Sam Bauman: Gluten column prompts letter about nutrition

I hear from readers now and then. After my column on bread, I got the following email. As far as Japan goes, rice is the main grain eaten, so that might have something to do with its residents’ low rate of gluten sensitivity.

“Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease used to be rare in this country, and are still extremely rare in Japan. There’s a reason for that.

“Grains are cultivars of grass, and not being ruminants we can safely say they are not part of our species’ native diet. Still, a robust immune system can handle such unnatural substances without any dramas. The robustness of our immune system is a function of complete nutrition.

“Deficiencies and insufficiencies of essential micronutrients will express themselves in the form of chronic disorders of one kind or another. Gluten sensitivity is one. Alzheimer’s is another. “Cancer is another. The list goes on.

“The bottom line is that gluten is not the problem. The problem is the American diet, which has changed radically for the worse over the past 40 years. The good news is that it can be easily fixed. I’ve fixed mine, and have perfect health to show for it. Not every 65 year old can make that statement.”

Rich Dunn

Carson City

Then I get phone calls, like one from Jerry Bea, who recently moved here from Alaska. He said he had a couple of problems he’d like to ask me about so we agreed to me at Comma Coffee amid all the suits and ties from the Legislature.

Jerry is a youthful 69, rides a Harley-Davidson and moved here May 2010 after decades of working for the federal and state governments and doing bush flying. He had two questions for me, thinking that at a writer on senior affairs I would be able to help.

First question: where could he find a good, trustworthy lawyer to handle investments problems? That one was easy: check with the Carson Senior Center. It has access to good attorneys.

Second question: Where could he find senor housing?

For someone who had recently moved into a HUD senior living facility and loved it, that one was easy: try my building at 1820 Russell Way. I haven’t lived in a multiple-occupant building since I was in the Air Force, but this is superior living. It’s all new, everything works and the exercise room and the hot tub are just 100 steps down the hall. And the Nevada Appeal is delivered to my door by 8 a.m.

Later I asked Jerry why he had picked Nevada as a place to retire. After all, Alaska takes pretty good care of its seniors.

He had been living outside Fairbanks, but he was getting a little old to fly the bush, and he had found the same nature pleasures in Nevada as up north.

“Besides, it rains too much in Seattle.”

And then there are the Reno Air Races, which as a pilot he enjoys. And “Hot August Nights” brings out the motorcyclist in him. Enough said.

Jerry Bea a sounds like just the senior we need in Carson City.

More mail:

I am sure you have heard or read about Janice Ayres’s passing. She lived her life fully until the very end. Despite serving as a volunteer with RSVP for a couple of years, I rarely had the chance to speak to her. But the organization she left behind is a testament to her skills and dedication.

Sam Bauman writes about senior issues for the Nevada Appeal.