Whether it is your body or that of your pet, keeping the immune system strong is vital if you want to maintain good health for you or your pets.

I learned this through my own experience many years ago.

The company I used to work for had a party one evening. There were about 30 people at the restaurant. The main dish was sea foods. Although I didn't want to eat raw sea foods, my boss insisted on my trying raw oysters, so I had a piece, which was a big mistake.

Within the next couple of days, my body started to show various symptoms of food poisoning. Meanwhile, record snowfall that year had numbed the traffic throughout the entire city -- by the time I was taken to an ER, more than twelve hours had passed. I was immediately hospitalized.

Later I was told by one of my coworkers that many others at the party also had food poisoning symptoms (but not as severe enough to be hospitalized). Eating just one piece of raw oyster almost killed me, while others were relatively okay eating more pieces.

After this experience, I often asked this question - why some people become sick while others are fine, after eating the same foods? (By the way, about 200,000 people get sick each day in the United States due to food-borne illness; 900 are hospitalized, about 14 die. Over a quarter of all Americans come down with food poisoning each year.)

It's worth noting that more health professionals and health-conscious people have been shifting their focus to building a strong immune system these days. I myself became more aware of the importance of keeping a healthy immune system after I went through my own experience.

Healthy immune systems can be built on superb nutrition. Diet is always the first line of defense. A healthy body won't happen in a day. It's something you can achieve through daily living, something you integrate into your lifestyle - a healthy lifestyle that is.