I'm somewhat confused about the compliance factor. I've got a lot more browsing and reading to do, but in the meantime can someone help me out please?
It was my understanding that as long as I stick to neutrals and beneficials I'm fine. But somewhere on this board I got a whiff of percentages and ratios, like there's gotta be a ratio of beneficials to neutrals; did I understand correctly or what?
If I consume only neutrals will I be ok? I can't see why not, as long as I'm avoiding the avoids - the bad guys! Right? or wrong?

You can approach the diet however you like, it is an individual thing. Eating some or mostly beneficials will provide you with more things that are helpful to you than neutrals. Eating avoids will provide you with more things that are harmful to you than neutrals.

Quoted from diffy

I'm somewhat confused about the compliance factor. I've got a lot more browsing and reading to do, but in the meantime can someone help me out please?
It was my understanding that as long as I stick to neutrals and beneficials I'm fine. But somewhere on this board I got a whiff of percentages and ratios, like there's gotta be a ratio of beneficials to neutrals; did I understand correctly or what?
If I consume only neutrals will I be ok? I can't see why not, as long as I'm avoiding the avoids - the bad guys! Right? or wrong?

As Lloyd said, you can choose to eat whatever you want...
Beneficials are like medicine, Neutrals are food, and Avoids are like Poison.  The more Beneficials you eat, the more healing that will happen.  

The best way to approach the diet is to eat as many beneficials as possible and fill in a bit with Neutrals if you need more variety or if you have no health issues it doesn't matter if you heal, so just avoid your avoids...

variety is key, and following the guidelines will give you the balance you need.

make sure you follow the frequency values given of each food group.
and build your daily menus according to your taste.

Ah, the frequency values! That's what I was missing. Do I need to be vigilant about not exceeding the values, or about ingesting AT LEAST the minimum amount?
I appreciate everyone's patience in responding to my flood of posts today!

diffy, if you are really have the need to go off your symptoms...so just go for the benes' and that will work much better and quicker for you, just try it for 10 days and see the difference ......and please don' feel offended....ask yourself whats beyond all those symptoms...why did they flare up in
such a hard way......and please..please... begin to care about sideefects and symptoms....this is too
easy not to make work your brain for yourself read the labels before....and take care of your own
responsabilities

and remember....Dr. D.... isn't a doc who wants to profite from our healthissues.....he really wants to help us in teaching us *how* to fish .........

Frequency values give you an idea about portion sizes and relative amounts of food groups to be consumed in your average week, i.e. how many servings of veg, protein, grain etc you could consume in a week as well as serving sizes.  

Use these as starting point.  Once you understand the guidelines you can start to play with them.  How your body reacts to deviations from the rules (both good and bad reactions) will allow you to tailor them to your specific needs.  

For instance whilst Os are allowed up to 5 servings of grains a week a lot of Os find they do better without grains in their diet...

For your perusal:
http://www.dadamo.com/faq/smartfaq.cgi?answer=988813714&id=988813483

Alia

Alia, I perused....hm...tall order...70% ought to be benes....and that's when I regain my health....for now it's 80%...gosh...that's no small feat...

Alia - thanks for the link.
I had never read that. 80% bennies on the A nonnie diet is tough; esp since I have given up 99% of my allowable dairy and grain. Actuallllllly that would makes it morrrre doable bc neither of those are bennies.    I'll stop whining now. This program is so worth it.

Understand that once you get your health challenge under control, you can probably cut back on your bennies a bit and replace them with the best of the neutrals.  (I'm talking about the Neutrals, allowed frequently category in the Health Series Books).

My 2 cents.
For Type O's, good quality bennie protein is key at virtually every meal.  Protein is not the main ingredient of a Type O meal; you should actually have more mass of vegetables, but that Type O protein (along with a good fat) it really, really important.

Dr. D has said something like this:
Avoids cause illness
Neutrals are just food
Only beneficials can promote health

I consider neutrals to be for variety, and that's about all.  And even so, I use only the Frequent Neutrals.

It's ok to start wherever you are, and move at the speed that you are comfortable with.  The more health problems you are struggling with, the more you should concentrate on beneficials.  As you become more healthy, you can introduce more Frequent Neutrals.  (but, by this time, most of us are so in love with how we feel on beneficials, we don't have a high level of interest in the Neutrals any more!)

Diffy, Dr. D. himself said it best in ER4YT:

Look at beneficials as foods that act like medicines in your body.

Look at neutrals as foods that act like foods in your body.

Look at avoids as foods that act like poisons in your body.

Avoiding the avoids is important, especially avoiding those that you determine through trial, error and experience are the worst ones for you.  For most of us O's, those will be wheat (for sure), corn, and for me it is also coffee.  However, only fairly recently have I come to understand that eating enough beneficials is just as important as avoiding avoids.  I don't want to be "stuck in neutral".  Beneficials really promote health for you, neutrals just are there for variety, which is very important, but ...shoot, gotta go, to be continued manana, basically:  try to get in some beneficials in every meal, but certainly in every day.  Kirk out!

You might want to try adding in one or two beneficials a week, or every two weeks, and allowing the avoids to slip out of your diet. Yeah yeah, I know, most avoids don't want to slip quietly away! Just hang in there and keep working on it, it's worth it.

I'll tell you that in my experience, as you begin to eat foods that act like medicine in your body, your tastes start to change. Your body is healing and likes what you're feeding it. You like how you're feeling and want to keep that great sense of well-being. And as you take processed foods, simple sugars and starches, and grains out of your diet, you start really tasting how good high-quality, energy-laden food is--the complex and subtle flavors, the delights of seasonal vegetables and fruits, the fun of blending and seasoning and using fresh herbs and a hundred other things you never did when you were eating crapola.

As Victoria says, once you've healed you can add in frequent neutrals and bring back more variety to your food plan (if you are eating to heal chronic disease etc). I find the hardest thing to do is to eat enough vegetables and fruits. We need a bigger and better fridge! I'm slowly adding in more and more bennie veggies, and bringing in more fresh fruits through drinking smoothies, and already I can feel how much better my energy levels are.

Take it one step at a time and be gentle with yourself. Come and talk with us if you need help or have questions, or just need to rant Hope this helps.

It assists me tremendously to think of beneficial foods as medicine for my body.  Now, I truly believe my body craves beneficials.  I usually add neutrals for variety, but it is predominantly beneficial foods I purchase.

Inititially, eating mostly beneficial foods may seem overwhelming, but if one adds a new beneficial item to their grocery list each week, or tries a new vegetable weekly or perhaps a new recipe weekly, this lifestyle can be approached as a culinary and health adventure.

Alia

I am glad the link was helpful, diffy and purlgirl.

Please keep in mind that this lifestyle is very individualized to each person, thus compliance level is entirely up to each individual.

Alia