My Darling Daughter and I went to the grocery store with a list of foods that are beneficial for both Hunters and Teachers. I wrote last summer how pleased I was with the grocery store where we now live. Again on this shopping trip I was amazed at how many unusual foods they routinely carry. When we checked out, the cashier asked if I had found everything I was looking for. I answered, "I did remarkably well, considering I had some pretty weird items on my shopping list." She smiled and said, "People in this community are interested in health and we try to keep them happy."

We bought mustard greens and ate them over the weekend. I had mine cooked, DD mixed hers raw with a salad. Both of us liked them. I liked the flavor better than collard greens. She thought the raw greens tasted "sort of minty."

I liked the pine nuts better than she did. It wasn't that she thought they tasted bad. She just didn't think they measured up to other beneficial Teacher nuts like walnuts, pecans or peanuts. They reminded me of macadamia nuts which I have avoided for so long that I may not remember them correctly. But I will be happy to eat the pine nuts by myself.

We're going to have the escarole tonight for dinner with roasted turkey.

We bought currants, which are super beneficial for her and neutral for me. I had expected to find currants as a seasonal Christmas item, but my store carries them year round - and for a reasonable price. Since raisins are toxic for both of us, I expect we will be putting currants in our trail mix.

We bought Romano cheese, which we put in a salad with black beans. Both of us liked it a lot. We also bought a rutabaga, which I am still a little scared of. Maybe tomorrow for the rutabaga.

The produce manager says that they carry quince and passion fruit, but only in the summer. We saw persimmons, guava, and pomegranates, but we couldn't remember how they were classified. It turns out guava is good for me and persimmon is good for DD. We can buy those two on our next shipping trip, but pomegranates are bad for us both.

These are all new foods to us. I'm hoping some of them will become surprise GTD favorites the way parsnips and kohlrabi did when I started the BTD.

I don't think I've mentioned that my Bible study this year is a plan to read the Bible through in one year coupled with readings by C.S. Lewis. It seemed appropriate because the second movie from the Chronicles of Narnia series is due out this year. This morning I read this quote, "Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end, despair.

That perfectly describes where I am with regard to the BTD and the GTD. I am looking for the truth about the way my body works. I am hopeful that in the end I will find a style of eating that I am comfortable with.

I took my Darling Daughter's database of the Hunter and Teacher foods and shortened it to a more manageable length by deleting food items that, while they may be beneficial, are not available where I live. Pepeao, ground cherry, ocean pout, and Manchego cheese were a few of the unfortunate beneficals that I may never get to try unless I vacation in the right place at the right season of the year. I thought "ocean pout" was a typographical error until I googled it. Fascinating fish! Those edited lists are posted on the refrigerator door.

DD and I also pulled portion sizes and weekly servings off the food lists and posted them on the refrigerator door. The portion sizes are the same for Hunters and Teachers, but the weekly servings are quite different.

It will take a few weeks before I can prepare a meal without referring to those lists multiple times. This morning it took several trips to the refrigerator door before we got breakfasts and lunches planned. I'm going to fix quinoa for dinner tonight, and DD was taking salmon and veggies to school for lunch. That meant she and my husband could have the zucchini bread I made with spelt and oat flour for her breakfast. I had nuts and fruit because spelt is toxic to Hunters.

I'm concerned that my mind will automatically default back to the old lists, so I'm double checking everything. Even things I think I know. I had mango and papaya mixed up this morning. The mango is only for me and the papaya is only for her. But I will get comfortable with this. You will too if you are seeking the truth.

Don't neglect to spend a little time today looking for the truth about God. While the idea of God as an indulgent grandfather may be comfortable, it is nothing like the Creator God who is to be found in the pages of scripture by those who seek him.

I've griped quite a bit lately, but I really am trying to understand the new GenoType system. I started searching through Dr. Ds blogs preceding the book release and his posts on both forums in recent weeks. Of all I've read, here is the exchange that I've found most clarifying.

COMMENT ON FORUM: The differences between the two diets are deeper than I expected. Type O Gatherers can have whey protein. Type B of all genotype have milk as toxin. One of these diets will prevail and one of them will die. Because they can't both be true.

DR. D. RESPONDS: Yes they can, because they are essentially two different diet systems. It is not accurate to consider the GTD the further elaboration of the BTD; any more than you can consider baseball the further development of cricket, or American football the latest version of rugby. The BTD is the BTD, and the GTD is the GTD. They have different rules (which is why it is of almost no use whatsoever to compare them point by point (or in the case of the diets, food by food). If you have a hard time getting your brain wrapped around that, you can imagine that they are two books written by two different authors, using two different systems. You can employ one in lieu of the other, or take elements from both. You can also throw up your hands and walk away. But one thing you cannot do is perfectly reconcile them to each other. If you could do that for one, there would be no need for the other.

FOLLOW UP COMMENT ON FORUM: I read a few times on the board that the GTD is supposed to be a refinement of the BTD. It did not make sense to me because the foods - for example for the 0-Nonsecretor - are quite different. So it is basically up to the individual to choose which system (BTD or GTD) is better for her/him. I, for example, have lots more pain on the GTD, so I am not continuing with it.

DR. D. RESPONDS: You're doing exactly what I think is the best approach. Try all things, hold on to that which works.

BACK TO SUZANNE'S BLOG: So when I found the BTD 5 years ago, it was my misconception that blood type was the best predictor of what diet style would be best for both health and weight loss. Blood type is one method and genotype is another equally valid method. I have to try both and decide what works for me.

At 54 years old this is a little scary. I know how I feel day to day, but I don't always know what is going on at the cellular level. Are there dangers developing that I would be unaware of until they are full blown problems? I don't have a lot of time to experiment about what diet will help me age the best.

Dr. D uses the games of baseball, cricket, football and rugby as examples. As long as the word "toxin" is used, I feel more like I'm playing Russian roulette.

I will be eagerly watching for Dr. D's explanation about why foods are rated as they are on the GTD. The Encyclopedia and TYPEBase4 do that for the BTD. I hope that similar information is quickly forthcoming about the GTD. Lettuce as a toxin for Hunters and Teachers is a big concern.

Even without understanding all the "whys" my Darling Daughter and I have agreed to stop comparing the two diets. I feel like I have been extremely successful on the Type O diet. But I have to admit there have been a couple of areas of concern. (More about that in future blogs - this one is getting way too long.) DD thinks that she has gained weight too easily on the Type A diet. We are both going to go with the GenoType diet. We'll stay with it until we draw a conclusion. I may go back to Type O. I might even give the Gatherer Diet a try since the distinction between Hunter and Gatherer in my case is such a teeny tiny finger measurement.

If I'm interpreting Dr. D correctly, any of the choices might be correct. I may even decide to come up with my own combination. I have to figure out what is best for me.

Suzanne's Darling Daughter writes her first blog.

I first heard about the Genotype Diet last week. I was extremely excited to discover my genotype and see my new and improved food list. After studying the Teacher food list, I changed my mind and decided that I wanted nothing to with the diet that took away my yummy leafy greens. However, I decided to give the GTD a chance and look at the food lists with a little more open-mindedness.

I have now been eating according to the Teacher GTD for about five days. My Mom suggested I write a blog about how I was adjusting.

Although I am happy that turkey is now Super Beneficial, it is hard to find turkey when dining out (except for a turkey sandwich, which must be disassembled in order to be beneficial). I always relied on chicken as my main dish in restaurants. Besides fish and side veggies, there really is nothing very good for me to eat at most restaurants. When I can find fish, it is usually catfish, shrimp (both avoids), or salmon (beneficial, but outrageously priced). Of the four restaurants my boyfriend and I dined at this past weekend, I found tilapia (beneficial and reasonably priced) only at one.

I immediately noticed that soymilk was a Limited Avoid. For the past five years, my morning has begun with a soymilk protein shake. I was completely devastated and had no idea what I would eat for breakfast. My mother and I took a trip to the health food store and noticed that almond milk was on sale. We decided to give it a whirl. To my great surprise (and satisfaction) it was remarkably tasty. I have had it three mornings so far. Compared to soymilk, the almond milk improves the protein shake texture. I have not had it enough to say whether I like it more or less than soymilk, but I do like it. I had planned to take soymilk, soy powder, and a shaker cup with me to college next year. Because almond milk is so expensive, I will have to make it every night in a high-power blender. This won't be too bad at home, but it will be hard with a community bathroom at school.

As a little girl, I naturally gravitated towards salad and greens. Waiters would give my mother the strangest looks as her 3-year old asked for a side salad instead of a kid's meal. According to the BTD, this wasn't strange, just my natural "A-ishness." On the GTD, most leafy greens are toxins and should be avoided. I do not understand how something that my body and the BTD has told me for years is so beneficial, now suddenly, because my torso is longer than my legs, can be a toxin. As I visited colleges this past year, the dining hall was a huge factor for my decision. Which college would best accommodate my BTD eating habits? I picked a college that had a grilled chicken bar and a salad bar (made up mainly of iceberg/spinach). On the GTD, finding beneficial food to eat in the dorm is going to be VERY challenging.

I am enjoying the different cheeses that I am now allowed to eat.

When I first read over the Teacher food list, the lack of fruits infuriated me. Although I still miss all the formerly beneficial fruits terribly, I am really enjoying some the new fruits like kiwi and papaya. On the BTD, I was always mad that I couldn't eat papaya (another childhood favorite).

Overall, although I really like many aspects of the GTD, my brow crinkles when I think about eating in the dorm next year. The BTD had lots of common foods that were beneficial or neutral for type As (lettuce, apples, celery, cucumbers, etc.). Most of the beneficial Teacher foods are not so common. While living at home and being able to prepare food myself, I think that this diet will be good. However, the chances of finding mahi-mahi, ghee, provolone cheese, adzuki beans, escarole, kiwi, and quince in the dining hall are not very good.

I have measured my husband and daughter. Both of them are Teachers. So I am still outnumbered 2-1.

Neither of them really fit any of the genotype profiles for people with blood type A. When my daughter measured as a teacher, I thought for sure my husband would be a warrior. His body type is radically different from hers. But the calculator was adamant that they were the same. I'm glad really, it will make my life less complicated to only deal with two food lists.

I wish I could recreate for you my husband's comments as I measured him. He mocked the process every step of the way. Five years ago he was suspicious about whether his blood type really had anything to do with how he should eat. I gradually won him over. Now his suspicions are back. He thinks measuring fingers is…well…absurd is one of the kinder terms he used.

However he has always hated chicken and loved cabbage. When I tell him that chicken has changed to avoid and cabbage to beneficial, he may be happy. Of course he may also be really angry that Dr. D had him eating chicken for 5 years and it turned out to be wrong.

I will measure my son on his next holiday. I don't expect him to be interested in the fine points of the genotype diet at this stage of his life. He follows a general Type O diet with as much meat as possible and as many vegetables as he can find time to cook in between a heavy load of classes and labs.

My daughter took all 6 genotype food lists and compiled them in an Excel Database. Everything is hidden except Hunter and Teacher. That way we can quickly see what we can eat in our family. If we have guests, we can unhide whatever food list we need.

I'll admit there are a lot of things I do not understand. For 5 years collard greens were beneficial and mustard greens were avoid. Now collard greens are avoid and mustard greens are super beneficial. I hope that Dr. D will start a series of blogs explaining why some of the foods changed so radically. I hope that I did not do my body any harm by eating wrong for my type for five years.

Our 31st wedding anniversary came during the holidays. Our son was coming home. Our daughter was having finals. We were in and out of town. The days and nights were really busy. One night we started off to do two errands. We planned to have a quiet anniversary dinner afterwards. The two errands took longer than expected, and one of them got us both a bit agitated. The mood was not right for a romantic dinner. So we put off celebrating our anniversary until after the New Year.

My Honorable Husband - he really is honorable by the way. I blew out a tire on the way to work today. Shredded it. Picture a cartoon character after a TNT explosion. But HH keeps the spare tire filled, and he keeps our AAA coverage up to date. I didn't have to struggle with lug nuts in the cold rain. See why I love him. But I have digressed.

My Honorable Husband said he was taking me out last night, and he wanted me to pick the restaurant. I chose Outback Steakhouse. I picked it for several reasons. I can cook beef in a lot of tasty ways, but I can't cook a steak in my oven that compares with a steakhouse steak. But most steakhouses serve their steak with salad and baked potato. Outback has vegetables. It also has fish entrees, so HH wouldn't be left eating something he didn't like for dinner.

At the risk of another digression, it has always interested me that HH never really liked steak. Long before I heard of the blood type diet, when we would go out to eat, I would order steak and he would order seafood.

With my steak I chose a baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli. It was delicious. HH had grilled stuffed redfish and broccoli. If we had stopped there, we would have had a very beneficial meal. But HH wanted a dessert. "We used to share a piece of cheesecake on our anniversary," he complained. I answered that a dessert would be fine, but not cheesecake. I think my cheesecake far surpasses restaurant cheesecake. I made it for our son at Christmas, and the memory was still too fresh. We shared an apple cobbler instead. It was really good - way too much sugar, of course, but really good.

Twelve years ago when I was writing Eat Right For Your Type I used to Google (although there was no actual Google at the time; I used Excite) the phrases personalized medicine and personalized nutrition. At the time there were virtually no references. Now they number in the tens of thousands. However, Eat Right For Your Type was among the first books to ever use this concept.

With the The GenoType Diet, I've been instead googling the phrase Intergenerational Medicine and seeing about as much. Mark my words: in ten years you will see this phrase also appearing in the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

I often quote these citations when I lecture. Of course it would be most interesting to eventually learn what the author of the last abstract might consider an enriching experience.

Environmental influences can be inherited even without any mutations in the genes themselves. If genetic mutations are ‘typos' and relatively easy to test for, epigenetic changes are analogous to the formatting of the text (e.g. font, size, and color) and are much less well understood.

• Montague T. A New Way to Inherit Environmental Harm. Synthesis/Regeneration 39 (Winter 2006)

Mother rats exposed to hormone-mimicking chemicals during pregnancy gave birth to four successive generations of male offspring with significantly reduced fertility. Only the first generation of mothers was exposed to a toxin, yet four generations later the toxic effect could still be detected .

• M. Anway, A. Cupp, M. Uzumcu, and M. Skinner, Epigenetic Transgenerational Actions of Endocrine Disruptors and Male Fertility, Science Vol. 308, June 3, 2005, pp. 1466–1469.

Conceivably the cancer you may get today may have been caused by your grandmother's exposure to an industrial poison 50 years ago, even though your grandmother's genes were not changed by the exposure… or the mercury you're eating today in fish may not harm you directly, but may harm your grandchildren. These inherited traits can continue to influence the onset of diseases like diabetes, obesity, mental illness and heart disease, from generation to generation.

• Montague T. A New Way to Inherit Environmental Harm. Synthesis/Regeneration 39 (Winter 2006)

Global decrease in methylation levels is commonly observed in aging cells, as well as in neoplasia (early event.) The causes of this hypomethylation are not known. Contributes to chromosomal instability in cancer and to increased expression of selected affected genes. Unlike defective genes, which are damaged for life, methylated genes can be demethylated. And, methyl tags that are knocked off can be regained via nutrients, drugs, and enriching experiences.

• Asim K. Duttaroy Evolution, Epigenetics, and Maternal Nutrition 2006 Darwin Day Celebration.

Last night I gave a second lecture at the Wilton Library. This was sponsored by the library and open to the general public, so I was surprised and pleased to see standing room only. Despite the fact that I wasn't exactly feeling all that terrific (exhaustion from doing 17 radio interviews the day before and perhaps a bit of food poisoning as well) I gave what I think was one of my best lectures ever. Funny how all the fatigue, aches and pains disappear in me when it's time to talk about this material. Expression really is the best medicine. Signed a lot of books, which were supplied by the local town book shoppe, who sold out their stock. This is a really good thing since Wilton is one of the few towns that still has a local bookseller, versus most towns with their B&Ns and Borders, who have taken over the industry.

Random House has made available a small number of signed first editions of The GenoType Diet. You can read more about it here. They cost a bit more than the jacket price of the book, but I will be donating any of my royalties to a wonderful charity in Africa that helps women develop entrepreneurial skills. Teach an person to fish.. and all that.

Yesterday featured an interesting day of sorts. The amazon.com 'Health Bestsellers' featured 5 books that I have written as part of their top 25 bestselling health books. Cool.

Got a very nice note from Professor Gerhard Uhlenbruck, who had received his copy of The GenoType Diet. The good professor (the only scientist I have meet who has read Emil Cioran) shared these thoughts:

When I worked in the earlier sixties at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, my famous teacher, Prof. Dr. W.T.J. Morgan, who elucidated the biochemical structure of the ABH(O) and Lewis blood group antigens, used to say at various occasions: "Its all in the genes!". In fact, having experience in more than 50 years in clinical science and immunochemical research, I was so often confronted with this sentence, that it became a credo to me with the value of a proverb, which explained so many phenomena of patients and their very different reactivity to the susceptibility of illnesses, chronic diseases and early aging processes. When I first heard of Peter D'Adamo's blood group diet, of course I was very skeptical: Should we have missed in our book (Prokop/ Uhlenbruck: Human Blood and Serum Groups) such an important aspect? But years later, my interest switched to the nutritional field while working on the so-called Metabolic Syndrome, my interest increased in studying the role of genes in metabolic processes. I found out, that Peter D'Adamo's blood group orientated diet could probably be a first step in the right direction, however it could not be the whole story.

So I was not surprised at all, when now a book on The Genotype Diet by him was published as a next step in this new area. And I am sure it will not be the last one by him, as the role of genes and a subsequent personal, individual view of illness, diseases and health, including aging problems, has widened the approach of medical treatment, lifestyle change and a healthy nutrition.. We all live driven by our genes, sometimes feeling to suffer under their government,, and sometimes having the wish to change over our genetic outfit, to jump over the hurdle of genes or to influence their expression. Fat is not fate! I can confirm Peter D'Adamo in so far, as I have own experience in sport medicine, exercise immunology and in treating the Metabolic Syndrome.

According to the vision of D'Adamo, it seems also to me, that we can switch on the "good genes" and turn off the bad ones. In this context we must keep in mind that more than fifty percent of all illnesses are due to an inadequate nutrition. We know now much about anti-aging genes, which can be influenced by lifestyle (exercise) or by nutrition (as a curious example the action of red winew has been investigated). Looking on Peter D'Adamo's six Genotypes, being a medical doctor too, I must admit and I am a little bit amused, that one has so often met such types in the general medical practice. In any case, the book of D'Adamo is very stimulating, full of new ideas and creative concepts. Of course it will rise criticism and controversy, but at least I have observed, that people are very faithful to these diet suggestions, much more than to other diet programs: Who heals is right?

The sentence "Its all in the genes" has to be enlarged in that way that "its all in genes we ca influence". In this respect, Peter D'Adamo's approach is very optimistic, but this may be good in order to motivate people. To alter the genetic destiny is an old dream of mankind. What can be done in this direction, is limited but very understandably outlined in this book, written in a fascinating language and produced with many pictures and tables. It demonstrates also the profound knowledge of the author, its not a superficial "quicky", but with the aim not to become something like a dogmatic "bible", but a guidance book: Health as a creative process by activating personal thoughts and ideas about a longer healthy life, which is not permanent under the threat of disease. Life-style change means a revolution in the
personal life history.

We generally have the freedom to decide on our health. This book is showing a way, walking this way we must do alone, personally, guided by the genes we activate or suppress. Let me put it together: A person can keep healthy, fit and wise, by doing his diet and daily exercise! What motivates him maybe modified individually and in future. So I can recommend this book of my colleague as a start for a personal, individual life-style change. And
for that it is never too late.

What I so like about this guy (and surprisingly for an academic) is that he understands that there is a bigger game to be played, a greater goal to be achieved, in writing books such as the GTD than just winning some sort of nebulous intellectual argument between scholars. That is important too, but more often than not it is also irrelevant.

Who heals is right. Gotta love that.

The more I read about Gatherers, the more agitated I became, and the less I identified with them. No offense Gatherers, you guys are sweet and I love you, but I'm not one of you. I decided to go back and watch the videos again, remeasuring as I went.

When I got to the finger part, the video shows measuring from the top of the hand. But the voice says "measure from the crease". What crease? I turned my hand over. There was a crease. I looked at my hands and noticed for the first time that I have a moderate amount of webbing. Someone on the Forum had mentioned webbing as a problem with finger measurements.

I measured again, this time in millimeters instead of inches. I put the new numbers in the calculator and held my breath. I am a Hunter! I looked at the description. It's ME!! Allergies and inability to sit still and all! I looked at the food lists. It's the good old Type O Diet.

I'm happy again. If anything the adrenaline high I've been on for the past two days reconfirms my Hunter status. I guess I better eat super beneficials today!

A couple of observations:

If you really don't feel right about your genotype, watch the videos again. Measure again. Trust yourself.

The GTD is going to be harder to explain to people than the BTD. However when I read in the Gatherer characteristics that they are often non secretors, things began to make a little more sense. I'm thinking of a particular Type O friend who is sweet and well padded and who has never quite identified with the Type O diet.

There are changes and conflicts between the two programs. I need to have a bigger picture of how the two diets fit together. For a while there I thought that Dr. D was throwing out the BTD for a whole new system. Now it's looking more like he is trying to fit exceptions (non secretors and others who didn't quite fit the basic 4 types) into categories that suit them better.

For now, I'm a Happy Hunter, and I'm going to study my food lists - after I do a cardio workout.

I copied the food lists off the genotypediet.com website. I'm putting them into a format that I can more easily use, and I'm studying the changes. There is lots of interesting information, and in the next few days I'll write about how those changes will affect my lifestyle. But today I'm going to point out two big problems I see with the Genotype Diet.

First is the issue of confidence. I have blogged from time to time about how excited I was when, at 23 years old, I read my first book on nutrition. I made radical changes in my eating habits, and saw positive results. But as I read more, I realized that nutritionists didn't agree on anything. Some were low carb; some were low fat. Some focused on vitamins; some focused on herbs. Some said everyone needs protein; some said everyone should be a vegetarian. Each nutritionist had studies and statistics that proved they were right. It was very confusing, and I lost confidence in all of them.

What I loved about the Blood Type Diet was that it explained the contradictory studies. Some people need protein, some are natural vegetarians, some need low fat, some need low carb. Your blood type was a simple and accurate predictor of what you needed to eat and how you needed to live.

The Genotype Diet seems to me to be a completely new paradigm. Your body shape and the lengths of your bones determine your type. Blood groups are mixed together in genotypes. The food lists are very different. Here's one example. On the Type O diet, fava beans are neutral. In the BTD Menopause book fava beans are super beneficial. The Gatherer Diet says fava beans are avoid. This is not three nutritionists arguing with each other. This is three books by the same man - three books written since 2002, no less. How am I to have confidence that I am doing the best for my body when the programs appear so different? (See, I told you that I was not sweet)

The second issue is credibility. When my husband and I eat with friends, they notice that I do not eat a typical American diet, and they ask about it. I have a simple one-line explanation. "The same blood type antigens that give you your blood type are at work in your digestive system, and are the best predictor of what you should eat." Some people quickly change the subject. Others tell me their blood type and ask what they should be eating.

I can imagine myself in a similar situation now. What do I say - "The hormone levels when you were in your mother's womb determine how you should eat. I have a tape measure in my purse. Let me measure your leg and finger bones." No Way!!

Even worse is the credibility problem with family and friends. After nearly 5 years of talking with enthusiasm about blood types, am I to say, "Sorry, the Blood Type Diet is no more. It's been replaced by something entirely new." This is going to be embarrassing.

I'm going to give the Gatherer Diet a fair shake. It may turn out that I feel even better on it than I did on the Type O Diet. But the conflicts are confusing. Now, I'm going to go fix myself some lamb for lunch - - since beef is no longer beneficial.

Click on the image to listen to this broadcast.

A one-hour interview of Dr. Peter DAdamo by Cary Nostler of KSTE Radio, Sacramento California. The discussion includes the basics of blood type dieting, and how it lead to the development of Dr. D'Adamo's interest in epigenetics and The GenoType Diet.

I've been looking at the genotypediet.com website. I can identify with the basic premise that "genes are not a fixed set of preprogrammed instructions. They are a dynamic, active part of your life, responding each day to your environment, your history, and your diet." I can think of several examples where changing my habits actually changed how my body worked.

Dr. D has named 6 genotypes. When I read the descriptions, it was obvious which one I was. I was a Hunter. Then I started filling out the forms in the calculator. The calculator insists that I'm a Gatherer.

Here is the description of a Gatherer: "Gatherers tend toward a "padded" look and are likely to have high BMIs and waist-to-hip ratios. They're sweet-natured and emotional, but their "algorithmic" minds and capacity for concentration and focus make them natural problem solvers. Gatherers are always blood type O or B, and they're mostly Rh-positive. They often struggle with appetite regulation and are unsuccessful crash dieters."

I don't identify with anything in that description. I am not padded. The upper half of my body is very angular and very bony. I carry most of my weight in my thighs, but is more of a muscular look than padded. My current BMI is 20. The highest my BMI has ever been (A time in my late 20s when I was upset and for several months abandoned everything I knew about nutrition) was 23.

I am a lot of things - kind, empathetic, listening, helpful - but no one would call me sweet. I've known people who are sweet (come to think of it, most of them are padded) and I'm definitely not one of them. I'm also not emotional. My husband is the emotional one in the family. I'm the steady one. Yes, I am a good problem solver, but not because of concentration and focus. I am the antithesis of a step by step algorithmic person. I work both ends toward the middle, keeping everyone confused until it all comes together.

I am nervous about being in a category with Type Bs. Milk and mild products seemed to be the big culprits in the indigestion that led me to Dr. D. My Type O diet has me eating milk products 0-2 times per week; while Type Bs can eat milk or cheese every day. How can we be the same genotype?

There is a little truth to the part about appetite regulation. I was initially attracted to nutrition because when I ate healthy food I could eat until I was full without gaining weight. Before then I was a successful crash dieter - I just hated doing it.

This is a huge contrast to the way I felt when I first read about Type Os. After every sentence, I would gasp and say, "That's me!" I look at the description of a gatherer and I see a stranger.

I have come to trust Dr. D's research about food, so I'm going to plunge ahead and give this a try. It's back to the website to "gather" more information.

I'm looking for new recipes. I feel like I've been bogged down fixing the same old food. When I read the description for "Turnip Hash Browns" in the BTD Recipes section I can't say I believed it. Turnips and the words, "light and flavorful" just don't seem to go together. But the ingredients were beneficial so I tried them last night.

I followed the recipe except: I had 3 turnips instead of 4, and I had a large onion instead of a small one. So the flavor of mine was a little stronger on onion than the original.

The main course last night was meat patties - beef for me and salmon for the Type As. My husband is terrified of turnips - probably something from his childhood summers in Mississippi. He refused to try them.

My daughter prefers raw vegetables. She initially resisted the turnips because they were cooked. However when she read the ingredients and realized how beneficial they were, she took a taste. She surprised herself and liked them. She said, "I wouldn't eat them plain, but adding a little bit to each bite of salmon tasted good."

I thought they were wonderful with the beef patty. With the spices, they might have been better than grilled onions. I can hardly believe I'm writing that, but it's true. We have a basketball game tonight, and my dinner is a bowl with leftover beef patty, great northern beans and turnip hash browns. My mouth is watering, but it won't be time to eat for another hour.

If you're brave - try Turnip Hash Browns. They are tasty - really.

My daughter has taken the Blood Type Diet much more seriously since last summer. She tends to be pear shaped like me. However because she is not quite 5'3" tall, just a few extra pounds can make a big difference in how her clothes fit.

Last summer when she realized she could barely squeeze into her jeans, she said, "enough is enough" and set out to lose some weight and reshape her body. Her self-discipline has been remarkable. She gave up all the wheat based afternoon snacks that were neutral to her. She stopped eating anything after dinner. She started seriously exercising. Her efforts have been rewarded. Her jeans fit fabulously, and her muscle tone is to be envied.

However she worries too much. She worries when she goes to a restaurant whether she will find anything beneficial. She worries when she goes out with friends and is pressured to eat ice cream or some such treat. She worried a lot about what she would eat while we were visiting family at Christmas.

I watch her carefully. She has not stepped across the line into dangerous obsessive behavior. She came close a few times, but conversations about beneficial foods and Dr. D's concept of "foods that act like medicine" brought her back to a healthy perspective.

I don't want to see her worry. The Blood Type Diet ought to free us to live a more abundant life rather than adding a new level of anxiety in an already anxious world.

I do not ever want to reach a point where I live in fear that an occasional avoid will do me irrevocable harm. That simply is not true. I want to be healthy, but healthy involves not only what I eat, but being in a peaceful and confident state of mind.

I read this during my Bible study this morning. I'm going to share it with my daughter after school this afternoon. I thought you might enjoy reading it as well. It's from chapter 6 of Matthew.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

It's beginning to look a lot like January. The Christmas decorations are almost down. A couple of December freezes have killed all of the grass. Our son's holiday is over and he is back at school. For three weeks it was wonderful to have another Type O to cook for.

We had noticed a restaurant in an old train station near our church. Because they advertised hamburgers as their specialty, we waited to try it out until both beefeaters in the family were present.

It is a combination antique store and restaurant. They have lots of old signs for sale - most of them from car dealers and soft drink companies. We saw a display of old 6 ½ ounce Coke bottles. That sparked a conversation about how portion sizes have changed, just in my lifetime. Even the soda with a kid's meal is larger than 6 ½ ounces today.

When we got our menus, I saw instead of a hamburger, I could order a hamburger patty with two side orders. They had fries and onion rings, of course. But there were also lots of vegetable choices. I chose black-eyed peas and turnip greens, and ended up with a very beneficial meal. There were beneficial choices for the Type As as well.

The day we were there it was crowded. We had to wait 15 minutes to order. At first I thought - hooray, vegetables are making a comeback. The days of going out to eat and finding that salad is the only menu item available to me are over. Then I looked around. Most people had hamburgers, fries and a soda. Many of them had sticky cinnamon buns or cookies for dessert. The old train station was crowded because evidently all their food - healthy and unhealthy alike - is tasty.

I'll just be happy that there is a restaurant close by that has reasonable prices and beneficial food.

Some of you might not remember this, but about six years ago I wrote a book called 'Live Right For Your Type' (LRFYT). It was a fun book to write since I was not hamstrung by the extreme limitations I experienced in the writing of my first book 'Eat Right For Your Type' (ERFYT). First books are hard to write, mostly because you have to encapsulate the universe into a teacup, and like the blacksmith in the Bible who wanted to learn the whole Torah while standing on one foot,* you don't have an unlimited amount of time. Plus, you have to write something that the average man in the street can understand. Yet because it was so simple, and because it heralded a new way of looking at nutrition, 'Eat Right' has always topped the list of my bestselling books, still selling quite well despite to this day, being only available as a hardcover.

When it came time to write a followup, it was easy to see what had to be included. We had been secretor testing patients in our clinic for over ten years and knowing secretor status can be a very helpful way to get the most out of the blood type diet associations. Simple enough.

However, there were problems. One, secretor status testing is not easy to perform. It is not a common lab test, and the two most common methods (saliva and testing for Lewis blood group status) are not amenable to home testing, like ABO and Rh. So when 'Live Right' was released, a lot of people responded with something like "Oh great. It took me a year to find out my blood type and begin following the Type (A,B,O,A diet. Now I've got to find out my secretor status."

Then they took a look at the changes to the food lists. That's when things really took off.

All of a sudden, certain foods changed value, not just depending on whether you were A,B,O or AB, but also whether you were an ABO secretor or non-secretor, and not always for the worse (i.e taking new foods away.) Sometimes a food was 'given back' (restricted in for type O in 'Eat Right' but perhaps returned in 'Live Right' if you discovered that you were a non-secretor type O. One thing I noticed about the reactions was that there was a certain type of reader who was more disconcerted by having a food returned back to their diet than they were by finding out that even more foods were now restricted. This type of personality had the hardest time with changes.

Well, feathers flew, folks came and went, but if you visit the boards and leave a story about how you need the Blood Type Diet to work better in your life, ten responders will post back to you with the advice to get yourself secretor tested.

Now, you don't need to be a graduate of the Harvard Business School to understand a new version of 'classic' is is released, you risk a certain degree of backlash. I'm sure that Coca Cola is still smarting from the 'New Coke' fiasco of years past. They did not do the market research to realize that people could turn against them if they felt they were not being listened to or neglected. Coca Cola's problem was not that they were introducing a new formula. That would have been a non-event. The problem was that they were planning on eliminating the older formula.

The GenoType system is really another turn of the same wheel. I think of it like this. Say you came to my clinic and I put you on a blood type based diet. Say in 6/10 circumstances it works just fine. But you're one of the 4/10 that it didn't. So we get you secretor tested. But you are one of the 2/10 that blood type and secretor status doesn't get the results that you need.

So, what should I do? My clinic doesn't have a back door, so I can't just run out on you, and I'm too obstinate to admit defeat. So back to the blackboard I go. Five years and thousands of man hours later, out comes The GenoType Diet. Still part of the overall continuum, still the same blood (and secretor) types, but incorporating these with the physical manifestations that also serve to make us unique; measurements, fingerprints, etc. And, for the first time, with a definable end-goal in mind: the optimum control of your day-to-day genetic interactions with the environment.

But behind it all is the continuity that Coca Cola forgot about; as I posted on the BTD forums the other day, if you are a type A with sinusitis, you're a type a with sinusitis pretty much whether you are an Explorer, Warrior or Teacher. Collinsonia will still work pretty well on you. But if you've read in my earlier books that type A is more prone to cancer and heart disease, your might be interested to learn that these risks split up along GenoTypes, and so the preventive measures that you can take will be more effective.

Like ABO and Secretor Status, Blood Type and GenoType need and benefit from each other.

* To his demand that 'As a busy man, I've not the time to spend studying and reading,' he was advised that the Bible essentially taught that he should 'Not do to someone that which you would not want done to yourself. The rest in just commentary.'