Hear ye, all B's! I've recently discovered Calzone: A great home delivery dinner order (for B's, that is: Cheese-filled dough is a compliant O's nightmare). A thin pizza dough shell encloses ricotta and mozzarella cheeses (both beneficial) and no tomato sauce! You can add beneficial vegetables such as broccoli or bell peppers, or such neutrals as zucchini, onions, mushrooms or even beef. What a discovery: A great way to enjoy those dairy bennies.

Other take-out food can be tricky.

From Italian restaurants, tomatoes and tomato sauces, olives and anchovies must be dodged, but pasta alfredo primavera is safe, as are some "white" pizzas and, of course, various veal dishes and salads.

Chinese food is generally not-the-best for us, unless cornstarch, MSG, sesame oil, black beans and soy sauce can be avoided. Most dishes include at least one of these, I find. Potstickers, cabbage salad, steamed fishes or sizzling scallops, beef and vegetables are generally good, however, at the right restaurant.

Japanese food can be safer, especially when it comes to suitable sushi-rolls. Miso shiru and dressing can be avoided, and grilled steak or salmon is usually available.

Thai food is an option if you watch out for: Tomatoes, peanuts, baby corns, and tofu/soy. Those chili pastes are B-friendly, but oils may not be. Charbroiled steak or pork is usually a staple, however, and can be enjoyed sliced over a salad, too, usually with mint, lime and red onion.

Indian food entices with lamb, paneer, eggplant, cauliflower and curry -- all beneficial - but tomatoes lurk in many sauces (curries, masalas, et al), and chickpeas and lentils are also staples (papadums, pakora batter, dahl, etc.). Kurma, a favorite mild Punjabi sauce, is based upon ground nuts that might be almonds (fine) but just as likely could be cashews (avoid). Go for Lamb Kebobs and a fragrant rice or naan. Dress it with a yogurt-based cilantro/mint chutney and onions and green peppers, often provided.

Those are the most prevalent cuisines delivered in San Francisco. If health permits and these deliveries aren't frequent, you can spring for "borderline" favorites (and even pick out what offends, if you like: My garbage disposal eats many a tomato, peanut and olive).

Remember: You can also wipe or wash off unwanted sauces. And: Ask for special orders. Often I ask that baby corn be omitted. I've also asked that the cook "do his/her best" to omit more painstakingly removed items such as chickpeas, when plating or boxing. You'd be surprised how many are willing to make the effort.

You can also invent dishes (especially if you're a regular customer and are willing to pay a bit extra and wait a bit longer). Ask for a sauce you like on an item you like, even if it's not printed on the menu. Where appropriate, order dressing/sauce "on the side", so you're not obliged.

As for calzone: I don't know what I imagined it'd be, but to me it's basically a thin-crusted pizza LOADED with melted, fresh and beneficial cheeses: Yummy!

With immune strength, one passes through major infectious epidemics and challenges relatively unaffected; one's terrain is simply too well protected to succumb. I say "relatively" because the common cold that progresses in most from upper to lower respiratory symptoms, for instance, may never affect the bronchi in a strong host. It behooves us to attain maximal immune strength and to facilitate that for our families as well.

The Blood Type Diet is a crucial avenue to host immunity, as are blood type-specific lifestyles, fitness choices, and nutritional supplements. Then, if one does succumb to infectious illness, one may be afflicted to a lesser degree than otherwise.

I also favor French-school aromamedical approaches to the palliation of an infection's symptoms, as these naturally strengthn the terrain and host-immunity at the same time. Significantly, many essential oils are actually anti-viral, whereas allopathic medicine has yet to compete with these, synthetically or derivatively. Certain essential oils also strengthen the liver, helping to rid the body of infectious debris during convalescence, plus: They uplift mood and disinfect the sickroom.

Remember that antibiotics are over-prescribed and are actually harmful in cases wherein they are inappropriately matched to the specific infective organism. The overwhelming majority of cold and flu cases do not require them, and, often, even severe cases of viral illness are better served without resorting to them.

One knows one is robustly healthy when a cold is suffered briefly with no chest symptoms, or when one is on the verge of succumbing to the cold and doesn't. Though I'm rarely ill, I recently came down with a cold and spent 3 days at home with it. I used no nighttime antihistamine and, yet, when it was finished with my nose and sinuses, it was OVER. I'd had no fever, no hoarseness, and no bronchial congestion. I emerged from it feeling very vigorous on day 4. Most important, I know that the immunity I enhanced by permitting my own system to rally to the challenge will stand me in good stead the next time I'm exposed to a cold virus (something particularly important for my blood type, B, which, Dr. D'Adamo teaches, is somewhat more prone to debilitating viral infection).

Over-The-Counter symptom relievers may be required at bedtime and/or if one must be out and about during the early phase. One can gradually learn to implement self-care with natural substances, however, and it is actually more considerate to isolate oneself from social contact at this critically contagious time.

For the common cold, steam vaporization is highly effective. The infusion of mucolytic and decongestant essential oils into the the steam brings relief, and these can also be incorporated into chest rubs and nasal ointments. Antiviral and antiseptic essences are good choices, too, for diffusion and, if available, internal application. Peppermint gelcaps now grace the shelves of health food stores: Take as directed during the convalescence phase for natural hepatic support. The herb thyme is a phenomenal expectorant. Use thyme teabags (or a sprig of thyme) in your teapot.

If at all possible, head off what feels like an imminent cold, by taking a Larch-elderberry supplement, drinking double-packets of Alacer Emergen-C, and letting drops of eucalyptus globulus essential oil fall onto the edge of your mattress/pillow or onto tissues placed around the head of your bed...or vaporizing them overnight; this latter essential oil can be a real miracle worker! And try to avoid your blood types "avoids".

"Cold Season" comes around at least once a year. Learn what works and. over time, you'll find yourself often resisting all signs of it.

I've got a beef: Ever hear that red meat -- its industry and those who enjoy it -- is sexist? We're not talking about responsible vs. irresponsible industry standards, my friends; I've even read that Real Women Shouldn't Eat Meat! Such political correctness, were it to become epidemic, would kill off more O's than did cholera! Great: Massive population control, Peace on earth, and the-repletion-of-the-ozone-layer, once those hunters are out of the way; save the cute little calves, but skewer thy neighbor!

Vegetarian Times? Yoga Journal? How about Responsible Beefetarian and Omnivore Report? Equal time! Any venture publishers out there?

Some ask why vegetarians can be judgmental versus those who don't eat as they do. I say it's only the ones who have no greater faith. Those who make of dietary choice a religion are the freaks, no? In the end their flesh-eating maggots'll push up the same daisies as will mine (even tiny carnivores have the last word, ladies).

Meanwhile, this babe takes hers Prime, Aged, and Medium-Rare. Take it up with my lawyer (or doctor).

Let us close with a hymn: "Mary had a little lamb, a little beef, a little ham..."

When tested over the long haul, the Blood Type principles deliver good health and digestive well-being. Then comes the point at which they are easily integrated into one's way of life. This is a major milestone for any diet.

How many follow Veganism until it damages their health? How many scruple macrobiotically until it alienates them from society? With the BTD, compliance is relatively easy, once one has hit one's stride.

I have Type B blood, and, over the years, I know increasingly how to grocery-shop, how to restaurant-order, and which nutritional supplements can benefit me. I know that after an all-Beneficial meal, I'll feel satiated, not full, and certainly not bloated. I also know -- and this is crucial -- which "avoids" to favor over others, in extenuating situtations, and what to expect in the way of immediate consequences.

Here at the top of my B game, then, one finds no tomato or corn or chicken products in my pantry, nor any lentils nor chickpeas nor peanuts. One finds, instead, an assortment of cheese/yogurt/milk products, some eggplant and/or bell pepper pestos/sauces, and lamb in the freezer. Fresh produce is brought in, such as kale, parsley, onion, lettuce, carrots, pineapple, plums, etc. Fresh fish, likewise. There is a large assortment of herbal and green teas (and some black ones, too). Etc. It's quite simple.

Simplicity and banality. The Blood Type Diet, ideally, in practice, becomes a boring subject! It is no more than the way I choose what to place in my shopping cart or to order at restaurants. Occasionally, one makes a discovery: A great way to serve venison, a good restaurant for rabbit, a particularly interesting aisle at the Indian grocery, a new variety of kale...but such discoveries await just about everybody. Once one has entered what may be called The Maintenance Phase of the Blood Type Diet, it becomes more and more of a "no-brainer". This is why the attainment of Maintenance status is such a worthy goal. It behooves one to search out the foodstuffs and venues that shall support one's program over the long haul. Having done so, Life awaits.

Blood Group anthropology supplies a way to frame a modern crisis: The divorce of human diet from our own species' natural habitats and place in the food chain. The advent of neolithicity signified Man's assuming control of the earth and its wildlife, eventuating in our associating fish with the Seafood Department, meat with the butcher's shop, grains with boxes and sealed plastic bags, and vegetables and fruits with "Produce" bins.

Paleolithic man, we are taught, was of the O blood group, hunting and gathering meat, fish, greens and berries, co-participating in terrestrial life with other life forms. Blood group A mutated to facilitate a wholly different (and "modern", regnant) manner of living on earth: The mastery of plant and animal life, which has defined the history of Civilization. B mutated later, and in small numbers, as shepherds migrated further into the wilderness with flocks and herds, becoming nomads with infrequent contact with settled communities. AB was generated, appearing a millennium or so ago, of the cross-breeding of migrating Asiatic B's with, on the west end, settled Europeans, and, on the east, Japanese and western Asians: A thoroughly modern development.

My previous Blog treated of AB's as yet indefinite anthropology; in the mystery of AB's vocation lies, I believe, the solution to our profound environmental malaise: Where do we go, as a species, as a "civilization", from here?

B reacted versus A, one could argue, by altogether leaving the farms and towns; but the 20th century witnessed the veritable annihilation of B's nomadism by technology, which replaced the various animal-relationships upon which B lifestyles depended, whether with horses, camels, or even yaks, and, by extension, sheep and goats. Motorized transport, mobile telephones, refrigeration: These increasingly, and now quite finally, halted B's unique adaptive relationship to the earth and its dominant cultures.

I posit the human/animal relationship-type as fundamental to blood group differentiation, and my own blood group, B, as arising from a rebellion, if you will, of shepherds against agricultural and urban hegemony. There were just enough of us ready to depart from cities and farms, courageous enough to throw in our lot with animals chosen for their ability to supply us with numerous products and services in exchange for our finding pasturage for them in ever more remote locales. During the first centuries A.D., however, as our blood group's populations returned to the cities, we abandoned more and more of our geographically nomadic ways, spinning-off the next era's groundbreakers, the AB's, who, since nomadism's very recent decease, may hold the key to the resolution of Modernity's ecological dilemmas, as we study its developing relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom.

When we look back at the disappearances of more ancient civilizations, we are baffled as to how these highly developed centers simply ceased to exist. Yet, in our own lifetimes, numerous peoples amongst earth's humans, have been forced by technology's encroachment to integrate themselves into alien predominant ways of life, especially to the high-tech juggernaut. Animal-rights concerns and environmentalism may turn out to have been the distant precursor of AB's unique (and technologically sophisticated?) stab at an answer, one that shall singularly encompass and represent the strivings of all of its blood group forebears. In the meantime, while A supplies the older, settled, established human-dominant community allele, and B (which FOUND a solution but, since AB's technics era, this was squelched) contributes the minority "outlaw"- mutual-subsistence allele, it is O's primaeval memories and stories that haunt, drive, and even inspire us all.

What AB shall make of the melange, and the opportunity, is Posterity's Secret.