In most people’s eyes, the gut is good for little more than going to the loo. Apart from that people think it just hangs around inside their bellies, letting of a little ‘steam’ every now and then. People don’t tend to ascribe any particular abilities to it. But it is so much more than you think.

It is the interface between the outside and inside world of you; where digestion of all the food you eat begins… in the mouth with chewing.

Food ultimately reaches the 7 metres of bowel where it either diffuses across your intestinal membrane into the general circulatory system where things are sorted, filtered and sent to cells or it is sent packing out through the large bowel and discarded. The bowel is clever enough to make 20 or so hormones and is teeming with trillions of bacteria, fungus and sometimes parasites as well.

You are what you eat but you really are what you absorb and there is plenty in modern day life that can upset this delicate balance in the bowel, producing conditions like IBS, burping, bloat, constipation, smelly wind, diverticulitis and more.

Come and find out more at Kim Piper’s next seminar to be held Saturday March 16 at 9am at Yamba 247 Gym, Treelands Drive, Yamba. For bookings call Kim on 0412 496 125 or 247 Gym on 0455 737 827. Kim Piper is a Naturopath in Maclean. Visit www.kimthenaturopath.com or Facebook (Kim Piper-Naturopath).