Notice that August 1 Southwest will quit offering peanuts on its airplanes in order to reduce allergy problems.  Instead, it will offer pretzels.

For the record, I have never liked pretzels.  I don't eat them; period.  When they're in party mix at Christmas, I pick them out or eat around them.  Just never have liked pretzels.  I travel a lot, and if the airplane snacks are pretzels, I don't take any.  If they're peanuts, I ask for two packets.

Anyone older than 40 can remember a day when the phrase "food allergy" was not even in the lexicon.  I never heard the phrase until about 20 years ago.  Why did no one have food allergies when I was growing up?  Have people changed all that much?  No, but the food has. 

Everything surrounding us has changed dramatically in the last 30 years.  The chemicals, the genetics, the processing.  We are awash in a different context than we were a few decades ago.

And why pretzels?  How about apples?  Bananas?  Grapes?  How about a slice of cheese? Raisins?  I can think of lots of things that would be healthier than pretzels.  Pretzels aren't even food.  Isn't it interesting that we are living in a time when the only thing we're not allergic to is fake food?  Perhaps when a culture worships fake food, that's the only nourishment the people can handle.  Fake immunity along with it.

Will you join me in refusing to eat the pretzels?  What should we ask for instead?