My Affair With Kiwi

 

Kiwi is an exotic, tasty fruit, packed with vitamin C and antioxidants. I like the flavor and its texture. The point is it doesn't like me; for some reason it upsets my stomach. 

At first, I suspected its rather high acidity, but then I found out that it does not have as much acid as citrus fruits, and I never had any problem with citrus fruits. No problems with other fruits high in acid either: grapes, tomatoes, blueberries.

* web picture

Its exterior resembles a potatoe, and this has given me the idea to boil it as I do with potatoes, Not bad, but no change  in the feeling of stomach discomfort. 

Anyway, I recently went into reading the info about it on the web. Kiwi has a lot of health benefits (good for heart, eyes, skin; fights diabetes, helps with weight loss), almost no side effects (except it might cause allergies in people allergic to other fruit or plants - and I'm not in that category). I might eat one or two fruits per day or week, so quantity is not an issue here either.

So what's special about Kiwi that prevents me from enjoying eating it?  Well, I don't know and until I do know, I'm sadly, giving it up.

Gamble

There are people  among us with known allergies to various food components. Eating out means gambling with life for these people. Yet, they  keep doing it and trusting the waiter and the chef  to take care the served food is without the fatal allergens.

Every now and then we read and hear about allergy caused tragedies. The most recent one - the death of a 22 year old israeli allergic to milk , on a trip in Colombia. News like this leave me  hurting inside and speechless.

I remember well when my father (no allergies) was offered to work for a while after retirement. He consulted his family doctor who was not happy about it because of the daily commute involved. 'But I don't drive, just sit on the bus chair', he said. 'Well, that's it', she replied. 'You sit, and sitting is bad for your high blood pressure'.

His work was mostly physical , albeit of a light nature. She was not worried by that, only about his daily commute to and fro work.

Go figure! Millions sit in cars and drive for hours, and she made  a fuss over less than a two hours commute (40 min to, 40 min. fro)! She was referring, however, to an existing health condition (high blood pressure) of a person at a certain age (retirement age) when things might deteriorate and become a kind of gambling with life (she did use the phrase 'don't gamble with your life').

We tend to philosophically say  'All of life is a gamble'. Still, by taking the right measures, we can minimize, avoid, prevent - in fact, control - to a certain extent,  the gambling side of life.