We interact with the world through our senses. The five traditional senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. We have other senses as well such as balance, perception of time, pain etc. If our senses warn us that our environment is unfriendly we respond – too much sun we cover ourselves, use an umbrella or sun screen or withdraw to the shade. To much glare we put on sunglasses, close our eyes or squint and look the other way. Too bitter a taste then we stop eating. Too loud a noise we put on ear muffs or withdraw to a safer distance. So we modify our behavior according to our sense perception of the interaction with our environment.
But there is one interaction with our environment where most of us proceed whilly nilly. Our gastrointestinal tract, often referred to as the “GI tract” digests the food we eat. It is immensely complicated. It also covers a huge area – according to Wiki: “The surface area of the digestive tract is estimated to be the surface area of a football field”. So in terms of size this is the largest interaction we have with the world around us. Many of our ailments derive from GI problems. It seems to me, using the analogy of a factory, that the problem can be stress, the functioning of the processing equipment or the raw materials used.
I know when I was under stress I would resort to antacids, a quick fix of the symptom but not the cause. But leave aside stress induced problems and think only of the effect of bad raw materials entering the processing facility. The sophisticated equipment will struggle to process inferior input. There will be delays, break downs, protests and a degradation of the whole plant. And what do we do – we are aware things aren’t right so we suffer and then head for the aisle with cures for digestive ailments, and then later take prescribed medicines or are compelled to more drastic intrusive measures. And our assessment often is there is not much to be done about it – just grin and bear it.
A bit like staying uncovered in the bright sun and then taking pain relievers to alleviate the sunscreen. Surely time to take more interest in what we eat in the first place?