Overcast

by kateey @ deviantART.com

Gotta love rainy days.  

They're even better when you get to spend them alone in peace and quiet. 

My dream this morning was school-themed again. I believe that makes it the fourth school-related dream I've had in the past week. I feel like there could be three or more meanings behind it, so I'm not exactly sure what it's referring to. 

I read two articles today that were relevant to my previous post: one about wheat and one about fluoride in tap water. 

First, regarding wheat... I discovered that link through a friend on Facebook, who is starting a wheat-free diet today (I think she has some stomach troubles with it). It definitely grabbed my attention because, as I mentioned before, I'm a pasta-lover, and a lot of carbs I eat are some form of wheat (mainly pasta and bread). But I was unaware of what the linked article mentioned: the presence of an opiate in modern wheat called gliadin, which "stimulates the appetite such that [people] consume 440 more calories a day, 365 days per year."

That means, on average, those who consume wheat-based products on a regular basis consume about 160,000 more calories a year than those who don't.

Now, for some of us, that isn't a horrible thing. I tend to consume about 1000-1200 calories a day - give or take, depending on what it is I'm eating. I consume an average of 300-500 calories per "meal" (lunch and dinner), with maybe 100-300 calories extra, counting evening snacks.

The average daily caloric intake for Americans in 2003 was about 2700. I couldn't really find anything more recent than that; I would imagine it's about the same - if not worse - today. Livestrong suggests that a "moderately active" woman consume about 1800-2000 calories a day. I don't think I ever eat that much in a day, unless I'm splurging, or am in Louisiana (lol). 

But I digress. The point is, wheat has been identified as a "poison" - and apparently, people who cut it from their diet are losing anywhere from 30-150 pounds, and are seeing relief with ailments such as arthritis, depression, and IBS. Actually, I knew that wheat was a big IBS trigger for some (gluten?). But because it's not for me, I never thought about what "modern wheat" actually is. The other day, Mom mentioned a book she'd been reading that suggested we shouldn't be eating wheat at all.

The look of horror on my face, I swear.

Now, as far as the fluoride spiel is concerned... all that article really said was that two years ago or so, the government decided it wanted fluoride levels in water decreased because it was found to cause all sorts of problems in children. I wasn't actually aware of that, either. I just figured the government would do what it does best: screw people over and keep the fluoride in there. I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, the government will realize that having fluoride in our water doesn't do us any good whatsoever - and that includes the "cavity prevention." 

Plus, fluoride makes our water taste like crap. I remember drinking the water in Italy and being unable to distinguish between water served at the restaurants and water served from the city fountains. And no - I'm not saying that the restaurant water tasted bad. I'm saying that it was freaking delicious.    

 Apparently, companies are making fluoride micro-dissolving to the point where reverse osmosis filters are unable to filter it out. I'm not sure if this is actually true, but if it is, I'm a bit miffed. I've been thinking about what I'm going to do once my parents live overseas - since I'll be doing the grocery shopping for myself. A reverse osmosis filter system is pretty expensive ($150 ish), so I was thinking I could just buy distilled gallon jugs instead. This makes me a little sad, though, because that means more plastic wasted and more money spent (we currently use a PUR filter system to drink tap water). Oh, well. Gotta make some sacrifices, I guess. 

But fluoride and wheat aside.. Leon-cat is getting more tame. He's still not comfortable if you make a move toward him (like approach him), but he's totally cool with you sitting a step or two away so long as you're still. Since it began raining while I was preparing his food, I let him come onto the back patio to eat... but because I did, he began making efforts to come inside; I think he's now beginning to associate inside with food. I had to keep closing the door to ensure I didn't have a cat roaming through the house.

Here's a phone pic of the fluffball (through the glass, since he would've come in if I opened the door):

Cute, ain't he? (Or she? Still have no idea) I love cat personalities, even though they always look like they're pissed at you. I just hope he's keeping dry somewhere, because it's been raining pretty well here for the past few hours. 

Eron plot-building is going well. I'm getting a lot of good ideas that I should probably be writing down... only I keep getting distracted by other things. 

Time to tackle a reading or two...