Suzanne Graham

In June of 2003 when I started the Blood Type Diet, I totally identified with being Type O. As I read about the disease susceptibilities, the food lists, and the exercise recommendations, it was like looking in a mirror. Everything I read about Type O said - "This is me!"

I have not found that kind of identification with the GTD. Don't get me wrong!. I am fascinated by the ideas of epigenetics and turning down the volume on genes. I am reading and listening and applying. I want to understand all of this and to make it work in a positive way for my health. Yesterday I listened to Dr. D's interview with Dr. Oz, and I'll have to hear it again before I begin to absorb it all.

It's just that it was so easy to determine who I was by blood type, and it has been difficult to determine who I am genetically.

As soon as we had access to the GTD calculators, my Darling Daughter and I began to measure each other. We weren't particularly precise. We just measured, and the calculator said I was a Gatherer. I read the description and looked at the food lists, and was dismayed. I didn't match physically, I wasn't close to the personality, and foods were recommended that had caused disease in the past. I remeasured very, very carefully. When you are trying to measure in millimeters, it's easy to make a mistake. Sometimes my ring finger was a millimeter or two longer than my index finger. Sometimes it was a millimeter or two shorter. I eventually put in the calculator that my fingers were the same length. The calculator said I was a Hunter. The physical and personality characteristics were a much better match, and I was happy with the food list, but there was a nagging doubt. The measurements were so close.

I was glad when Dr. D posted his online quiz to see whether someone should follow the BTD or the GTD. I answered the questions quickly, going with first impression. The quiz said BTD. Whew, that settles that, I thought. I'll go back to the BTD. But there was one question that I had hesitated over. I went back, read it again, and changed my answer. The quiz said GTD. Again I was so close.

I'm not alone in my confusion. The Forum and my mailbox are full of people like me who feel like we are on the fence. In my own family, DD and HH measured solidly as Teachers. They both like the Teacher diet, but neither of them has the characteristics of a Teacher. By temperament HH would be a Warrior. DD acts more like an Explorer/Warrior.

About this time a reader sent me a link to a body type website. It claimed - perhaps copying the success of the BTD - that there were four body types and a different diet for each. So off I went on a sidetrack, looking at body types. Dr. D uses only three, and I'm not any one of the three. Several books identify four types, including as the 4th a small bony upper body and a padded lower body. (Frankly if you walk around a shopping mall, this 4th body type is fairly dominant). The most interesting site identified 25 body types. There were 6 which matched my general physique, and I would have had to buy the book to fine tune my results. (I didn't buy the book, but I may try to check it out of the library.)

As I read more on the 4-body type sites, I realized that they said my body type was estrogen dominated - which was just opposite from the Hunter genotype. To add to the confusion, by body type DD and I could be clones. I'm 4.5 inches taller than she is, but other than that we are built exactly the same. However we are different blood types, so it couldn't possibly be right for us to eat the same.

I am left with the question - On the GenoType Diet, who am I? I wish there were room for combination types, but (sigh) Dr. D says "no". I wish that he had gone with 32 or 16 GenoTypes like he originally planned, but (sigh) he narrowed it down to 6. As I work through the process of making diet decisions for the future, I take a great deal of comfort in the fact that Dr. D supports the validity of both of his diets, and that he has encouraged some on the Forum to choose what seems best for them.