Garden Fundraiser
Garden Fundraiser for Harry Spence Elementary
This Saturday, March 4th
You don’t want to miss this exciting event to help Spence Elementary build an amazing Grow La Crosse school garden and outdoor classroom! Music by Grand Picnic, great raffle prizes from local businesses and snacks provided by Festival Foods and People’s Food Co-op. A portion of drink sales will be donated to the garden. Admission is $5 and entry fee includes one raffle ticket. Pre-sale tickets available at Spence school office.
On Three Printing will be printing t-shirts for purchase at this event from 6pm-8pm. $2 of every shirt will be donated to the garden!
Check out details and RSVP here.
Getting Kids Outside
Want even further proof that the outdoors is important for children? Take a look at this article talking about Missouri’s outdoor learning classrooms and about nature deficit disorder. Science proves time and time again that we’re connected to our Earth. And it’s never too late to get kids outside.
What exactly is gluten?
Gluten is still a very prominent aspect of our current nutrition and health conversations. As with every new diet discovery or nutrition craze, people widely vilify a particular food or food group, and gluten is one of the most recent victims. So what exactly is it and why are people avoiding it?
Gluten is a combination of two proteins that are found in the majority of grains we eat—wheat, barley, rye, etc. For plants, these gluten proteins help the tissues stick together during development and keeps the plants fit for seeding and reproduction. For us humans, it gives bread that delicious fluffy, sticky texture.
The trouble comes in for people with celiac disease. Celiac disease is a chronic digestive disorder that makes it impossible for the body to digest certain things. Gluten is, unfortunately, one of those things. For people with this disease, their bodies see gluten as in invader and trigger an immune response when it’s sensed.
But for most people, gluten is harmless. There is no scientific consensus on any detrimental effects of gluten, and most scientists will tell you that there are no recorded benefits to taking it out of your diet. In fact, studies at Harvard show that it might be detrimental to your health. The bread we eat is largely packed with vitamin B in the united states, so taking away that source—especially when gluten is in so many American food staples—could lead to vitamin deficiencies. For more information, see this cool study put out by Harvard!
This is only in extreme cases, however. Every person’s body is different and everyone takes in food on a gradient. It’s never black and white. If eating gluten makes you feel good, have at it! If you feel better and more energetic taking it out of your diet, go for it! Listen to your body and give it what it needs. If anything, you can walk away from this knowing a little more about the history and chemical structure of one of the most important food groups on the planet.
Upcoming
Registration is right here!
