Hi, I am just starting the diet this week and have a couple of questions that I have searched for and can't find. I am an O (not sure whether secretor or not). I am not a fish eater except for John Dory which does not appear in the encyclopedia. Is it beneficial? Also what about bok choy? And passionfruit? Thanks in advance for your help. Marney



Greetings, Marney! Welcome to the BTD, and glad you found us!!



Bok choy is listed in TYPEbase 3, also linked on our homepage (www.dadamo.com). Type in "bok" and hit the "search" button (the keyboard "enter" key won't activate this search).



Passionfruit, eh? Take a peek at This column! -- or just go to the bottom of this page and use the search term "passion." You'll come up with several columns to choose from.



John Dory (Zeus faber or Zeus japonicus) is a handsome fish with no rating, and no handy relatives on the food lists from which I might extrapolate a rating.



However, Os have so few avoids among the seafoods that I will venture at least a "neutral" rating. And if John Dory appeals to you, perhaps you could try sole, cod, mullet, snapper or trout? Variety is a wonderful thing! and a healthy thing, as well. With barracuda, catfish, muskellunge and pollack the only true fishes with an "avoid" mark for type O (secretors, at any rate), it seems a shame not to take advantage of that bounteous remainder of neutrals & beneficials!



Once again, welcome! and thanks for writing, dear! :-D

Hi, I am type O and am quite slim, I have tried on and off for years to gain weight but with little success. I was wondering if you have any advice as to how to maximise my weight gain. Since i am new to the blood type diet for years I have steered clear of red meat, now I see that this is what best suits my "type". Thanks Joe (ireland)



Greetings, Joe! And a warm Welcome to you!! Here is a column with some brief, focused suggestions on weight gain in response to a guy in a similar condition to yours.



I have an additional note that may seem a bit airy-fairy to you, but it's worked for me and for folks I know. Each night, for a few minutes before sleeping, imagine that you ARE at the weight you want to be. Just happily visualize it, as vividly as you can -- how it would feel, how your clothes would look on you, etc. Then... forget it. Just fall asleep, get up, and go about your business. No need to dwell on it or compare where you are with where you'd rather be. Just do that little mental exercise each night. This kind of practice has significant effects on your entire endocrine system, resulting in far-reaching changes in the way your body "builds itself."



To anyone open to this practice, and for no matter what purpose, I highly recommend giving it a try. Takes just a few minutes, and it powerfully supports your body's natural abilities to heal, lose weight, gain weight... and that's just the beginning. Joe, please write again if there's anything I might help with as you're re-discovering your true nature as a muscle-bound meat eater! :-D

hey heidi, its cric here, writing to see if you have any insight on bioperine (black pepper fruit). many supplement makers seem to be adding this stuff to their products for the sake of increasing bio-availability. is this stuff kosher for o's? hope all is well with you, cric :-)



Hey there, cric! "Bioperine" is the patented extract of piperine, an alkaloid compound present in black pepper. If it were OK for anyone, I'd say Os and Bs would be the ones who could take it without trouble. As & ABs, though, I think should avoid it unless we definitively find out otherwise. I'm basing this only on the "pepper (peppercorn/red flakes) database values, as we have no direct research on piperine in terms of potential ABO reactivity.... so just take reasonable care in experimenting with it, OK? :-D p.s.: I'm waiting for a report... ;->

I'm a little confused about the recommendations for type O. The recommendations are to limit the amount of breads eaten, but in the sample 30-day meal plans there seems to be bread listed at every meal. If Ezekiel bread is listed as highly beneficial can it be assumed that eating 2-4 slices a day is very good for you --- or not??? Erica



Hello, Erica! Just use the portion/frequency tables in Live Right 4 Your Type for each food group. For Os, the grain frequencies are based upon secretor status (1-6 servings weekly for secretors, 0-3 for nonsecretors) and Rhesus type (Rh-negative folks should subtract 1 serving weekly from the frequency listed for their secretor status). These frequencies include all grains -- so an O should try to have one or less servings of any kind of grain in a single day.



Live Right represented a series of refinements that are most valuable to people in poor health, or who wish for their own reasons to follow a stricter therapeutic plan than the one presented in Eat Right and Cook Right.



Ezekiel or essene breads (or any 100% sprouted breads containing no avoids) are superior to the other grain choices, but are still subject to the grain category portions & frequencies.



Wow, I sure went on about that. I hope this makes sense... write again if you need clarification. thanks, dear!

Dear Heidi, I hope you can assure me that my problem is not serious ;-) Well, the point is this: For about ten days now I am having kind of diarrhea. That is: Once and sometimes twice a day I have kind of fluid stool, and it seems I am loosing a lot of water. In between my intestines are bubbling and rumouring. It even happened twice that I woke up in the middle of the night andI needed to go to the toilet. After 10 days, I am now starting to feel drained, physically and emotionally. What do I wrong? Or is this all some kind of cleaning process?



Well, I am a 0 type, secretor, and I am on the diet since October last year. In December / January I took 1 bottle Polyflora and Ara plus, just to be on the safe side. Then, as a reader of your daily column, I started to add nutritionous yeast and flaxseed (two tablespoon in my breakfast: for example two banans and one apple, mixed in a blender with a little bit of soy milk). I have meat intake and I love the 5BX plan you suggested. Since February, however, I had the problem that I got very heavy cramps on the onset of my menstruation, and in between the cycle very tender breasts. Following the encyclopedia (Female Balancing protocol) I started about 14 days ago to supplement with Mg (from Solgar) and B6, using the recommended doses. This was when my stool began to loosen, but at the same time my cramps just vanished.



Therefore, I cut down on the Mg, and meanwhile I haven't taken any since 7 days. But this diarrhea continues. Do you have any suggestions what to do or what the cause might be? Besides the yeast I am taking currently only Phytocal, 3-4 capsules a day. I also love my almond nut butter, eat lots of green stuff and my meat. I try to drink a lot of water (due to the loss of fluids), but mineral water does seem to worse the condition (it contains a lot og Mg). I am aching for salt, and the last two days I just longed for spelt salt sticks, thereby eating more grains than usually. That stopped the diarrhea for one day, only to come back last night. I forgot: my skin starts to get very sensitive, itchy, which is particular unpleasant in the insides of some joints (knees) . Very unpleasant, and certainly something which was not part of my experience before the BTD. But that was diarrhea neither (of course I used to be a grain based vegetarian...) I am sorry that this letter got so long, but I am frustrated and certainly I need some assurance that the BTD is still ok for me... Your answer would be truly appreciated. And good you are back - I missed you over the past days, With thanks to you, Eva



Hello, Eva! I'm so sorry you're having this trouble! No, it is certainly not serious and you're going to be just fine. ;-)



The first thing to do is cut back on the flax -- go to 1/4 what you were taking before. Do this for a week, and let me know if the diarrhea and itchiness begin to subside. Also, look on www.mineralwaters.org for a "high calcium, low mag" mineral water. And salt your food liberally with sea salt for a while -- and add that sea salt to your plain drinking water, a small pinch per 10-oz glass.



Write again in a week or so, dear! I want to hear how you're doing!! :-D

Hello Heidi! NOW I found your answer to my question :-) and I see I didn't make myself clear:-) it is about them squashes again :-) you did recommend that I use a food lexicon but *LOL* Latin names are universal aren't they? Let me start from the beginning again :-) When searching your database I see pumpkin listed as an avoid for type B(my husband is type , and as a beneficial to myself - I'm an 'O'. Squash is considered neutral for all types. But how about Wintersquash then for us Os & Bs? The reason I am confused is that 'squash' as in Summer squash or merely 'squash' is Cucurbita pepo in Latin, Winter squash often refers to one of the three following species C maxima or C pepo or C moschata. Pumpkin is either the species C maxima or P moschata. So how do I know if we are eating the right type of Winter squash? Should we stay away from the C maximas or the C moschatas? Butternut and Acorns as you wrote in your reply are the names given to the cultivars - Butternut is C moschata and Acorns are C pepo. So you see - there is more to 'squash' than meets the eye - I grow my own and often order seeds from the US so I am familiar with the types you grow. Next question :-D I am really getting into high gear now ;-) My husband who is a 'B' started with his membrane fluidizer - the lecitin we find here comes as granules but we manage just fine anyway - BUT since starting with the fluidizer each morning he is always always sneezing and has excess fluid in his nose. Normally I'd say it is a good thing because he used to suffer a lot from nose-bleds during our Winters and we have managed so far this Winter (hoooray!!)but all this sneezing and blowing his nose is wearing us down. And he hasn't got a cold - it has been like this since we started in earnest with the Diet - last Summer. BTW - we are doing ever so well on it - pasta was our major culprit - bread for me.....seems bread and potatoes makes me gain weight magically So - I am hoping that you can shed any light on this mysterious sneezing.- he does have hay-fever but that is not an allergy. Many thanks in advance and I think you are doing a swell job :-D keep up the good work! Smiles from Ingrid in Sweden



OK! Hi, Ingrid! Reading your previous question, I'm still curious where you found winter squash listed as avoid -- but anyhooo, here is the lowdown.



"Pumpkin" in the food lists refers to the top-stemmed bright-to-deep- orange late-harvest vegetable which may be smooth-skinned OR have distinctive "ribs" running from root end to stem. It is generally round, squat-round or tall-oval (variations between plants, but the same food item). Some pumpkin varieties such as Hokkaido and Kambocha have green-patterned shells and lighter-colored flesh.



Every other variety of squash, except for the three items "zucchini" (a long, dark green-skinned vegetable with light flesh, of great variation in size), "summer squash" (the same, except with pale yellow skin), and "spaghetti squash," a yellow-melon-looking veg which produces masses of stringy innards after cooking which are perfectly suited as a spaghetti substitute, fall under the title "winter squash." ;-) There are some other kinds of summer squashes (unlisted), but here are some tips on distinguishing the two types for purposes of the diet:



Winter squash and pumpkins have hard shells (not eaten) (although butternut has a thin skin, that skin is not eaten), and the seeds are toasted or baked (dry) separately from the flesh-cooking process for eating. Summer squash have edible skin and seeds, and both remain intact when we cook & eat them.



About your husband? Hmmmm..... Are all the ingredients absolutely fresh? Flax oil is exceedingly delicate, and must be stored in a cold temperature and away from light (an opaque bottle is best). He may be sensitive to flax oil, or to the fruit in the mix. Have him discontinue the MFC for a week, and if the runny nose goes away, then choose one ingredient of the MFC to test on him for a day or two. First the oil, then the fruit, then the lecithin (shake in up in some warm water). In this way, you'll quickly discover which item is giving him trouble.



Thanks for writing, and enjoy your research!! ;-)