Long ago, when the human body was quite a new device, its parts began to argue amongst themselves to determine which was the most important. “Of course I’m the most important,” boasted the brain, “because I control the rest of you.” “Well,” argued the heart, “without me you would run out of blood and you’d die, so I’m more important than you!” “Ha!” shouted the lungs. “without me you wouldn’t have any oxygen so you both would die.” On and on this went, each body part arguing for its supremacy. In due course, the digestive system had its say. “I’m truly the most vital of all the body’s parts!” After lots of laughter, the rest of the body’s parts agreed that the digestive system was definitely the LEAST important part of all. Furious, he thought, “I’ll show them!” and proceeded to go on strike. After only three days, all of the body parts unanimously agreed “Yes OK,…you ARE the most important part of the body!”

I love this story because it really proves a point. We continue to shovel food into our systems without much regard for what it is or what it is doing to us and we still expect our bodies to perform for us every day, yet what we eat and how it is digested is the most important part of our overall health.

Almost all disease can be attributed to the digestive system one way or another and even if you think it is not related, it probably is! A healthy digestive system is what really makes us tick. Hippocrates, the father of medicine knew this over 2000 years ago when he said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

We all know that eating too many sweets is not good for us, not eating fruit and vegetables is bad for us, drinking too much alcohol or not drinking enough water etc. but do we really know how much our diets are affecting our health on a daily basis? After all we still manage to get out of bed everyday and carry on with our lives, most of the time. Ultimately our bodies work incredibly hard to keep us from getting ill but they can’t do it forever if they are not being nourished properly or are fed foods that are harmful to us, over time things will start to deteriorate.

Maybe we should occasionally ask ourselves how we are really feeling? And if we could feel better? I bet most of us could answer yes to that question.

So what can you do about it? Anything? Well you can choose whether to limp into old age just accepting that things will stop working, or you can question a few of your habits now and make some simple little changes, like reducing alcohol, caffeine, sugar, fatty foods etc and introducing more healthy foods like fruit and veg, pulses, nuts, seeds, water etc.

Small changes can really make a huge difference. And sooner rather than later is a good plan! Why not start today?!