by Mateus de Lima Oliveira
Once upon a time, two crabs named Chuck and Cheryl were having a conversation by the beach. Cheryl suddenly sneezed and complained about her allergy to sea salt, insisting that it contained traces of seafood, including other crabs, and that eating it was cannibalism.
Chuck, who was a bit of a smarty-pants, corrected her, saying, "Actually, it's the iodine in sea salt that causes allergic reactions. It has nothing to do with cannibalism!"
But Cheryl was adamant and didn't want to take any chances. She declared that she was moving to the Himalayan mountains to avoid any potential allergic reactions.
"Good luck with that," Chuck chuckled. "The Himalayas are pretty far away. How are you going to get there?"
Just then, a seagull overheard their conversation and offered to carry Cheryl to her destination. She hopped on the seagull's back, and they took off towards the Himalayas.
Once they arrived, Cheryl settled into her new home, a cozy cave with a view of the salt mines. She soon discovered that the Himalayan salt was just as delicious as the sea salt she had left behind, and she never experienced any allergic reactions.
One day, the seagull who had helped her arrive showed up with a friend in tow. "Hey, Cheryl, I'd like you to meet my friend, Chester," he said, introducing them.
Cheryl and Chester hit it off immediately, and soon they were inseparable. As they spent more time together, they discovered that they both suffered from the same allergy.
"Wow, what are the odds?" Cheryl exclaimed. "We're both allergic to seafood and sea salt!"
Chester laughed. "Actually, it's not the seafood that we're allergic to. It's tropomyosin, a protein found in both seafood and sea water."
Cheryl was surprised. She had never heard of that before. But she was relieved to learn that Himalayan salt was safe for them to eat because it was just sodium chloride extracted from rocks, which did not contain tropomyosin.
As Cheryl and Chester settled into their new life together, they laughed at how silly they had been to worry about cannibalism and other such nonsense. They were just happy to have found love and a salt they could both enjoy without any allergic reactions. And the seagull who had brought Cheryl to the Himalayas? He was just happy to have played matchmaker.