In order to avoid peanut allergies, we need to make sure we are exposed to peanuts at a critical window.
[E]arly exposure to peanuts produced an 81% reduction in peanut allergy among high-risk children, deemed so because they had already tested positive for other food allergies and/or had eczema. More than 600 children ages 4 to 11 months either consumed, or strictly avoided, peanuts until age 5. Of the children who avoided peanuts, 17% had a peanut allergy by age 5, compared to only 3% in the peanut-consuming group.
In order to maintain a healthy well-balanced intellect, we need to repeatedly expose ourselves to people and viewpoints we find uncomfortable. We need to do this with an open mind, putting their best foot forward. What uncomfortable people and viewpoints have you intentionally exposed yourself to during the past year? If you disagree with these people and viewpoints, are you able to give them their best foot forward before convincing others that your position is superior?
This has a simple, yet difficult, cure. Listen. In the 1960s I marched and sat in for civil rights. We didn’t want special treatment, we didn’t want anything that belonged to anyone else, we didn’t want privileges of any kind. We wanted to be heard. It was so simple, yet difficult for people. I recognized the same sentiment in the protesters against the lockdowns.
We all participate in it every day. In a discussion, we politely let the other person talk, but we’re not listening. We’re thinking about what clever thing we’re going to say next. When both people do this, it’s impossible to find common ground. What’s so sad is that in most cases we want the same thing, we just disagree about how to get there.