For years I have read that muscle weighs more than fat. I never believed it until now.

I can remember in high school watching friends issue each other a challenge to see who could lose weight the fastest. At the end of a week or two, whichever one had lost the least would say, "I've been exercising more, so I'm converting muscle to fat, and muscle weighs more." It sounded to me like an excuse for why the diet wasn't working. When by the end of a month both friends were back to looking and eating just as they had before, I was convinced I was right.

At Christmas last year we picked up our college son for the holidays. His roommate's mom said, "Don't the boys look great. No freshman 15 for our guys." The boys gave us an ear full. They had observed that dorm food didn't cause the notorious 15 pound weight gain for college freshmen. In their opinion it was binge drinking. "Too many carbs from pizza and beer," my son said bluntly, "that's the cause of the freshman 15."

That fall he had become interested in the weight room at the student rec center. In the spring he became serious about weight training. This summer he used some of his life guard money to join a gym.

He has gained 9 pounds - up to 164 from 155. He appears to be the same size. His clothes all still fit, and his waist is the same. He has noticeably added muscle, especially to his shoulders and chest. Even at that when I look at him, I think where is he hiding 9 pounds?

The only explanation is that muscle really is heavier than fat. It makes me want to join a gym. But don't let it be an excuse to fudge on the BTD!

My husband loves casseroles. Probably the thing he likes least about the BTD is that I fix fewer casseroles. In a mixed Type O/Type A household it is just hard to get all the ingredients compliant for both blood types. It's easier cook single ingredient foods and let everyone pick and choose.

But I have made a quantum leap forward by finding an adequate substitute for Cream of Mushroom Soup.

A couple of months ago I blogged about trying to use silken tofu as a casserole ingredient. My first effort was an abysmal failure, but I promised to keep trying.

I finally got up the nerve to buy another carton of silken tofu. I was going to make my husband's 2nd favorite casserole, "Five Spice Beef ‘n Rice. I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef and a tofu sauce for the cream of mushroom soup. It tasted good to me, but the real test was my family. I just served the casserole with no word of explanation. My husband and son gobbled it up, without noticing any difference.

Here is the link to the sauce - http://www.tofu.com/rec2/recipe1.html

I made it with lemon juice and miso. I halved the recipe, and that seemed to equal 1 can of cream of mushroom soup.

I should be clear that by itself, this sauce does not taste like mushroom soup. It has the creamy texture of the soup, and that is what is usually called for in a casserole. If I was making a recipe where the taste of mushrooms was important, I would buy compliant mushrooms, sauté them in some butter, and stir them into the sauce.

When I shop and a sales person asks, "What size are you?" I answer, "I have no clue, I'll have to try it on." I'm not trying to be difficult. In my closet I have clothes in sizes 12, 10, 8, and 6. All of them fit me. I have tops that I am wearing this summer in sizes small, medium AND large.

So I was fascinated when I came across a magazine article about how women's clothes are sized. It turns out that in the 1940s, they measured 10,000 women in the military. They then assigned sizes 2 through 20 based on those women. At that time, they determined that the average woman in America was 5'2" tall and weighed 129 pounds. Today the average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 142 pounds.

Is it any wonder we are getting taller and wider when you look at the most popular take out foods? Hamburgers - wheat is an avoid for Os and Bs; beef is an avoid for As and ABs. Hamburgers are good for no one. Pizza - tomatoes are avoids for As and Bs; wheat is an avoid for Os and Bs. Only ABs could consider pizza, and no pepperoni for them as pork is an avoid for all types. Fries - potatoes are avoids for Os and As, but foods fried in hydrogenated fat should be shunned by all.

Until I was two, I ate whatever my mom spooned into my mouth. But at age two I rejected all vegetables. My mom, concerned, spoke to the pediatrician. He said, "Children know what they need. Don't force her, let her choose." That would have been very good advice EXCEPT for the addictive qualities of wheat and sugar. When I was given full freedom with no restraint, I said "NO," to peas, squash and spinach; and "yes" to bread and cookies.

In stark contrast to my upbringing, was a little boy I babysat for. Many times when I arrived at his house he would be at the table with a defiant expression on his face. His father would shout, "He doesn't get up until he eats every bite on his plate." I was left with the impossible task of following the parent's instructions and getting along with the boy (for this they paid me 50 cents an hour!!!).

When I had my own children knew I had to strike a balance between the two extremes. From the time my children began to feed themselves, I put a little bit of whatever we had on their plates. They had to at least taste everything, and they had to eat all of the foods they normally liked before they could get seconds on anything. For example: neither of them liked squash and both of them liked green beans. They had to take a tiny taste of squash and eat all of their green beans before they could get extra bread, meat or fruit. A funny thing happened. My son always wanted seconds on meat. My daughter wanted seconds on legumes and salad. We joked for years that one was an herbivore and one was a carnivore. This was long, long before I heard about the Blood Type Diet.

My old pediatrician had been almost right! When children are given a selection of good foods, they will choose what they need.

There's too much going on today to stick with one subject.

If you have a teenager or a pre-teen, make sure they read today's D'Adamo Clinic column on "Chips means Zits." I'm posting this so late in the day, that you may have to click on today's Clinic column, scroll to the bottom, and click previous topics. In 6th and 7th grade my daughter was struggling with pimples. I did not want to go the oral prescription route, but I could see that she was going to have a rough time. In 8th grade her skin completely cleared up and is now beautiful. Was it a coincidence that her 8th grade year we started the Blood Type Diet?

I asked her what she thought. She said that there was no question that the Type A Diet had helped. She said she had done two other things that she thought had helped also. She committed to washing her face at least twice a day and to using more moisturizer. She read in a magazine that when a pimple first showed up she should put acne cream on it, and cover it with concealer. She said that is supposed to hold the medicine in all day. She said that she thought giving up potatoes, red meat and milk; and eating more salads and legumes had helped her in lots of ways - her skin being one of them.

After I did the blog on "Simple and Inexpensive Diet" Don commented that onions should have received more attention. He was correct! I treated onions like a seasoning, and they are a vegetable in their own right. Don has inspired me to eat more onions. He says he has an onion every morning for breakfast. "For breakfast?" I asked. He says yes. He steams them and eats them with olive oil and salt. I tried them steamed (though not for breakfast) and they were very good. Don likes eggs and onions cooked together. I sautéed an onion in butter this morning, then scrambled in four eggs. My share was quickly gone before my son got to the kitchen. He took one bite and said, "Now this is really good."

Today I had lunch at a Mongolian Barbeque restaurant with two handsome lifeguards - my son and one of his friends. I rarely eat out except for Sunday lunch, but this restaurant is one of my son's favorites and it is closed on Sunday. It is a perfect place for a BTD meal. I put lamb, spinach, carrots, celery and onion in my bowl; then watched as it was cooked on a huge grill. It was delicious or as Debbie - who sends me such encouraging comments - would say Yummalicious!