Hello from a fellow opera singer! I am confused by Dr D'Adamo's words from the FAQ "I am aware that many practitioners use food combining as part of their dietary recommendations. I do not, simply because the blood type diets do specifically what food combining attempts to do non-specifically." This contradicts a passage in the Type A prescription (p. 181 UK edition, LR4YT) where he says: "In addition, be attentive to food combining. You'll digest and metabolise foods more efficiently if you avoid eating starches and proteins at the same meal." I am just starting the diet for the second time. My first attempt was two years ago, and although I was committed and thoroughly enjoyed the diet, I believe I added too many neutral foods, certainly did not use food combining, and failed to lose weight! I developed a severe bout of bronchitis and asthma, which sapped my motivation, and I gave up the diet while travelling. Now I wish I had persevered, having read that results can take anything from 6 months to a year. I am certainly a hardened case, as far as former mistreatment of my body is concerned!! I am now trying the Tier Two Diet with more or less exclusively HB foods. The food-combining question worries me because beans are a natural mis-combination as would be a meal of tofu, vegetables and rice noodles, for example. I have also started a severe chest cold after the first three days of only eating HB foods. Is there any way I could be releasing "toxins"? I FEEL right eating in this way. But I need to be free from respiratory tract infections too!



I have another, more specific question.....I'm living in Switzerland (though from Devon in England) and can't find all the A-friendly beans. There are "Borlotti" beans in their millions, however. Could these be, hopefully, Highly Beneficial, as well as Highly Obtainable?? Thanks! Dawn





Hi there, Dawn ~



Hey, I'm sorry you've had a little setback on the diet ~ don't worry a bit, you can be back on it tomorrow! I definitely believe that what you're going through is mucus release! Get religious about your morning cup of hot water with the juice of half a lemon; it does a great job of getting rid of the gunk, and can get the voice going even in less than optimal circumstances. I'd pack quercetin and green tea on all your trips ~ quercetin staved off more than one major bronchitis episode for me (eat it like candy if you feel something coming on), and green tea not only boosts immunity, but aids in weight loss as well. The classical singer's profession is extraordinarily demanding, but maintaining your voice in peak form through all the travelling and the performance demands will be made FAR easier through a strict adherence to your diet. Just what you wanted to hear for the 1000th time in your life: "discipline," eh? :->



The first thing I'll say about the food combining issue is: because you desire weight loss, stick to the Beneficial foods in the proportions and frequencies outlined in Live Right 4 Your Type. Fill up on bennie veggies and fruits at every opportunity. Rice, buckwheat, oats, rye, sprouted flour products and amaranth should be your only grains ~ and limit them to one serving per day.



From there, food combining (or "food separation") becomes a breeze. Eat fish, fowl, beans, nuts and eggs with vegetables only - no grain. Eat the beneficial grains with vegetables only ~ no high-protein sources. Specifically, string beans can count as a veg, but the other beans (the pulses/legumes normally dried before packaging) should be mentally placed in the high-protein category. Have fruit by itself, as a snack or morning meal. Flax oil, olive oil and walnut oil are the beneficials in the fats category ~ one serving per day. If you use this simple version of food combining, and eat four to six small meals per day instead of two or three big ones, you'll soon see the weight coming off!



I'm sure I don't need to mention the importance of water to a singer, so I'll omit that piece of advice. :-D But one major hazard you face that most folks don't is the eating-late-at-night business. If you are like me, you probably have little appetite during the day, then you relax and eat the house down after the performance ~ at 10:30 or 11:00 at night. Hoo, boy. If you do have this common pattern of eating, it's a hard one to break ~ unless you use that small meals rule, which truly will help enormously. It is very useful to the weight-loss seeker to eat more in the morning, less from noon to six, and little after that time. If you can, have a good breakfast, and snack intermittently as your appetite permits. When you come offstage for the last time in the evening, dig into some fruit salad. It is great for soothing the system, and will fill your need for food without tipping the day's meal proportions too heavily, too close to bedtime.



I hope these tips help, Dawn ~ and I'd love to hear you sing someday! Please keep in touch, OK? :-D

I have been on and off the type A diet for over a year and have experienced many great changes. I have only one majore problem, I can not eat made from soya. I'm 55 and would like to enjoy the benifits of soya with out the bloating and digestive problems. I have experimented with digestive enzymes and only have experienced miner results when I have eaten soya. Could I be allergic to soya or is there something else I could do? Jann



Hello, Jann! Did you try some gentian ~ say, 20 drops in a small glass of warm water before meals? Test this with very small amounts of soy, and do so for a full week. If at the end of that time, you are still experiencing bloating, I'd do the same experiment with other forms of soy, like tempeh or miso ~ again, in very small amounts. In the period of a week or two, you should see your digestion of soy improve to the point where the bloating no longer occurs. If it continues, I'd continue with the diet but eliminate soy for six months, then do the same test again. The A diet has multiple levels of health-enhancing elements, so don't feel you are missing the benefits if it turns out soy is not the food for you! Please write back and let me know how you do with this! :-)

Heidi, I am type A and have emailed you recently. You used my question in your daily letters. It really helped me a lot and gave me great suggestions about The Pain Control book, and I did purchase both of his books. They will help so much I am sure as soon as I can get started using his information. I also told you I had stopped diet cokes. Well, today has been 2 weeks!!!! and not even a sip!! I drink green tea sweetened with stevia. My question is how much green tea is too much, and also how much Ezekiel bread a day is too much if I am trying to lose weight? Are there any of the beneficial foods that I should also limit for optimum weight loss, ot should I just follow the portion guides? For many health reasons, and for many other reasons, I am desperate to lose 50 more pounds. I am 4'11" and now weigh 180. My body fat percent is 42. I have tiny bones, and was a 6 month baby with a twin that did not live. That was 51 years ago and for me to even survive was a miracle. I have fibromyalgia, lupus, bi-polar, hypothyroidism, and had pancreatitis twice in the last year. I have been a very sick puppy! I am determined not to give up. I help manage my mothers health food store, and am RN, but do not nurse anymore. I have access to lots of herbs and supplements, but am trying to be careful about what is safe for lupus, etc. Any extra info you have would be greatly appreciated. I purchased the Cook Right, Live right, Encyclopedia and am ordering the eat right book also. I am very serious about this and am so glad my friend told ms about this diet. Thanks again. Annie



Hi, Annie! Hey, you're doing GREAT with kicking the diet cokes!!! For green tea, I'd say three cups per day is about the limit. In Live Right, you'll see a total grains daily frequency of about once per day ~ and if you can stick to the beneficial foods in every category, while following those portion/frequency guides AND the mild exercise (Especially Yoga!!) recommended, you'll see wonderful results in no time. The Encyclopedia has great information on how to heal from the difficulties you've been through. Hang in there, dear, and be VERY, VERY kind to yourself, OK? I want a big report from you on the First of March. I'll be looking for it! thanks for writing, Annie!! :-D

My husband has blood type A. He loves humus, made with chick peas. I did not find this particular bean in the Eat Right For Your Type book. Can you please tell me if it's good for him? Thank you in advance. Roza



Hello, Roza! It is listed in Eat Right as "beans, garbanzo," and I'm sorry to say it is an avoid for him. When in doubt, remember to check the front page of this website (www.dadamo.com) for the TYPEbase3 link. There, you can search for any single food ~ just hit the "search" button, as the enter key does not work on that page. If you make your own hummus at home, just substitute a neutral or beneficial bean for chickpeas ~ black beans make wonderful hummus! Thanks for writing! :-D

Hello! I have been surching the database for facts about Chronic Fatigue Syndrom and blood type A (A Rh+), without success though (everything concerning CFS seams to relate to blood type . Do you have any suggestions concerning the diet or vitamin- and mineral supplements? I read in dr D'Adamos book about his idea of a liver disfunction. Have tried several cures for the liver, but without success. For years I have been following the diet for type A, even before reading the book about blood types (with the exception of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and chickpeas which now are excluded!). I would be very grateful! Best wishes, Ariann



Hello, Ariann ~ I'm sorry you're struggling with CFS! The basic type A diet is the first step. If you can, get your secretor status either through the saliva test available in our online Store here, or through a test for Lewis type (a blood test), which closely correlates with secretor status ~ and use the diet and lifestyle recommendations in Live Right 4 Your Type. One of those recommendations is to use a powerful meditation practice ~ I've talked a lot about Transcendental Meditation, which has reams of research supporting its effectiveness, and I highly recommend the book Meditation as Medicine by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth ~ deep stress relief is a potent healer of CFS. Third, there are protocols for supplementation in the BTD Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia ~ designed specifically for each type, with or without secretor status. Please let me know if you need help understanding or following any of this, and I will try my best to make the process easier! Best to you, Ariann! :-)

I am Blood type A. I am also a vegetarian and teach weightlifting classes and yoga. I recently started taking MCT oil for energy which does give me good energy, but I think the source is coconut... Is this still okay to take. Also is avocado okay for type A? Linda



Hi, Linda ~ Avocado is listed in TYPEbase3, but I'm not familiar with MCT oil. Could you tell me more about it? I'd usually suggest using something like black currant seed oil, flaxseed and olive oils for energy instead. Probably quite a bit cheaper in the long run, as well. Sounds like you're in great shape and enjoying your work! thanks for your note, dear!

I am blood type A and following the diet - however I am totally confused about whether or not I can eat bread and if so what kind!! The book says that type A generally does well on cereals and grains and suggests whole grains. However, it does say to avoid plain flour and self raising flour etc and also wholewheat flour - can I therefore eat malted bread or wholemeal bread? There are so many different types of bread around that I get mixed up!! I presume that plain white bread is out of the question but I am confused!!! Can you clarify for me please!!! And also I do not know what durum wheat/flour is? Many thanks Julie



Sure, you can eat bread! You type As do better on grains than without them! (I'm kinda jealous, but I'll get over it. :-)) But the kinds of grain and the portions do count. Plain white bread is not the best for your colon health, and it has little in the way of nutrition. Whole grains are best: RYE is wonderful, as is rice bread, oat, amaranth, and lots of others in the beneficial and neutral categories. Durum wheat is the hard wheat used in most wheat breads, whether wholemeal or plain. Try to limit yourself to one serving of grain per day ~ inclusive of all grain ~ for instance: whatever rice or other whole grain you might have in the day, pasta, and the bread. Do an internet search for bread recipes ~ you'll find them in the thousands. Sourdough bread is a great variety. The MOST important part of the A diet is VEGETABLES, of course, and one of the big challenges is to include more veg and fruit in the meal plan ~ but it certainly makes it easier when limiting oneself to that one serving of grain. I hope this helps!! :-)

Howdy Heidi, I'm another A with arthritis pain. I tried making that marvelous chicken broth with dissolved bones you wrote about. I have a nice broth, but I'm not sure I got bone minerals in it. When I took the chicken out of the oven after 3 hours, all of the joints weren't completely released. Maybe that's where I goofed; I could have left the chicken in for another hour maybe. Except the onions were starting to brown. As it was, even after cooking it in a pot for ages the bones never really got to a crumbly stage. My main question is, assuming I cook the chicken long enough in the over for all the joints to be loose, can I use a pressure cooker for the next step, instead of having a pot on the stove for several hours? love the column, blue



Hi, blue! A small roaster (three to five pounds) takes only about five hours in the broth-making part of the process. I add a bit of lemon juice for the last hour, which dissolves the bones further, but you don't need to do that to get the benefits. The joints don't need to be totally falling off ~ by then, the bird may be overcooked ~ Your broth was perfectly good! For a larger bird, I leave it brewing on the stove for about eight hours. I've never used a pressure cooker for this purpose ~ hmmm, I'd advise using a stock-pot on simmer instead. You can put the bones in the freezer until you're ready to make stock ~ then just leave it on all day, or put it on just before bedtime and let it simmer overnight. Whether you add lemon in the last hour or not, you'll get a marvelous broth that should help with that arthritis! Thanks for your kind words, and keep cooking! :-D