When I first started blogging, readers sent really great ideas to my comment box. I wrote that once a week I was going to share my favorite comments in my blog.

WHOA! That was a bad idea! I scared everyone off. I didn't get a single comment for weeks. Needless to say I abandoned that idea, and have quietly answered my mail privately.

However, some of this month's comments are just too valuable to keep to myself. I'm not going to give names or locations, so I will not violate your privacy.

After my blog about both my husband's and my cholesterol reports improving though we are eating opposite diets, a reader wrote to say she and her husband had experienced exactly the same results.

"I just wanted to comment on the cholesterol because I am a Type O and my husband is an A. I remember asking myself why is his cholesterol high and mine isn't when we eat the same things? This was before BTD. What a difference now! My husband's cholesterol dropped down to normal level, and I think he will be off the Lipotor completely."

After my blog about nut butters I got two valuable hints. I mentioned that I wanted to try walnut butter. I still think I will try, but I will certainly start with a small amount after reading this comment.

"I made walnut butter once and it was terrible. I had to throw it out. When you process the walnuts, it brings out the bitterness of the skins. It was awful."

I can't imagine the pumpkin seed butter tasting better than it did, but one reader asserts that it can.

"Next time you make it don t forget to toast the seeds a bit first, before grinding them. Also, while in the food processor, add a pinch of sea salt."

Several have requested the Peanut butter pancake recipe. I will post it today on RECIbase as Peanut Butter pancakes a.k.a. muffins.

I only know one person who is never sick. She never catches a cold. When her kids were little, she never picked up the viruses they brought home from school. She has never had the flu or strep throat. Her husband bragged about her incredible immune system…until she was diagnosed with Lupus. Her incredible immune system began attacking her own body.

So I am puzzled at the people in the Christian community and the BTD community who make the mistake of thinking that a person should never be sick, and that if they are sick it's because they have done something wrong.

In the Christian community the focus is on faith and sin. There are lots of verses in the Bible that deal with sickness. Some of them have to do with a lack of faith and some have to do with sin. Faith Healers will say to someone who is sick, "If you just had faith you would get well," or "If you're not better, it is because there is hidden sin in your life."

There are people in the BTD community who are parallels to Faith Healers. They say things like…if you were eating right…if you did this cleanse…if you followed the BTD perfectly…then you would not have gotten sick.

Don't get me wrong about sin and prayer. When I am sick I examine my life and make sure that my relationship with God is right and that I have not let anger, bitterness, or another sin creep in to rob me of my spiritual and physical health.

I pray for people who are sick. On a couple of occasions I have been one of many praying for someone who seemed hopelessly ill, and who miraculously recovered. On other occasions I have prayed for people hopelessly ill, and God chose to take them home. I do not pray to manipulate God. I pray to let Him know my concerns, and I trust Him to answer in His own will and way.

Don't get me wrong about the BTD either. I often write that the BTD has eradicated several chronic health problems. I blogged that last winter no one in my family had the flu or a serious cold. There is no doubt that I am healthier now than I was before the BTD.

But neither the Bible nor the BTD promises that you will never be sick again. Neither promises that you can live forever on this earth. In the Bible Jesus spoke of one instance where a sickness was "for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Paul prayed three times about an illness that God chose not to heal. Last fall Dr. D'Adamo wrote about catching a virus.

So eat beneficial food. Enjoy better health. When some little germ sneaks past your immune system, pray and take advantage of all available natural remedies. If you are still sick, take advantage of modern medicine. And don't let anyone make you feel false guilt!

I was listening to the radio this week, and the host was interviewing the author of a book titled "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist." What an intriguing name. It makes me want to read the book.

I've been tossing a blog around in my head for a couple of days, and thinking about what to name it.

Knowing when to cry "Uncle"

After battling a sore throat for more than two weeks, Tuesday I had to admit that I was getting worse. When I swallowed there was pain in my right Eustachian tube. I was getting a discharge from my left eye. The sinus passages near my jaw were starting to hurt. This was not a virus; it was a secondary infection. It was time to take the antibiotics.

All out fight

I devoted last weekend to fighting the virus. I was already taking antivirus protocols. Over the weekend I alternated gargling with salt water one hour and hydrogen peroxide and water the next. I drank hot water with lemon and honey. I juiced carrots and pineapple. I threw every natural remedy I knew at the virus. I woke Monday morning with the same sore throat.

Could have been worse

I was discouraged that I could not beat this with natural remedies. My gut feeling is that as stubborn as this germ was, if I had been eating a normal American diet, I might have been much sicker. Except for the one day of fever, and the sore throat I have had plenty of energy and have kept up my daily routine (excluding strenuous exercise).

Sleep deprived

Before the BTD I would get tired at night. Maybe the wheat I ate at dinner made me sleepy. Maybe it was the peanuts and cheese. I just know that my eyes would get heavy, and I was ready to go to bed. I don't feel that kind of sleepiness any more, so I tend to stay up later. Most of the fall I was sleeping about 6 hours a night. Looking back, I see that though I didn't feel tired, I was not getting enough sleep. It's a hard habit to break, but since Christmas I've made a real effort to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night.

Much better, thank you

After 24 hours on the antibiotic, the sore throat was better and the Eustachian tube pain was gone. After 48 hours I feel almost normal. No question about this being a secondary infection.

All of those titles miss the point of what's really on my mind following this illness. It's the idea that if you follow the BTD you will never be sick again. I think I will call it Faith Healers and the BTD. But this blog is already too long, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I cook hot cereal for my Type A husband's breakfast. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I bake something interesting and exciting. It is more efficient when I plan what I'm going to bake the night before. However I am a spontaneous cook, so quite often I get up in the morning looking for inspiration.

It was that way on Tuesday. I wanted to fix something totally new and different. So I started looking through cookbooks. In "Feasting Naturally with your Friends" I found a recipe for Peanut butter muffins. It sounded very Type A. The recipe said that it took 30 - 35 minutes to prepare, and I had exactly that much time before hungry family members would invade the kitchen.

However, preparation wasn't quite as quick as the recipe claimed, probably because I made a couple of beneficial substitutions. When the batter was all prepared and ready to go into the muffin tins, there was less than 10 minutes until breakfast had to be on the table. I was not going to make it.

Close to panic, I had an idea. Plug in the grill; make pancakes. The grill heated quickly and I poured out circles of muffin batter. They didn't bubble like normal pancakes would, but they browned nicely and I flipped them to the other side. I served them with frozen blueberries and strawberries.

My daughter said, "These were supposed to be muffins weren't they?" I nodded and laughed, asking how they tasted. "They're really good!" she said. My husband said they were great. After the two of them left the house, I could have baked the rest of the batter as muffins. Instead I thinned the batter with a little more soy milk, and cooked it all as pancakes. They are in the freezer waiting for another day when I need a quick idea for breakfast.

When I started the BTD, I did not ease into it. From day one I was totally committed. I had a lot to learn, but to the degree that I understood, I began immediately eating like a Type O. That meant giving up peanut butter, one of my favorite foods.

At the time, the natural foods market nearest my house carried almond butter for about 50% more than the cost of peanut butter. Almond butter was neutral, it was delicious, and worth the price. Several months later the store discontinued that brand and brought in organic almond butter for $13.59 a jar. Yikes. I'm sure it's good, but $13 almond butter is NOT in my budget.

So I switched to sesame butter. It's about twice the price of peanut butter. It is good, though not as good as almond butter. I've been dipping carrots and other veggies in sesame butter for more than a year.

Last week on the forum, someone wrote about making their own nut butter in a food processor. I was intrigued.

The natural foods market always has nuts and seeds on sale. Almonds were regular price this week, but pumpkin seeds were on sale for $2.99 a pound. Yesterday I made pumpkin seed butter. I put three cups of pumpkin seeds in the food processor and ground them as fine as I could, then I began drizzling in light olive oil. I didn't measure; I just drizzled until the pumpkin seeds were the consistency of peanut butter. The three cups I started with more than filled a peanut butter jar.

I dipped a carrot stick in the pumpkin butter. It was outstanding! It was so good that thinking about it just now as I wrote this blog made me hungry, so I stopped and had a carrot stick and pumpkin butter snack. The cost - about the same as natural peanut butter.

I'm excited about saving money, but I'm also excited about the variety. When almonds go on sale I can make almond butter. I could try walnut or pecan butter. There are so many choices.

Our son is driving back to college today. I will be the only Type O in the house again.

Emotions run high on days like this. We will miss him enormously. Yet we're very proud of the work he is doing at college. He will miss home and old friends, yet he is excited about spring classes and eager to see college friends again.

Saturday night our daughter was babysitting, so the Os were in the majority. I warmed up lentil soup for my husband, but fixed a Type O feast for my son and me. We had chopped steak, spinach with raisins and sweet potato fries. For dessert - fresh mango.

Sunday night we all ate together so there was a mixture of Type A and Type O choices: smoked turkey, buckwheat biscuits, parsnips with maple syrup, couscous, black eyed peas, and lettuce salad

This morning I sent him off with a high protein breakfast: a cherry/grape smoothie, frozen strawberries, and sunny side up eggs.

I also sent him with food from the pantry plus the calcium and the multiple vitamins. I've got to get to the store!

My husband and I both donated blood through our local blood bank in December. This week we both received our free cholesterol lipid panel results. Without the BTD, our results would be a mystery.

My husband is a Type A. Two years ago (before we knew about the BTD) his cholesterol reports were consistently high or borderline. Our doctor was not happy and put him on Zocor.

I am Type O. Before the Blood Type Diet my cholesterol had been as high as 217 and my Triglycerides as high as 102. Our doctor said, "Better watch your diet."

I started the Blood Type diet in June of 2003 to get relief from GERD. The results were so wonderful, that I began nudging the rest of my family toward eating for their blood type. My husband willingly follows the BTD pretty well as long as I'm around to tell him what to eat. When he is out on his own... well that's another story.

Even at that level of compliance, his Cholesterol panel improved so much by June, 2004 that the doctor cut his dose of Zocor in half. Today his cholesterol panel looked so good that he is going to ask the doctor about quitting or further reducing the Zocor.

Now here's the mystery. Both of us have much better cholesterol reports since starting the BTD, but we have changed our diets in exact opposite ways.

My husband's cholesterol dropped when he stopped eating red meat. But I eat lots of red meat. In fact I have lamb or beef almost every day.

My cholesterol dropped when I stopped eating wheat. My husband eats lots of grain including wheat. He has grain at every meal, and has wheat at least once a day.

Without an understanding of Blood Types our results would seem to be contradictory. But with a knowledge of blood types they make perfect sense. Red meat is beneficial for Type Os, but will contribute to elevated cholesterol in Type As. Wheat is neutral for Type A, but will contribute to elevated cholesterol in Type Os.

How frustrating for people who diligently follow the standard cholesterol diet or their doctor's directions, but find their next cholesterol test to be even worse.

How rewarding for my husband and me to see great cholesterol tests, though our diets are quite different.

Today my husband's cholesterol panel looked like this:

Cholesterol - 164

Triglycerides - 145

HDL - 57

LDL - 78

Ratio - 2.9

Today my cholesterol panel looked like this:

Cholesterol - 193

Triglycerides - 40

HDL - 76

LDL - 109

Ratio - 2.5

I haven't made Strawberry Bread since I started the BTD. It has been a family favorite, and I wasn't sure I could get away with changing it. I reduced the sugar, and exchanged wheat flour for a blend of 3 flours good for Type As. The biggest change was that I had always added 3-4 ounces of cream cheese to the batter. This time I used one cup of cubed tofu.

Everyone liked it. No one seemed to notice that the recipe was different. My husband finished off for dessert what was left from breakfast. I have posted the recipe on RECIbase as Suzanne's Strawberry Bread.

Before the BTD one of my favorite snacks was peanuts, raisins and carob chips. I started the BTD cold turkey, so the first week I switched to walnuts, raisins & carob chips. As I got more comfortable with the Type O food lists, and began to study the ingredients more carefully, I realized that there were a lot of avoids in carob chips. I grudgingly admitted that there were probably more avoids than there was beneficial carob. I gave up the carob chips.

I have some plain carob powder that I had bought to make carob brownies. I'm the one who can't eat chocolate, but I don't eat much grain. My husband and daughter would rather have chocolate. Therefore I haven't used the carob powder in ages.

I tried mixing two teaspoons of carob powder with a little olive oil. I stirred the carob sauce into a bowl of walnuts and raisins. I ate it with a spoon and it was delicious. Ok, I'll be honest, it wasn't quite as good as carob chips, but it was an ample substitute. A snack with 3 beneficials and 1 neutral that tastes like chocolate covered nuts will be often repeated!

For 10 days now I've fought a sore throat that's come and gone. Over the weekend I was sure I had it beat, but yesterday afternoon it returned - painfully. This morning I made a doctor's appointment. I don't mind being patient with a virus, but I was starting to worry that I might have strep or some other bacterial infection.

My regular doctor's schedule was full, so I saw one of the other doctors in the clinic. I started off by saying that I had had a sore throat for more than a week and I needed to know whether I was dealing with a virus, allergies, or a bacterial infection. Then I said, "I'm not begging for antibiotics! I know people who beg for antibiotics, but really I just want to know what I have."

He asked lots of questions and did a thorough examination. He thinks it's viral. That's what I wanted to know. I've been jumping back and forth between allergy, antibacterial and antiviral protocols. Now I can focus on antiviral.

Here was the interesting part of the experience. The doctor at one point said, "I think you've been more than patient with this thing. I have people come in, and I ask how long have you had symptoms, and they say two hours." He laughed, "I can't possibly know what they have after such a short amount of time!"

Before I could register surprise, I remembered that the receptionist had asked me about my co-pay. We have medical insurance that pays a percentage of our costs after a stiff deductible. We do not get $5 doctor visits and $10 emergency room visits.

I believe that co-pay has led to people to forget that they are responsible for their own health. Because co-pay gives the illusion that medical care is only a token expense, they rush immediately to a doctor. The doctor, having to deal with an impatient patient and symptoms that are not fully developed writes a prescription for unneeded antibiotics.

This appointment will cost me $50 - $60, but that's ok. I'm glad to know what I'm dealing with. The doctor did write a prescription for antibiotics, but he smiled knowingly as he gave it to me. "Don't fill it for a few days. I really think it's just viral."

I have subscribed to Reader's Digest for a long time (since before I was married 28 years ago). They print a lot of health, diet, and exercise articles. Some of them are really helpful. The best exercises I have for hand and ankle weights were clipped from Reader's Digest articles.

It was in Reader's Digest that I first heard about "Eating by Color." I still have that chart posted on my refrigerator and follow some of the principles. For instance if I'm fixing broccoli which is a green vegetable, I probably won't serve it with Kale or Swiss chard (other green vegetables). Instead I will fix an orange vegetable like pumpkin or a purple fruit like blueberries or cherries. The color chart is subject to BTD food lists, of course, I don't fix alfalfa sprouts for me or sweet potatoes for the As no matter what color they are.

The cover story for the December issue is "The New Way to Lose Weight." When I read the first paragraph I got excited. It said, "The search for the perfect diet has never been more frenzied. Eat low-carb! No, eat low fat! But beyond the hype, and the billions spent on weight-loss products, a revolutionary idea is catching on with researchers: the notion that no two individuals lose weight the same way. Each person has a hidden key to weight loss."

My excitement faded as they profiled several people who by trial and error found a technique to help them lose weight. By the time I got to the "Best Free Websites" sidebar and saw that the Blood Type Diet site was omitted, I was truly disappointed. Once again an article clearly defined the problem - that the same diet that works great for one person doesn't work at all for another. But readers are left to randomly try parts of this diet and parts of that, hoping to come up with a combination that works.

I wrote a letter to the editors very politely telling them about the easy way to predict which diet will work - blood type. I have no idea whether they will print my letter. I noticed that on the comment part of the Reader's Digest website there are a couple of observations from followers of the BTD.

If you subscribe to Reader's Digest you might want to write your own letter or post your own comment. Or if you see a health article in your local newspaper that leaves out blood type, write a respectful response. I want to do my part to point people confused by conflicts in diet information toward the Blood Type Diet.

I have taken it pretty easy during the week between Christmas and New Years. I've slept later, played computer games, and watched more TV than I usually do. I have kept things running at the house, but haven't started any new projects.

I have not blogged as much. However, I have been very conscientious about what I've eaten. I cannot think of a single avoid that I ate last week. That was partly to make up for the avoids I enjoyed Christmas week, partly because I was fighting off a virus, and partly because its easier to cook good food when I'm relaxing at home. Avoids sneak up when I'm in a hurry and everyone is hungry.

I took a few days off from exercising during the worst of the virus. But since Friday I've been back on a good Type O exercise schedule. Friday my husband and I took the dog for a long walk in a rural hilly area. As we walked we made plans for the coming year. There are changes coming in 2005, so it was good to have such a constructive conversation. Saturday the weather was warm, and I ran several errands on my bicycle. Yesterday evening I ran through our neighborhood, enjoying the last of the Christmas lights.

Early this morning I had a school-related business meeting. The rest of the day I am alternating chores with chapters of "Nicholas Nickleby". Do a chore, read a chapter. It is a moderate way to ease myself from lazy days to the busy school days which start tomorrow.

After Thanksgiving and Christmas, where most of the traditional foods are avoids, sugary, or both, it is nice to come to a holiday with beneficial customs.

I remember when I was a girl (who dug my heels in and refused to eat vegetables), my mom always fixed black-eyed peas for New Years Day. My parents and my sister loved them. After being repeatedly warned that if I didn't eat black-eyed peas I would have no luck in the New Year, I would hold my breath and eat one.

Now I like black-eyed peas, and because they are beneficial for both As and Os, we have them often. We always have them on New Years Day.

For some reason I also associate cooked greens with New Years Day. So I fixed collard greens with grilled onions today. We also had chicken, butternut squash, and corn (for the As). I save the end pieces to the sprouted bread I buy for sandwiches. I put buttery spread and garlic powder on them and toasted them in the oven for BTD garlic bread.

Another food I associate with New Years is grapefruit. My husband's mom makes ambrosia with oranges, grapefruit and coconut for Christmas. Early in our marriage I would make ambrosia for New Years because neither of us quite got enough at Christmas. Now (sigh) oranges and coconut are avoids for us both. However, we got a box of beautiful ruby red grapefruit as a Christmas gift. We will have grapefruit for dinner tonight.

For the second time this winter my Type O son and I have had respiratory viruses. The first we picked up Thanksgiving weekend. The second he had right before and I had right after Christmas.

I ran fever for about 24 hours. I feel fine now except for a sore spot on the back of my throat and a dry cough.

My husband and daughter are gloating that Type As are better, because neither of them has been sick so far this winter.

I found the NAP article on Blood Types and Flu very interesting in this regard. It seems that Type As do have something to gloat about during flu season. I am e-mailing the article to both my parents and my husband's. If you haven't read it yet, here is the link.

http://www.dadamo.com/napharm/store3/template2/proberry.htm

For the first two nights I had this virus, my husband slept in my son's room. He was out of town with friends for a basketball tournament. Last night my son was back home. I didn't want to expose my husband to the sore throat or the cough, so I slept on the sofa.

I didn't mind the sacrifice, but if I have to watch my husband and daughter do another Type A victory dance, I may start breathing germs in their direction.

We are home from spending Christmas with my family, and things are getting back to normal. Normal chores around the house. Normal food. No more tasty desserts! The scale shows my normal weight - fortunately no price to pay in pounds for a few Christmas avoids. Not quite a normal schedule, because the kids and I are out of school, but that will be back to normal all too soon.

Lunch today was a veggie burger with jicama fries and a pear for my daughter. A chopped beef burger, jicama fries, and collard greens for me. I drank lots of water and had walnuts, raisins, and figs for a snack.

What is not normal is the destruction caused by the tsunamis. The destruction and loss of life is horrifying. The pictures give me chills. The account of the man who rode about the tsunamis clinging to a catamaran was incredible. The people left alive in the devastated areas will not be worrying about beneficials, neutrals, or avoids. They will just be hoping that their food is not contaminated. There is a lesson for us with our computers, abundant food choices, and affluent (by comparison) lifestyles.

I have blogged before that I've been reading through the Bible from cover to cover this year. It was a strange coincidence that this morning I read from Revelation 6:12 - 14. "I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake…and every mountain and island was removed from its place." That is one of those verses I read, wondering whether it is symbolic or real.

Among the news reports were quotes from scientists who said that the whole earth was disturbed in its rotation, and "Based on seismic modeling, some of the smaller islands off the south-west coast of Sumatra may have moved to the south-west by about 20 meters. That is a lot of slip. The north-western tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra may also have shifted to the south-west by around 36 meters."

This clearly, is not the earthquake referred to in scripture, but it affirms to me that the Bible is meant to be taken literally, and that God knew what he was doing when he appointed men to write His words.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:11

I hope you have enjoyed reading the Christmas story with me during December. The Christmas story is of course only the beginning. During his brief life on earth, Jesus taught us about who God is and how He wants to live. In his death and resurrection he took the punishment for our wrong doings and won victory over death so that we can have eternal life.

I hope your Christmas Day has been merry and that you have enjoyed a holiday with family or friends. I also hope your Christmas dinner was to your liking - whether you looked for beneficials or took a day off from the BTD. But most of all I hope you will take a moment to meditate on the baby in the manger who brought Joy to the World.

Our Christmas day was wonderful. The snow was gone by the time we got up. The kids slept late, so breakfast was my usual fruit and nut mix. Christmas dinner was turkey, dressing, green beans, sweet potato casserole, pickles, olives, and rolls. I passed on pickles, olives, and rolls, but enjoyed a small serving of dressing. Dessert was fruit cake and eggnog. My Mom's fruit cake is almost all fruit and nuts, so I don't count it as an avoid, but there is nothing beneficial about the eggnog except the taste.

Supper was mostly Type A avoids. My daughter had a tossed salad and a roll with peanut butter. My Mom was really worried that she wasn't finding enough to eat. My daughter did a good joy of convincing her grandmother that she had just what she wanted and needed.

White Christmas and Frosty the Snowman exist for me only in songs and movies, not in real life. The probability is much greater that my children will be playing basketball outside in shorts on Christmas Eve than building a snowman. Where I live in South Texas, the last time we had snow stick on the ground was in the winter of '84-'85 when I was pregnant with my son.

After breakfast this morning I went to take the dog for a walk and saw white flakes in the air. The flakes came faster. We were in a real snow flurry. It wasn't cold enough for the snow to stick, but it was delightful to really see snow on Christmas Eve.

The dog wanted to walk and sniff. I wanted to run. We compromised. We walked a block, and then ran a block, alternating for about 45 minutes. We were both happy. He got his sniffing; I got my running. His feet and my fingers were quite cold when we came in.

I have enjoyed delicious food today. For lunch a bunless hamburger and a sweet potato. For dinner seafood: shrimp and oysters. My two avoids for the day were cornmeal on the oysters and a glass of eggnog.

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After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star they were overjoyed. Matthew 2:9-10

Dr. D'Adamo wrote this in one of his columns. "If you are healthy…generally 70-80% total compliance works well in most people (out of 10 food choices, 7-9 being neutral or beneficial choices)"

Normally I do a lot better than this rule. Over a period of a week, my food choices are probably closer to 93-97% neutral or beneficial foods. However, at Christmas I am glad for the 20% rule.

Wednesday we were visiting with friends. They have a tradition of peppermint ice cream at Christmas time. I enjoyed my half scoop and was still well within the 20% rule.

Thursday my Mom had pizza for lunch. She said sheepishly, "I keep forgetting you don't eat wheat." I had a lot of salad and two small pieces of pizza. I also had a small piece of pecan pie for dessert. I was probably over the 20% rule for lunch, but all my foods for dinner were beneficial, and for breakfast I had 3 beneficials and 3 neutrals. So for the day I was still BTD compliant.

While I intend to enjoy traditional foods for the rest of this holiday, I do not intent to be a glutton. Notice I ate a half scoop of ice cream and a small piece of pie. I know my Type O system, and it would be easy to yield to the addictive effects of wheat and sugar. When the holiday is over, I don't want to have to undo the effects of too many avoids.

I will enjoy a treat or two each day, but I will keep the 20% rule in mind.

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Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." Matthew 2:7-8

I am not an expert, but I do know a few tricks to buying produce. When I buy pineapples and cantaloupes I sniff them. If I get a faint pineapple or cantaloupe scent, I can be fairly certain the fruit is ripe and sweet. Our grocery store had pineapples on sale for 99 cents. They were small, unripe and grown in Mexico. There was not one in the whole bin that smelled remotely like pineapple. I knew they would not be good for eating, but I bought two for juicing.

I let them ripen for two days on my kitchen counter. I ran them through the juicer. I also juiced some carrots. The pineapple carrot combination was delicious.

My hands have been chapped, especially across my knuckles. Several people on the Forum have recommended grape seed oil for chapped skin. The other night as I was getting ready for bed, my hands were really hurting. Rather than go to the kitchen for grape seed oil, I just rubbed some of the almond oil that I use as makeup remover into my chapped skin. I was amazed the next morning at how quickly my hands had healed.

Last night my son said, "Mom, do you have any lotion. My hands are really chapped." I told him that almond oil worked better than any lotion in the house. This morning he agreed with me.

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After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. Matthew 2:1-2

Water with a squeeze of lemon is recommended daily for Type As. My husband loves lemon and water. That is his beverage of choice in restaurants. He decided he needed to drink more fluids, so he began taking a big jug of water with lemon to work every day. He would sip it throughout the day.

That was a big mistake.

At a recent dental checkup, the dentist found that the enamel at the bottom of his teeth near his gums was eroded. At first the dentist asked if he was having problems with acid reflux. Usually when he sees this kind of erosion, that is the cause. My husband said no, that wasn't a problem. The dentist began asking questions about his habits, and found the culprit in sipping lemon water all day long. The constant acid in his mouth seems to be the cause of the erosion.

The worst of the erosion, where it had eaten almost all the way to the nerve, has been repaired. The dentist doesn't have a problem with lemon. But he says that if my husband is going to drink it that he should drink it right down and then rinse his mouth.

So if you are Type A, drink your water and lemon, don't sip. Then rinse the acid out of your mouth. You will enjoy the benefits without the costly side effects.

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But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:19-20

Blogs sometimes take on lives of their own. I think I know what I'm going to write about, and when I sit down to type, something entirely different comes out. Or I plan a blog in my head, and then something happens that takes me in a totally different direction.

That's how today has been. There have been several things that could have been excellent blog topics. After church we met some friends for lunch at a restaurant, and the wife tried to steer the conversation toward the BTD but the husband clearly didn't want to go there.

Tonight we trimmed our tree and ate fruitcake. That could have developed into a blog. A verse from today's Bible study about exercise also had potential. 1 Timothy 4:8 "For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things."

However, all of those ideas were set aside when my husband and I read an e-mail from a friend whose son was nearly killed in a car wreck last week. He had been drinking, he passed out, and hit a pole. It took rescue workers an hour to get him out of his car.

I don't drink alcoholic beverages - someday maybe I'll blog about why I don't. But because I don't, I had never looked up booze on the BTD food lists. Tonight I did. It is interesting to me that liquor is not beneficial for anyone. Beer is not beneficial for anyone.

Os have the fewest neutral choices among alcoholic beverages, yet statistically we Os make up the highest percentage of the population. As are the second highest percentage of the population. Liquor and beer are avoid for them as well.

About wine, LR4YT says some types, "may wish to have a glass of wine occasionally." I don't think an occasional glass of wine sent our friends son crashing into a pole.

Once again I see that following the BTD will protect you from alcoholism, protect you from hangovers, and protect your loved ones from horrible phone calls in the middle of the night.

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When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke 2:17-18