I have a recipe for T-Biscuits. I use rice flour and tapioca flour. The thing is I followed the recipe to the letter. I'm suppose to end up with soft dough that cleans the side of the bowl instead I ended up with sticky dough that clings to the side of the bowl. I added more flour (mistake) My biscuits came out hard as a rock. Obviously I'm doing something wrong. Do you have any advice for me. Elaine

Greetings, Elaine! Could you post which recipe you used? This isn't one I'm familiar with. I'd be glad to look it over and see what I can come up with! Also, if you could let me know your ABO, rhesus (and secretor if available) type, I could also try to figure out some substitutions for you.

thanks, dear! :-D

Good evening Heidi, I have previously written you before regarding Vega testing - thanks for the reply. I am a type O secretor who is a very active triathlete and mother of three who currently is breastfeeding my nine month old son. I train 2-3 hours per day plus all the running around I do with three little ones. I would like to have some help putting together an eating plan following the blood type diet to ensure that I am eating the correct number of servings per week from each blood type food group. I find myself often craving carbs and frequently hungry with low blood sugar. Perhaps I am not eating frequently enough. I would really appreciate any help that you could give me. Thanks in advance, Sara.

Hey there, Sara! I'd be most pleased to help. Just shoot me a note with any food sensitivities you have, along with any foods you just won't eat (for whatever reason). We'll whip up a nice athlete's table for ya.

I have to say I'm in deep admiration of your endeavours. Heck, with three littles around the house plus your training, I'd say you're a double triathlete!

Best wishes, and I look forward to hearing from you! :-D

Heidi I have been on the diet for well over two years, and although eating out is a challenge (I am an O), I am very happy with the results. How I have managed without reading your column daily which I now do, is a mystery to me!! Thank you for being there for all of us.

Having searched the archives for answers, I still have questions!! If drinking water with meals (maybe 3 or 4 oz.) is a problem, then what do you drink? I have found Soda Water to be great at dinner and through the evening, and have green tea with breakfast. Eating with no liquid would be very difficult for me. Breakfast options...the age old O problem. I understood that grains at brekkie were not good and that rice was preferable. Today you mentioned ezekiel with eggs etc. Now I am confused. Thanks Toni

Hey there, Toni! We encourage folks not to drink much, if at all, with meals, only so that the digestive juices can do their work without dilution. A few sips of water with your meal, if necessary, won't be a problem.

Well... rice is a grain. Ezekiel and Essene breads are 100% sprouted grains, so they are in a slightly different category. The whole what-food-you-eat-with-what-other-food issue is a matter of personal choice by trial & error. Some find they do best with a balanced protein-carb-fat intake at each meal -- some do better separating grains from meats. I mention "classic" substitution options for the standard American breakfast to folks who are used to that breakfast and are just starting out. I don't want to hit them with "organ meats, onions & green veg" right out of the starting gate! ~;-D getting rid of the avoids while maintaining a semblance of "normal breakfast" is important for many people at first. ;-)

You won't find me eating anything but meat, fish, eggs and greens (& other veg) at breakfast, but that's simply what I've come to over years of trial & error (and emotional acceptance of my hunter-gatherer physiology & its optimal regimen). I would like everyone to find their ideal meal-approach as well!

thanks for your note, dear, and I'm very pleased to hear you're prospering! :-D

Dear Heidi, I wanted to thank you for all the info that you put out there. I have been doing the diet for type O for about a month or so and I have had great results with my allergies but not with my weight.

I have also been doing intense exercise (lunges, squats, pushups, abs- believe me this work out is 50 minutes of bootcamp exercises) but the weight is not coming off. Then I read a post about the thyroid and a.m. temp. Guess what? I am consisently under the normal range- average about 97.2.

I ordered a glandular product called Thyodine. Do I continue to take the product after my temp returns to normal? Or is there a maintence routine you do? Thanks again, Tina from VA

Hallo, Tina! That thyroid thing is pretty sneaky, isn't it? Glad you did the temperature test and found your solution!

The Thyodine product I'm familiar with is bladderwrack only, no glandulars or B vitamins -- is that the one you're using? Bladderwrack is fantastic, so give it a month and see if your temperature comes up nicely in that time. You could also benefit by a tablespoon of nutritional yeast in a hot cup of broth or added with some almond butter to a fruit smoothie (sounds awful, tastes great). If things haven't shown progress in a month, pick up a mixed glandular with B vitamins -- ask your chemist or supp shop manager to point out what they carry in that line.

And if the product you're talking about does contain the glandular & B ingredients, just carry on and let me know how you do, OK? by the way, HUGE congratulations on your commitment to the diet AND exercise components of the plan!! SUPERB work! HOO-Rah!! ~:-D

Hi Heidi! Regarding Sayrah's stress and heart and inflammation, I ran across interesting information while working on my magnesium deficiency, and maybe it would be helpful to her. From what I'm reading, magnesium deficiency would increase inflammation, because it is somewhat of a natural antihistamine -- deficiency apparently results in higher than normal histamine levels, which would affect allergies and inflammation etc. And, deficiency can be related to arrhythmias, because of its various effects.

I've been reading that stress and Magnesium deficiency create a vicious cycle, because deficient people can't handle stress as well, because somehow magnesium is used by the body as a calming influence. Without enough magnesium, stress can be more stressful than it would be normally. And then stress exacerbates the magnesium deficiency.

And on a few sites I read that stress situations cause body reactions which result in magnesium rushing out of cells into the bloodstream as a calming reaction -- which if you're deficient, would throw the heart/electrical impulses more off-balance, which might be why heart reactions can happen under stress.

Also magnesium deficiency creates a potassium deficiency because then the potassium can't get into cells effectively even if eating enough (per Garrison & Somer's "Nutrition Desk Reference"), which also greatly affects the heart.

Anyway, it might be worth it to search the web for magnesium deficiency and words like "stress" "arrhythmia" & "histamines". It's very easy to get magnesium deficient (I was pumpkin seed skimping) -- medicines can cause magnesium drain, also Vit D deficiency can bring it on, and if you use alot of Vit B6 you may need more magnesium.

The site www.mgwater.com is a good comprehensive site with many articles. Another site, http://www.barttersite.com/consequences_of_magnesium_defici.htm, is specific to some of the stress effects -- though the severe reactions it's talking about would be for a severe magnesium deficiency, which people on ER wouldn't be likely to have, so no worries there! Hope it helps! (o:Maia

It sure does! WARMEST THANKS, my dear!!! :-D

I had pre-eclampsia with my first pregnancy. I am starting to follow the blood tyope diet and would like to know if it will help to minimize the chance of getting pre-eclampsia again? Emmie

Hello, Emmie! The surest way to ensure a healthy child is to have a healthy mother. The blood type diet and exercise plans are the gold standard of building strength and being physically prepared for the demands of pregnancy. For specific advice, refer to the latest book: Eat Right 4 Your Baby!. Toxemia and high blood pressure are two of the simplest issues that resolve through the use of these diet & exercise plans. Best to you, Emmie -- please write again! :-)

Dear Heidi, Two personal experiences in response to others.

1) On oils and rancidity: I use the contents of a BHT capsule in every bottle of oil to prevent rancidity. Is this a healthy thing to do?

2) On umeboshi plum vinegar: Regular supermarket vinegars (especially balsamic), even in small quantities, make me quite ill and give me swollen eyelids. My husband calls them my "vinegar eyes"; they make me look like a frog. Umeboshi plum vinegar in moderate quantities has no bad effects! I have to have a quarter of a bottle to have a reaction! I wonder if it makes a difference that plums are beneficial for O's? Thanks for the daily guidance! Karen O (O-sec)

Thanks, Karen! Interesting observations!!

From my side, BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) kinda gives me the shivers. I guess any compound including the element "toluene" is something I would need to investigate thoroughly before ingesting it (or touching it, for that matter). Here is a website that will give you some of the background I'm referring to. In short, I would read up on the shelf life of every oil I use regularly, and refrigerate them if needed. I'd be MOST inclined not to add BHT to any food item.

Hope this helps! And thanks for the report on umeboshi plum vinegar! :-)

My dad is 83 and has congestive heart failure. He also has severe stomach pains whenever he eats (except when he is in the hospital which is becoming more and more frequent). He has had to go into the hospital every 3-4 weeks for the past 5 months for blood transfusions as his blood count keeps dropping to 7 or 8. This started about 3 years ago and only recently are the transfusions needed more frequently. He has had every possible scan, scope, MRI, etc. test done 3 times to find where/why he is losing blood and EVERY test is negative for blood loss.

Just as the doctors cannot find what's causing the blood loss they also have no explination for his daily stomach aches. The only suggestion they have is for him to eat small meals but to eat more often. Generally, within 15-20 minutes of his meal he begins to get abdominal pains which vary from and ache to severe cramping and getting worse. The pains are even starting to come before he has finished eating and fortunately or not he has a very healthy appetite although he is skin and bones ( 6'1' and 150 lbs.)

At the recommendation of a relative we were recently introduced to ERF4YT. My dad is very set in his ways, eating is one of his greatest pleasures but he has never been and adventerous eater. As it turns out almost everything he loves is on the AVOID list for his O type blood. However, he is in so much pain so much of the time that he is willing and I've been helping hims to make the changes necessary. At the recommendation of a store dietician he has also started to take OmegaEnzyme before eating and acidolpholis and papaya after eatung to stimulate his stomach acids.

My questions are these:

1) Is there an at home test he can do to check the stomach acid levels. It was suggested that he could drink 2oz. of apple cider vinegar and pains or no pains would determine if his intolerance was to grains or proteins but I didn't actually understand what the result would indicate. Is this something you have heard about?

2) In the Blood Type Encyclopedia under the protocol section, when they list the blood type protocol for a condition is it intended that each of the remedies be taken or is it one or the other? The reason I ask is because when I looked up anemia (which is just one of my dad's problems) there were 3 different protocols recommended and each protocol had 4-5 items mentioned. That would mean taking 12-15 tablets a day on top of the 9-10 perscriptions he already takes daily.

We are just new to this natural/holistic type of living so until we see some very perceptible results from his diet change we will not be eliminating any of his perscribed medications for his heart problems even though it's probable that taking so many perscriptions for so many years is the cause of the stomach problems. On the other hand I do know that they are what have kept him alive this long. There is no man in his family tree that has even made it to 72. Your answers and suggestions will be very appreciated. MDAY

Hi there, Mday - well, I salute you and your dad for choosing the O diet to alleviate his suffering! Be assured you made the right choice!!!

I wouldn't bother doing stomach acid tests - they're fussy, uncomfortable, risky and unnecessary. The key to restoring his digestion is introducing small quantities of beneficial meats, fish, vegetables, and fruits, which will actively stimulate his secretions to perform naturally.

I also agree with you, and suggest, that he not embark on a full series of the protocols on top of taking lots of meds. His body would be best served by working toward 100% compliance with the diet (which is the prime key to all the success we have here); by carefully supervised and graduated exercise; and by adding only two supps: PolyFlora-O (our probiotic, far superior to acidophilus for type Os) and ARA6 (a prebiotic food for the beneficial bacteria, and a great intestinal tract healer -- also available in the Store here). As he heals, he will need less of the medications that became necessary due to a years-long avoid-heavy diet. He should, however, supplement with magnesium -- his heart will thank him. As he feels better, the addition of Deflect-O and a saliva secretor test to enable us to design a targeted diet for him would be in order.

If you do not have one, a juicer which does not remove all the fiber from the juice is a perfect "supp-maker." Beneficial juices based upon carrot/celery juice, with additions from the vegetable list as desired, provide the fluids he so desperately needs (most heart patients are chronically dehydrated) as well as vitamins, minerals and trace natural elements in a form he will find eminently digestible. Another great treat is frozen berries, pineapple and banana, blended with a half scoop of nutritional yeast (I trumpet the virtues of KAL brand) and a tablespoon of walnut or almond butter & some water or ice. It's like a wonderful fresh fruit ice-cream! :-) When you're out from under a bit and he's home again, ask me about my bone broth recipe. Spectacular for delivering protein and minerals in a natural matrix.

Please tell him for me that he is now on track to be healthier and happier than ever before in his life! Every change he makes in the direction of the BTD will repay him many times over.

This is just a quick summary of tips. As time goes by, please always feel free to come back with more questions. I am very much interested in seeing him come through his present difficulties to a very shiny new life! Best regards, and thank you for writing!! :-D

In the Blood Type Encyclopedia it has protocals usually 4-6 weeks. how many times a year or how much time before each do I need to wait to do it again. I have Prostitis, how often should I do the Male Health protocol and.... What is your comments on Colloidal Silver. I use if I get bacterial infection. Thank you in advance. Keep up the good work. Tony

Hi there, Tony! Allow two weeks after a full run on the protocol before taking it up again. There's no need to repeat a protocol unless the problem persists, or unless you want to do them at regular intervals for preventive/protective reasons.

I much prefer Heallix to colloidal silver. Have a good read through that site, and I think you'll agree. :-)

Thanks for the kind words, Tony! and please feel free to write whenever the urge strikes! :-D

Heidi, I have acne and am type O. I know we are supposed to stay away from Wheat. I'm using an acne topical treatment system that contains tea tree in all of the products, which Dr. Dadamo suggested. I noticed that the cleanser has Sodium Lauroyl Wheat Amino Acids as the 3rd ingredient and the gel has Wheat (Triticum Vulgare) Extract as the 4th ingredient. Should I stay away from this? Is this the wheat that's bad for type O? Thank you, Tina

Hi, Tina! In topical products, the food avoids won't harm you. You might try using plain hydrogen peroxide as a last-step "disinfectant," and plain tea tree oil with a bit of pure soap and a gentle facial buff-puff for exfoliating. Probably less expensive than the product system you're using -- and just as effective. Best wishes, and let me know how it goes for you! :-D