Health and History

"Only by acceptance of the past can you alter it."– T.S. Eliot

As part of our studying about health and nutrition, Edie has been reading about gluten intolerance and the symptoms exhibited in individuals who have gluten sensitivities. We both have some of the symptoms so, beginning today, we're going gluten free. A few of the symptoms of gluten sensitivities are listed below:

Gluten sensitivity has been known to...

cause irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease;

affect breathing and cause asthma;

suppress the metabolism and cause weight gain;

in more severe cases, cause weight loss;

cause eczema and dry skin;

cause joint pain;

cause acid reflux;

lead to a misdiagnosis of ADHD in children.

Companies add gluten to many products--it's not just in wheat products--and it's often disguised as an unpronounceable additive. It will be necessary for us to be very diligent and check the labels on all the products we buy. We'll keep you posted on how we do and, more importantly, to see if refraining from ingesting gluten eases any of the symptoms that we've experienced. If any of our readers have had experiences with gluten sensitivities, we'd love to hear from you.

On another subject, in one of the books we bought regarding the making of America, there is a section called Founding America: A Timeline. For those of us who have not attended school in many years, it's interesting to refresh our memories of the events that led to the Revolutionary War and the beginning of our country. We're going to include entries from this timeline in our blogs everyday, beginning with the earliest date of 1765 and ending with the year 1791. Below is the first entry:

1765 - On March 22, the British Parliament adopts the Stamp Act, imposing on the American colonies a tax on legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards. Colonists respond by pressuring the men appointed to distribute the stamps to resign their commissions, boycotting British goods, and convening an intercolonial Congress to state the grounds for American opposition.

That's all for now, but we'll be back.