Taking health for granted

I wanted to write about our health, and how we take it for granted. I'm undergoing a minor surgical procedure tomorrow. It's not a big deal, I've had it done before, but as all surgical procedures, it carries some risk. I'm not worried about it, but it causes some introspection and thought about our health and how we can take it for granted.

I'm amazed at the punishment some people put their bodies through. And I'm amazed that the body can continue to function throughout the punishment! For me - I am overweight, and I put my body through some major tests. Like running a marathon at 100kgs. But it did it. I continue to overeat and the body is forgiving - to a point. Internally subtle changes happen - fat accumulates around the organs, the liver can't function quite as well as fat is deposited in there. The arteries start to get some deposits, they might solidify and eventually become blocked. But form the outside, everything looks fine, apart from me being overweight. I know all this, and yet 10, 20 years can pass without me doing anything about it, and possibly without me having to face any consequences for my actions.

I am embarking on a radical change in a few weeks that I hope will give me the opportunity to reset some of the bad habits I have carried throughout my life, and go some way to restoring my unhealthy relationship with food to a healthy one.

I see heavy drinkers, and smokers in our society, and how they can continue these unhealthy behaviours for 30, 40, 50 years before the body responds perhaps catastrophically. But isn't that amazing? That the body can take such a beating, for such a long time, without significant impact on people's lives.

I guess modern medicine has a major role to play in the longevity of our lifespan, despite unhealthy habits. We can continue to drink, smoke and eat poorly, but pop some antacids & cholesterol lowering drugs and continue to live a pretty functional life.

Image Source

But when the big event happens - the heart attack, the diabetes diagnosis, the cancer diagnosis; only then do we really begin to realise the effects of our lifestyle. I wonder what it is that we dissociate cause and effect when it comes to our lifestyle choices and our health? Perhaps the fact that, in most cases, the consequences are long after the choices.

I've come to an opinion recently that food is a major cause of most lifestyle issues. I know there are studies that show that gut health is a major contributor to inflammatory disease, and mental health issues. When I as travelling in Europe earlier this year, I noticed how different food was in France compared to Australia. Perhaps it's down to individual choice, but the food there was fresh, less processed, and "food miles" were much lower as each region used it's own produce to produce the meals we were eating. I think Australia has followed the USA in terms of consuming much more processed food. And I understand how we have got there, with great distances to cover in Australia and limited land for farming. So processed food became extremely convenient, and cost-effective.

So I look forward to the radical challenge I will begin on my food consumption. I will treat it as an experiment to see how my body, mind and spirit respond to radical changes in food intake. I'm sure to learn a lot about myself and my relationship with food.