Use your head. Go with your gut. Trust your heart.
There are plenty of colloquial phrases like these, but unfortunately there isn’t a similar phrase for the kidneys. Especially considering the important role they play in filtering blood and removing toxins from the body, and several other key functions, there truly should be.
The closest the kidneys get is to be used as a synonym for disposition or temperament. As Falstaff puts it in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “a man of my kidney.” Or as T.S. Eliot’s speaker laments the loss of their youth in “A Cooking Egg,” saying they will meet “heroes of that kidney” in the afterlife, describing poet and scholar Sir Philip Sidney and Roman general Coriolanus.
Others may only view of kidneys as a dish that should be served with fava beans and a decent chianti.
While there is a dearth of pro-kidney colloquialisms, there is yesterday's World Kidney Day, a global tribute to the importance of maintaining good health for this oft-overlooked organ.
One in 10 globally is affected by kidney disease. Try and keep yours healthy with a few simple steps such as: a healthy diet and food intake, monitoring blood sugar and blood pressure, avoiding smoking, exercise, and regular check ins with your physician.
To help celebrate the kidneys, an anonymous poet known only by a pen name of “Dr. Euro Lodgy” submitted this “Ode to the Kidneys:”
