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The closest practioner in our database is a naturopath, Angela Goldstein, ND, in Lake Forest. It's a bit of a trek from you -- about 80 miles north of San Diego, near Laguna Nigel -- but it may be well worth the travel. The next closest would be in Ventura (about 8 miles north of Oxnard) and the next in Solvang, about 25 miles north of Santa Barbara just on the 101.

I hope one of these folks will fill your needs. Do call and interview the office you'd like to visit before travelling there, to get a "feel" for the people who would be involved in your treatment. There are more and more people using Dr. D'Adamo's plans in their practice all the time, and I'm sure not all of them are listed in our database. Try looking in your local phone book and asking nutritionists and health food store employees in your area if they know anyone who uses this system. You might find someone closer to home.

Cheremoya fruit has not been tested for ABO reactivity. Technically, that means it is an "unknown" and can be treated as neutral. That said, if you are facing health challenges it is wise to treat "unknowns" with caution. Don't make them your main food source. :-) An efficient, if risky, way to test an unrated food is to eat a good quantity of it in the evening, a few hours away from other food, and see how you feel. If you notice discomfort, at least you have some evidence that the food is not for you.

Thank you for writing, and good luck!

From South Africa to Sweden, my how the world is shrinking!

Thanks for a wonderful column. I am an O and must still determine secretor status, but am following the non-secretor list due to adverse reactions to almost all grains. I have 2 questions: 1) Your answer in the column regarding shopping for O-nons was very informative BUT my biggest dilemma is what to eat for BREAKFAST, except Essene bread and eggs? Meat & veggies sound unthinkable and I avoid nuts due to their high fat content, to keep my weight down. Meals for the rest of the day pose no problem. 2) In one of my juice books there is a recipe for Rejuvelac, a fermented drink from sprouted wheat seeds and water. It is supposed to have many beneficial enzymes and I was wondering if this would also be as beneficial as the Essene bread, seeing that O's may not have yoghurt. Amanda, South Africa.

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Hi! I´ve read in Ann Wigmores Living Food about somthing called Rejuvelac. It is a drink made from naturally fermented grain and water. I am a 0+ and wonder if Rejuvelac could be of benefit for me. Thanks, Rolf

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Greetings from at least 3000 miles away, friends! My gratitude that you speak English is profound, as I'm afraid my Afrikaans and Swedish leave a great deal to be desired. ;-}

Last things first ~ Rejuvelac: I haven't read Ms. Wigmore's book, but if her recipe calls for 100% sprouted grain and water, fermented without the addition of anything in your "avoid" list, it's absolutely fine. Since it's made fresh at home, I conjecture that it might be beneficial for all types, in fact. (I just received a note from a reader who says there is some concern over bacterial contamination with Rejuvelac, and some spas no longer use it. Proceed with caution....)

And... breakfast for type O: Amanda, if meat and veggies at 7 a.m. sound a little off the beaten path at the moment, how about steak and eggs? Or minced meat and scrambled eggs, with some onions and garlic thrown in? Thin-sliced salmon or other fish, cooked quickly, topped with poached eggs? There is a Spanish dish called a "tortilla," which is a large omelette made with any number of items (onions, peppers, garlic, a little homemade beef or venison sausage perhaps?) baked in an iron pan and served hot, warm or cold.

In my country, it is traditional to eat toast, eggs, bacon or sausage and homefries (pan-cooked potatoes) in the morning. This is easily adapted by using eggs, some leftover meat, fish or fowl, and sweet potatoes or yams. Experiment! Any of these choices might be modified to satisfy your taste for breakfast, and carry you through to the easier meals of the day! Good luck!

Hi, Diane ~ thank you for the compliment! :-)Yes, it does make a difference to Os, and a number of other blood types as well. Here's a question to which, happily, there is a definitive answer!

It started as a regional thing in the southern U.S. to call sweet potatoes "yams," with variations such as "garnet yams," etc. The dual usage has since spread countrywide ~~ and nobody cared, until BTD came along. ;-> In my organic grocer, they complicate the matter by using both terms. It all began with an imported word which canny veg distributors originally used to distinguish the heritage pale-yellow sweet potatoes from the darker-pigmented new-and-improved strain. The word, "nyami," was conveniently heisted from a food item which is botanically and physically quite distinct from the sweet potato. However, rest easy: all those little tubers, be they pale yellow, dark orange, dark red, etc. are sweet potatoes.

In your supermarket, I doubt they have true yams. They have them in mine, because I live in a predominantly Dominican immigrant neighborhood. If you frequent Asian grocers, you'll see species of yam there, too. They all have a dark brown, almost woody-looking, somewhat shiny skin and chalk-white innards. Their size varies from long-sweet-potato to huge -- the bodega a few blocks from me regularly displays torpedo-sized specimens.

The yams of food list and database fame have a dry, hard, starchy flesh, and belong to the Dioscorea family of plants ~ while our HB sweet potatoes (from meek yellow to outright magenta) hail from the Ipomoea clan, with the softer, sweeter qualities we're all familiar with.

Here's a great reference page from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Have a read, and spread the word! :-D