Everybody in America knows about low fat diets and low carb diets. A frightening number of people know about grapefruit diets, chocolate diets, and other fad diets. But the Blood Type Diet is misunderstood. I'm just waiting for someone to ask, "Duh, what kind of blood do you eat anyway."

The back to school teacher dinner was a perfect example. This year it was at a gourmet hamburger restaurant in an upscale new shopping center. I received a menu the week before and had to place our order. My husband immediately chose the crab burger. He knows it's Type A avoid, but he loves it. I had to choose between a 1/3 pound hamburger that came with chips, or a spinach and chicken salad. The meat in the burger was natural Angus, but if I didn't eat the bun or the chips, it would be a slim meal. The salad came with portabella mushrooms and some other veggies that sounded good. That's what I picked.

When my salad arrived I was aghast. It was tiny. To my way of thinking it was a pre-dinner salad. There wasn't even half of a chicken breast in it. I sighed and realized I'd have to eat again when I got home. I looked at the huge burgers and wished I'd ordered that instead. However the salad was delicious - very flavorful.

The wait staff began bringing baskets for all of the burger eaters. Someone at my table took a taste and said, "Oh, these are sweet potato fries. I've always wanted to try them." My mouth began to water, until I began to realize that everyone had a basket except the two of us eating salads. When a waiter walked by with an extra basket I grabbed it. Everyone looked at me in puzzlement.

What was the point in my eating a salad if I was going to eat sweet potato fries? I got questions about why I was trying to lose weight when I didn't need to. I had people remind me that the fries were loaded with carbs and fat. I tried to explain that I wasn't on a diet and that I ate lots of carbs, but I didn't eat wheat. I got the deer-in-the-headlight eyes.

I did my best to explain that a Type O diet is not low fat, neither is it low carb. Someone said, "I couldn't eat like that." I thought about saying, "You shouldn't eat like this unless you are a Type O. But I decided I'd rather enjoy my salad and fries and let the conversation turn to a more understandable topic.