First, the bad news: I know of no commercial frozen yogurt that does not contain corn sweeteners and/or lectin-accelerating gums and/or milk from cattle raised with growth hormones and antibiotics. Most of the frozen desserts on the market have one baddie or another. Perhaps some of you type ABs and Bs out there will write in with brand suggestions, including the ingredient list? I’ll post them here if they meet your exacting standards!

Now, the better news: perhaps I could interest you in a great web page with simple recipes for fabulous summer desserts? With nothing more than a freezer and an electric mixer, you can make your own organic goodies, including frozen yogurt, sorbet, mousses, sherbet, Italian ices, even a full-blown ice cream sundae. Doesn’t take long, tastes wonderful, and you’ll know exactly what’s in it.

Here are a couple of tips:

· Substitute pineapple juice with a touch of lemon where orange juice is called for.

· Ripe plantains are nearly identical in taste and texture to bananas, and they’re Neutrals for you.

· Use some vegetable glycerine in place of sugar or honey (which is fine for AB secretors, but not for nons). It has a beneficial effect on blood sugar, and helps create the creaminess accomplished by gums in commercial frozen yogurt and ice cream. You can find it in health food stores, usually in the cosmetics section.

· Yogurt can be added to most of these recipes... and using the yard-long fruit list from Live Right 4 Your Type, you can dream up all kinds of things. You might freeze the yogurt first, and make a fresh, cold sauce of your favorite fruit to top it with.

· You can even go wild and use a dollop of cream cheese (you people have me licking my chops here) in place of the heavy cream in some recipes. Ain't it nice to be AB?

There are recipes for frozen confections made from rice, almond or soy milk scattered here and there in the Message Board Archives and in RECIbase® ~ use the search term “ice,” you’ll find ‘em! Some require little more than a blender and an appetite. Enjoy!

I'm looking for clarification on grain and starch portions. I am type O+ secretor (caucasian). The portions in Live Right say 1-6 per week, each portion being 1/2 cup dry. This may seem straightforward to some, but does that mean I could have up to 9 cups of COOKED rice per week if that's all I had for grains. As well, would 6 portions of oatmeal be 6 cups cooked for the week? I've been avoiding eating these because I wasn't sure of the amount and as well, I was wanting to lose weight and thought that eating rice or oatmeal might deter from that. Would you please enlighten me. Thanks.



Your calculations are correct, if the kind of rice or oatmeal you use cooks up to that amount. Back when I ate oatmeal (*sigh*! Nonsecretor here!) I used Scottish rolled oats that came out around 1 cup cooked to 2/3 cup dry ~ less than the popular commercial brands. Bear in mind that ½ cup of dry white rice, for example, will often produce a larger volume of cooked food than the same volume of dry brown rice. This only means it has absorbed more water, but it can seem like a big difference in portion size when you’re eating it! However, it is the volume of dry food that counts as … the food, for our purposes.

The LR4YT recommendations are based on dry measures as a cook’s convention. It’s certainly less messy and more precise than gauging a quantity of clumpy, moist cooked grain.

As to weight loss, the grain effect varies among type O secretors. Some find that simply eliminating the avoid foods leads to rather swift weight normalization. Others have reported good results only after further limiting their grain and sugar intake. They might halve or quarter the recommended allowances of those foods, or eliminate them altogether. This is your mission: to find out how much grain your body handles well. Remember my broken record: exercise is fully 50% of this plan, so efforts in that direction may enable you to have your weight loss and eat grain, too. ;-)

Frankly, while you’re shedding the fat I’d be happier if you maxxed your meat portions rather than your grain portions. Technically, you are welcome to eat the maximum grain allowance per week, with the caveat that if you are exercising according to the protocols but your weight loss does not proceed at around two pounds per week, you think of lightening up on the grains and increasing vegetables, fruit, and possibly your meat servings, instead. And don’t forget those beneficial fats. Type Os most often eat an abundance of fats and get lean and happy thereby. Grains offer little nutrition that the rest of your diet will not provide, so no worries if you’re presently comfortable without them. When the time comes when your scale is a welcome sight in the morning, you can add them in again if you wish.

Summertime can signal your brain to seek out higher carbohydrate foods, as these were only available during the warm growing seasons when our race was young – and were prized for their neurochemical-stimulating blast of carbs. Sweet fruits, berries, and honey for example – as well as primitive grain. I note this only as an addendum, but summer to fall are biochemically ideal for getting more exercise and eating more high-carb foods. So, be gentle when considering how best to balance grain intake against your weight-loss goals while the days are long. In late fall, crack down to your heart’s delight!

Some comfort: as you go along, keep in mind that while you are losing fat, you can be maintaining or gaining body weight for a while. This is a good thing. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat by volume, and it’s muscle which will change your metabolism for the better, for good. Use a measuring tape instead of that soon-to-be-friendly scale for a couple of months. Your clothes may be falling off you while the scale has budged little. Surprise! Guess which one is the better indicator of fat loss? :-D

With the improvement in health that the blood type diets produce, needed weight loss occurs as a welcome side-effect. Enjoy the process of getting stronger, leaner, and happier. For most of us, it's inevitable!

Thank you for the compliment! And congratulations on having married a guy with your blood type. :-D You'd think that with all the Os around, it would be some sort of default setting that most women would link up with type O men. I've never even gone out with an O, as far as I can figure. Reminds me of my mother saying, "It's as easy to marry a rich man as a poor man." She had to be joking. In any case, pretty funny coming from the woman who married Dad. *L!* Moving on...



The issue with black pepper isn't with the pepper itself. It's specifically with the stuff most people think of (rightly) as black pepper -- that has been ground and poured into a tin or bottle, then stored for months in a warehouse before you ever see it on the shelves. When the protective outer covering of the peppercorn is broken, several species of molds cry out "Hoorah!" and proceed to set up housekeeping on the soft inner pepperparts. Os with a history of allergies, especially to mold, can further stimulate their overactive immune systems with this superannuated storebought ground pepper. Pepper packs given out with fast food, and peppershakers at restaurants, can contain pepper you'd have to carbon date to determine the harvest. That's the reason "black pepper" is listed as avoid in Eat Right 4 Your Type.



However, you can make your husband an even happier man by using a peppergrinder and buying black peppercorns instead of the pre-ground stuff. Freshly ground pepper is neutral for Os, as listed in Live Right 4 Your Type and TYPEbase3®. It will not affect your weight loss program, and he's right: it does taste better when added during the cooking process. Enjoy!