There is a study by a group in London that says, "a chemical called AITC is released when brassica vegetables are prepared. This chemical can kill colon cancer cells and is able to stop the disease from spreading." I found this in a news story on Google Health News. It attracted my attention because the list of vegetables in the first article I read included lots of Type O avoids, while kale seemed to be the only beneficial.

Kale was my least favorite when I was trying all the beneficial greens. In fairness to kale, the first bunch I bought had a lot of yellow leaves, and the stems were thick and tough. Last week my produce department had some really fresh looking kale. I chopped it in smaller pieces than I did the first time, and it tasted much better.

Further reading on Goggle expanded the list of vegetables containing the cancer fighting chemical to include mustard, broccoli, cabbage, horseradish, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and Swede (rutabaga). Broccoli and horseradish are also Type O beneficials; but cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are avoids.

The other thing interesting in the study was that they didn't recommend eating the vegetables raw. "AITC is created when brassica vegetables are chopped, chewed, cooked, processed and digested." Another article recommended the vegetables be, "chopped and lightly cooked in a little water…stewing the vegetables would kill the chemical."

I fix broccoli once a week because everyone in the family likes it. My grandmother, and my husband's uncle both had colon cancer, and my mom had a precancerous polyp removed. Because of that I will probably buy kale more often as well.

Another blogger once wrote that she had been on the Blood Type Diet for so long that she knew when she had eaten certain avoids because they made specific parts of her body react. I'm trying to sort out clues I got from the weekend.

Friday night friends were passing through town and stopped to have dinner with my husband and me at a local restaurant. I ordered beef liver & onions, steamed broccoli, and zucchini. I said no to gravy on the liver and no to cheese on the broccoli. It was all very tasty and seemed compliant for a Type O, except for a thin coating on the liver that I suspect was flour.

Saturday I packed a beneficial lunch for our long drive. Saturday night we went to a family style restaurant. I ordered roast with a steamed vegetable medley (carrots, yellow squash, and green peppers). It seemed like a safe choice, but the roast came covered in gravy. I scraped it off, but there was no way to totally avoid whatever wheat or corn thickener they used.

Sunday we stopped at Subway for lunch. Their "make any sub a salad" is wonderful for type Os. I added walnuts and olive oil from my bag. Sunday night we stopped for barbeque. The brisket was delicious. I stayed away from the Cole slaw and potato salad (avoids for all Os), but took a chance on the pinto beans (beneficial for non secretors; avoid for secretors)

Today I'm dealing with an achy knee. It's not all that bad. It didn't stop me from climbing up and down stairs in the parking garage while my son was at an appointment this morning. (That is definitely an intense aerobic workout by the way). I'm just aware that something's not quite right. I should probably create a data base and keep track of clues like this. Perhaps some day they will form a pattern.

Our son is home from college for the summer! He goes to a university that is more than 300 miles from home. That is a 7 hour trip in the car. We drove there on Saturday, loaded up all his worldly possessions, and drove home on Sunday.

Last summer when he and I made the trip alone for freshman orientation we left very early in the morning and made few stops in order to arrive on time for the first afternoon session. I was getting rather stiff from sitting so long in the car. So I started tensing and relaxing different muscle groups. It felt really good.

In road trips since then I have come up with a pattern I call "Five Minute Isometrics." I set the cruise control. I never take my hands off the wheel, and I never take my eyes off the road, but I can get a good workout in the car.

I isolate a muscle group and tense it HARD and then relax it. I stay with the same muscles for five minutes on the car's digital clock, and then I switch to another muscle group. (For instance I start with left quad, right quad, right bicep, left bicep. I repeat that pattern for 5 minutes.) Some of the exercises are isometric exercises our doctors have given us for shoulder and neck injuries over the years. Some come from various exercise tapes. Some I have made up in an effort to cover all my muscles. I use the steering wheel for resistance on several patterns.

We normally switch drivers every two hours. So theoretically I could get in 24 stretches. I never really get that many because when we drive through a town or a construction zone I have to take the cruise control off.

I am amazed at how much better I feel at the end of a long drive. In addition I get some exercise on travel days when there's often not time for a walk or a run.

I inherited a framed picture taken at my grandparent's 50th Anniversary Celebration. It is in my den. Friends look at it and say, "That's you on the back row, and that's your daughter in the front." No - the woman on the back row is my mother and the 4-year old girl in front is me. The three of us look remarkably alike in the face.

The rest of us is quite different. My mom and I are both tall; over 5'6". My daughter doesn't think she will ever reach 5'3". My mom has never exercised, but she has great legs. What can you say when your 88 year old mother has better looking legs than you do? My daughter says, "I have the only grandmother who looks really good in denim shorts."

I learned how to cook from my Mom. She is a natural cook, quite fearless about trying new things. It's hard to get her recipes because while she may start with a printed card, she always adds or changes, tasting as she goes. I was a terribly picky eater as a child, existing mostly on meat and bread. (good Type O instincts on the meat; not so good on the bread) She kept patiently putting good food in front of me, and was delighted when I came home from college eating vegetables.

Another thing I learned from my Mom is how to listen. A favorite memory is coming home from school with my sister and sitting around the kitchen table telling Mom about our day. I was in high school in the late 60s and early 70s when the drug culture was sweeping across the US. I remember telling tales designed to shock at those after school snack times. Rather than lecture, she would say, "Well, what do you think about that?" or "Do you think that's a good idea?" Before long I was telling her how foolish or immature the event at school had been. I learned my best journalistic interviewing techniques not in college classes but around my kitchen table.

I learned about unconditional love from my Mom. That doesn't mean she approved of every thing I did. It means that while she tried to modify my behavior, she wasn't trying to change the real me inside. She is always supportive of my activities, always amiable with my friends, always interested in what I have to say.

The only thing I've ever known her to be afraid of is the computer. Hopefully my Dad will go onto my Blog today so I can say "I love you, Mom."

My students had earned a reward party for making their deadlines. They would have liked a half day shopping at the mall, but this close to finals I didn't think the principal would approve. We compromised on tacos and a movie in our classroom. So yesterday I bought lots of tacos (some beef and some bean and cheese) and we watched "Dumb and Dumber". After the party there were some beef tacos left.

Last night my husband and I had to go to a swim league meeting. I knew we would need to leave immediately for the meeting when he got home from work. What to do for dinner? I scooped out the meat and lettuce from some of the tacos and ate it with left over veggies. My daughter said she would warm up the left over lentils after we were gone (yes!). I thought - my husband does not follow the BTD, I'll just give him tacos and some sliced fruit. He can eat in the car on the way to the meeting, and I'll drive.

He ate the first taco pretty fast; I guess he was hungry. He opened the second taco and said, "This isn't good for me, is it?" before he ate it. He took the meat out of the third taco, and said, "Beef, yuck," and ate the corn shell and lettuce.

I felt so guilty. I cannot tell you how guilty I felt. I've been trying to get him interested following the Type A Diet. I prepare type A lunches for him to take to work, and I try to make the new Type A foods I serve at dinner appetizing. Then not only do I serve him a major avoid for dinner, but he recognizes it and calls it to my attention.

After the meeting he was driving home and took an exit that wasn't for our house. I asked where we were going, and as he pulled into Dairy Queen he said, "I have a craving for a freeze."

Well that ended my guilt! But it is interesting to me that he is recognizing what is good for him, and he expects me to feed him beneficials. However he's not ready to take personal responsibility for his eating yet.