The other day it occured to me how faithfull the majority people are to not disturbing their natural ability for breathing. Perhaps it is because we can't help it since breathing is an instinctive mechanism. It is unheard of to hear a person deciding that he won't be breathing on a certain day or maybe deciding to breath for only a number of hours. We also eat food without caring about its nutritional value for our bodies.

Of course, some people do breath in certain unwholsome gases owing to the jobs they do or the environment they live in. With some people, it is a deliberate thing to breath in toxic gases such as the frivolous habit of smoking tobacco. Other people have learnt to set aside time to control their breathing to enhance their physical wellbeing.Breathing and eating properly are inextricably connected if we are to enjoy good health.

However, breathing remains largely a reflex action in beasts and man alike, which many people have taken for granted. It is well that it is so because breathing is a vital part of keeping us alive, without which we would certainly die as soon as we left our mothers' wombs. But what about food? People can go without food for days without dying because of starvation, fasting or by going on a hunger strike, even to the point of death as some prisoners of conscience are wont to do.

However it is unheard of a prisoner of conscience refusing to breath to drive a statement home. It would be much easier to hang oneself or gas oneself to death, rather than holding one's breath to the point of death. It is simply impossible for the majority of people to stop breathing.

The point is this, if eating were a reflex action, then the body would simply reject many of the harmful foods which many of us ingest. The body would simply throw up any unwanted food eaten by any person. It is indeed strange how human beings eat food that is detrimental to their health. Food that literally kills hem slowly. Imagine the amount of alcohol some people imbibe, the carcarsses of animals we eat and the artificial sugars we ingest.

In my country, South Africa, there are many people who go for days without having eaten a fresh fruit of any kind or vegetable. From breakast, if what they eat in the morning be called such, through lunch up to their dinner in the evening, all they eat is processed foods, fast foods or fried food, artificial juices and sweets of all kinds. I have a taxi driver friend of mine, a voracious meat eater and hard beer drinker who laughs and scoffs at watching me eat an apple, or munching on raw carrots. He has even coined a nickname for me: "nogwaja", isiZulu for rabbit. Many of his regular commuters on his taxi have as many names for his droopping belly and congested breathing.

Many say his flatulence can literally kill a fly and sticks on thier clothes for hours, hence they advise fellow commuters to carry a cologne spray in case he misbehaves, as he usually does on Monday mornings after a weekend of meat and beer binging. The man is a glut for unnatural foods. He hardly ever walks for a distance of over a hundred meters. Now his health has started to trouble him. However he is in a denial mood.

I have latetly heard that he has stopped driving his taxi because he's too big and tires easily. He's only forty. I still do my hundred situps every morning at age fifty six without breaking a sweat. Breathing properly oxygenates our blood and is important for detoxifying our bodies. Equally, eating well, such as eating fresh fruits and vegetables, is also great for our health, especially for weight management and increasing our energy levels.