but when I eat grain it's usually oats or rye.

Olives and olive oil. Black olives are avoid; green olives are neutral. Unfortunately in my pre-BTD days I preferred black. All olives that I see for sale are soaking in vinegar which is avoid for As and Os. I guess I will stick with the beneficial olive oil unless I happen upon some fresh green olives.

Omega Fish - recommended for omega-3 fatty acids. They specifically name salmon, tuna, trout, and sardines. In this category, I prefer the neutrals: salmon, tuna, and sardines. Trout, the beneficial on the list, has too many bones and is too much work. I suppose I should remind myself of recent posts on the Forum about slow chewing and consider trout as having the added benefit of reducing the speed at which I eat.

Orange Veggies -are superfoods because of the carotenoids. Recommended are pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and yams. I eat and enjoy them all both the beneficials and the neutrals. One of the reasons I rebel when someone suggests that compliance should mean eating 80% beneficials is that I would miss carrots and butternut squash so much. I'm always relieved when Dr. D. steps in and clarifies that compliance is 80% beneficials AND neutrals.

Twelve superfoods down, seven more to go.

The checker at my health food market put a flyer in my grocery bag entitled "Superfoods, a guide to nutrition packed foods." It listed 20 categories of foods that "contain a high nutrient density when compared to the amount of calories." Of course, the BTD food lists trump all other lists. But I read the brochure with the idea of choosing better neutrals.

One of the first statements I read from Dr. D'Adamo was that "For you some foods will act like medicine (beneficials) some foods will act like poison (avoids) and some foods will act like food (neutrals.) I expected that the brochure would have some Type O avoids listed as "superfoods." That part of their advice I would ignore. What I wanted to know was which neutrals have the most vitamins, minerals and phyto-nutrients that my body needs as food.

Berries - They recommend blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Blueberries are beneficial and blackberries are avoid. I can seek out cranberries, raspberries and strawberries before I turn to other neutral berries or colorless neutral fruit like pears.

Citrus - Oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, lemons, and limes are recommended for their antioxidants and vitamin C. Oranges and tangerines are avoids. I drink grapefruit juice once a week. I ought to use more lemons and limes, especially since lemons are beneficial for my Type As.

Cruciferous vegetables - Broccoli, kale, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts are recommended for sulforaphanes and antioxidants. Broccoli is beneficial and I eat it 2-3 times a week. Kale is likewise beneficial and I eat it once a month. Cabbage and Brussels sprouts are neutrals that I should probably add to my vegetable list.

Eggs - These are listed as a superfood for several reasons including selenium and two micro-nutrients that reduce free radical damage. For the first 16 years of her life, my daughter refused to eat eggs. She does not like things that feel mushy in her mouth. But she has discovered omelets, so we have started eating more neutral eggs.

Green foods - They list wheat grass, spirulina, chlorella, and barley grass as particularly helpful for nerves and tissues. None of these foods are in the TypeBase, but Heidi's column treats them as neutral for Type O. This is a group of foods I have completely neglected. I think I have a jar of a wheat grass & barley grass drink mix in the back of my pantry. I need to remember this when I want a quick snack late in the afternoon.

Green leafy vegetables - Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, bok choy, and collards are recommended for many vitamins and minerals. Of their list, 5 are Type O beneficials that I eat regularly. I've eaten the neutral bok choy in oriental restaurants, but have only fixed it once myself. Here is another neutral that I need to eat more often.

I'm only a third of the way through the list. I'll pick up where I left off in my next blog.

I can tell by his AIM away message that our son has safely arrived back at college. The week of spring break went by way too fast. I sent him back to school with leftover leg of lamb and a reminder that he can fix sweet potatoes quickly and easily in the microwave.

I cooked mostly old favorites this week, but I did try one new recipe. I saw the headline Cherry Oatmeal Muffins in a magazine. It sounded like it might be a beneficial breakfast for As. I made several Blood Type Diet adjustments to eliminate avoids for both Os and As. Everyone enjoyed them.

1 cup rolled oats

1 ½ cups spelt or rye flour

1/3 cup ground flax seed

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 1/3 cups soy milk

3 Tbsp light olive oil

1 egg

6 oz package dried cherries

Chop the cherries into small pieces. Mix with the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl lightly beat the egg with the other wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined. Pour into muffin cups and bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

My son is devouring vegetables this week during Spring Break. I like it when I see him go back for seconds on asparagus.

He is sharing an apartment with three friends. At first the guys tried eating together, but they were on such different schedules that they gave up on that idea pretty quickly. They each buy their own food and eat when they want to.

Our son says he usually cooks meat, like chicken or beef patties. He eats them with fresh fruit. He doesn't eat as many sandwiches as he used to. I'm happy about this; I was concerned that he was eating too much bread for a Type O. We bought him a meal card so that he could eat one meal a day in the school cafeteria. This is where he gets the vegetables he doesn't have time to fix in the apartment.

His first two years away at college, this was an ideal arrangement. When I went for orientation, I was impressed with the variety of vegetables. He says that this year things have changed. The salad bar still has an abundance of fresh veggies. But he says that sometimes he goes for a week without seeing anything but corn and green beans on the serving line. "When they have carrots, I get as many as I can," he told me.

As unfortunate as this is, I can easily imagine why the change was made. The food service people were probably tired of throwing out vegetables that were snubbed by modern young people in search of pasta, fancy sandwiches and fries.

My daughter's class had a rummage sale Saturday at our house to raise money for the trip they hope to take their senior year.

I went through our house, looking for things I could donate. After my first year on the Blood Type Diet I had lost two sizes in pants and dresses. I believe I blogged at the time about how much fun it was to shop for new clothes. After my shopping spree, I put all of my old clothes in bags to give to the Salvation Army. But I got cold feet. There was a nagging doubt that perhaps the BTD wouldn't work long term. What if I regained the weight, and had to buy new clothes again? At the last minute, I retrieved a pair of jeans and 4 pairs of pants. I stashed them in a drawer, just in case. All of those big pants came out of the drawer and were donated to the rummage sale. There is no longer any doubt about the long-term results of the BTD. Those two sizes are gone for good!

I fixed breakfast for the kids - juice, toast, and muffins. They enjoyed the muffins and asked questions about the Ezekiel bread. However by late afternoon they were tired and hungry. One girl said, "Mrs. Graham do you have any junk food like chips or ice cream." I didn't have to think long before saying "No, I have fruit and crackers, but no junk food." They were disappointed and shocked; they looked at my daughter with pity. To live in a house without junk food was incomprehensible.

Since it is spring break, there were several other garage sales in our neighborhood. After everything was set up I jumped on my bicycle to check out the competition and to see if there was anything for sale that I needed. It was a gorgeous day, and I rode for close to two hours. I was tired when I got back home, but it was a good Type O kind of tired.

Whew! This has been a busy week. But all deadlines were met. The school newspaper went out before Spring Break. The first 25% of our yearbook pages are on the way to the publisher. My 3rd quarter grades have been turned in.

Two little things yesterday made me think of the Blood Type Diet.

In Chapel the school honored my yearbook staff for the national award they received. I don't usually go to chapel because it is in the morning and I teach in the afternoon. Yesterday they showed a video on guilt that dealt with issues teenagers face. One illustration applied to both the spiritual and health realms.

The speaker said to imagine that you were driving a brand new car. There was a shortcut, but you were warned that it was a terrible road and that it would tear up your car. You take the shortcut anyway, and sure enough it is very rough and bumpy, but you make it. You say, "That wasn't so bad." So from time to time you take the shortcut. Every time you do it shakes and rattles your car. The damage accumulates, and one day you realize your once new car is falling apart.

Guilt is like that, the speaker said. You know that something you want to do is against God's law. You do it anyway, and you feel guilty, but you squash the guilt by saying, "It wan't so bad." Each time you repeat the choice, the guilt voice grows fainter. But one day you realize that area of your life is falling apart and you don't know how to get it back together again.

The application to the BTD is pretty obvious. You get off to a good start on the diet. You feel better, you look great, life is good. Then you get tired of the discipline, or you think of the things you used to eat. You know you shouldn't, but you eat an avoid. It's not that bad, perhaps it doesn't seem to make any difference. You let old favorite foods creep back into your diet. One day you realize your pants are too tight and you have no energy. Fortunately our bodies (unlike a car) can heal and regenerate.

The second event that made me think of the BTD occurred when I was in the workroom printing the newspaper. The juniors had a bake sale. After the lunch periods were over, they brought their remaining inventory to the office. One of the secretaries came into the workroom to urge me to come buy a dessert. I said, "They probably don't have anything I can eat." She began to list all of the goodies. "The problem is that I don't eat wheat," I said.

She looked at me and said, "You don't eat wheat. No wonder you look awesome."

I have yearbook and newspaper deadlines at school this week, so time is in short supply. But I have to tell you about two really good taste combinations.

I have not had time to get to the grocery store, so this morning I found myself out of bananas. One of the foundations of my morning fruit and nut mix is a banana. Bananas are beneficial, they give my breakfast mix a creamy texture and they blend well with other fruits. But this morning I had to come up with a substitute. There weren't many choices - the refrigerator was about empty.

I had a mango and a few frozen cherries. I chopped up half of the mango and added it with the cherries to the nuts, rice bran, lecithin and nutritional yeast. It was delicious. Cherry/Mango is a winner.

Our yearbook won honorable mention in a national contest. The publisher had a luncheon for the winning yearbook advisers and their principals from our part of the state. I ordered a skewer that had beef, chicken, shrimp, onions, and peppers. It was served on rice with ghee. There was also a side dish called pineapple pesto.

I'm suspicious of pestos because they usually have raw onions, which I don't like at all. In this pesto the pineapple chunks were large enough to spear with a fork. I took a taste, avoiding the onions. What a surprise! It was seasoned with fresh cilantro. I would never have mixed pineapple and cilantro, but it was delightful together.

Someone wrote this week that they liked it when I blogged about my problems. Hmmm, I like it a lot better when I blog about my success! However, I did rebel against discipline last week. I will confess what I did and what I learned from it.

The rebellion had its roots in homeostasis and too much salad. Homeostasis - as helping a sophomore study biology has reminded me - is the body's way of returning to normal. Most of the time this is a good and valuable process. However it is part of what makes losing weight difficult. Your body becomes accustomed to weighing a certain amount. You exercise more or eat less and begin to shed pounds. Homeostasis kicks in and your body tries to get back to "normal". I had lost a couple of pounds, and last weekend my body decided it was time to put them back on.

Why last weekend? We were traveling, and that meant I ate a lot of salad. At most restaurants, a salad with chicken or beef is the simplest order for an O. When we are on vacation, we picnic one meal a day, and I have vegetables. We eat one meal out, and I have salad. But this was a quick 3-day trip and we ate out every meal. I had LOTS of salad! I just didn't feel full. So I started eating dried fruit and nuts. I can blame homeostasis. I can blame my sin nature. But once I started, I didn't stop.

Having succumbed to rebellion, I stayed up too late two nights in a row. Since the first of the year I have made an effort to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. But last week I turned my back on the clock. If I had stayed up doing something worthwhile, that would have been one thing. But I just wasted the time.

By mid-week I was mentally and physically sluggish. It was time to fight my way out of the hole I had dug for myself. I got myself to bed early! I ate extra vegetables so I was full of beneficials. Yesterday I was better, and today approaches normal

The best thing I learned is how far I have come.

When I was a nutritionally ignorant teen - undisciplined eating meant a pint of ice cream or multiple donuts.

When I was a health nut - undisciplined eating meant a half a box of whole grain crackers, a big bowl of stone ground chips, or two slices of carrot cake.

Last week undisciplined eating meant too many nuts, too many portions of fruit, and too much sugar. I didn't eat avoids (not even wheat!). I pigged out on neutrals.

The other thing I learned is how quickly I can bounce back. Once I came to myself, recovery was swift.

I will continue to pursue a disciplined life physically and spiritually. I have no illusions that I will ever be perfect. There will be periods of undisciplined rebellion. If they are brief and within reasonable bounds, I will be moving in the right direction.

Someone wrote to me asking how I incorporated vegetables into my meals. I thought I'd share my answer in today's blog.

My goal is at least 10 fruits and vegetables a day. I eat 2-3 fruits for breakfast. I have a snack mid afternoon that is either nuts & dried fruit, manna bread or carrots & nut butter. That means 7 or more vegetables divided between lunch and dinner.

I try to think in terms of color for vegetables - mixing greens and orange. I have cooked greens almost every day - usually at lunch. With the cooked greens I eat a higher carbohydrate vegetable like pumpkin, sweet potato, or butternut squash. I frequently grill an onion to mix with the greens (especially collards or kale) or top off my meat (especially hamburger patties or liver)

At dinner I serve salad, because my Type As prefer raw greens to cooked. I can work a lot of vegetables into a salad! In addition I usually have a grain and a legume for the Type As, plus another cooked vegetable (broccoli, jicama, carrots). I usually eat the legume, but rarely eat the grain.

As far as choosing vegetables, I wander the produce isle looking for two things: what is on sale and what haven't I had lately.

I like mixing flavors of vegetables, but sometimes I'm embarrassed to blog about my combinations. My family turns up their noses at a lot of my mixtures, so I'm afraid the things I like might gross out my readers. For instance green peas, grilled onions, and grated raw carrot taste great to me with ground beef and seasoned salt. I really like collard greens mixed with leftover legumes. The other day I had broccoli, seaweed, onions and sardines. It smelled terrible, but tasted good.

While we were out of town, we were introduced to a young lady. I knew that she had an interest in the Blood Type Diet, but had never read the books. I wanted to take her a book - the question was, which one?

I think "Eat Right 4 Your Type" is the easiest to read, however the food lists have changed substantially in the years since it was published.

"Live Right 4 Your Type" includes an explanation of secretor status, but the tiered food lists are confusing. It is useful to know that faced with the choice of corn or potatoes, that corn is a more serious avoid. In the same way, if I'm choosing between spinach and broccoli, spinach is a more beneficial beneficial. But even I can't keep all of the tiers straight in my memory. Beneficial, neutral, and avoid are enough categories for someone new.

The food lists in the Encyclopedia are up to date. The disease protocols are a great reference tool. But the background information is shortened, and a beginner could get the idea that the BTD is more about supplements than it is about food and exercise.

I solved my dilemma by taking the "Type A Food Beverage and Supplement List." The lists are almost as up to date as the website. The background explanation covers the basics and is easy to understand. The chart summarizing strengths, weaknesses, exercise etc. is great for quick reference.

I found out the next day that she read the entire book before she went to sleep that night. I think my choice of a first book was exactly right. For second I'd go with ER4YT.