diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown
index cf12367..776cd4c 100644
--- a/README.markdown
+++ b/README.markdown
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ http {
             rise = 2,  -- # of successive successes before turning a peer up
             valid_statuses = {200, 302},  -- a list valid HTTP status code
             concurrency = 10,  -- concurrency level for test requests
+            http_version = "1.1", -- the http protocol version used for request format. Only 1.0 or 1.1 are supported values. By default 1.1 is used.
+            expected_body = "Server_Ok", -- the body we expect to receive. If you want contains instead of exact matching use % (e.g %Server_Ok%)
         }
         if not ok then
             ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "failed to spawn health checker: ", err)
diff --git a/lib/resty/upstream/healthcheck.lua b/lib/resty/upstream/healthcheck.lua
index 4a6e305..c8333c5 100644
--- a/lib/resty/upstream/healthcheck.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/upstream/healthcheck.lua
@@ -19,6 +19,15 @@ local fmod = math.fmod
 local spawn = ngx.thread.spawn
 local wait = ngx.thread.wait
 
+local http_descriptor = {}
+http_descriptor["1.0"] = {
+    delimiter_body = "\r\n"
+}
+
+http_descriptor["1.1"] = {
+    delimiter_body = "\r\n\r\n"
+}
+
 local _M = {
     _VERSION = '0.03'
 }
@@ -199,6 +208,25 @@ local function peer_ok(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)
     end
 end
 
+--- This method is used to detect if a http message body matches the expected body specified
+-- in an upstream healtcheck. If the expected_body is a contains expression (%) then it tries
+-- to read from socket till it gets the string from %%. Otherwise it does an exact read of bytes
+-- and compare the result with the expected body.
+local function is_expectedbody(socket, expected_body, http_version)
+    local readuntilnew = socket:receiveuntil(http_descriptor[http_version]["delimiter_body"])
+    local headers = readuntilnew()
+
+    if not string.find(expected_body, "%%") then
+        local body = socket:receive(string.len(expected_body))
+
+        return body == expected_body
+    end
+
+    expected_body = string.gsub(expected_body, "%%", "")
+
+    return socket:receiveuntil(expected_body)()    
+end
+
 local function check_peer(ctx, id, peer, is_backup)
     local u = ctx.upstream
     local ok, err
@@ -260,7 +288,17 @@ local function check_peer(ctx, id, peer, is_backup)
                             end
                             peer_fail(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)
                         else
-                            peer_ok(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)
+                            if ctx.expected_body then
+                                if not is_expectedbody(sock, ctx.expected_body, ctx.http_version) then
+                                    errlog(string.format("Received body from %s does not match %s",
+                                            name, ctx.expected_body))
+                                    peer_fail(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)        
+                                else
+                                    peer_ok(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)
+                                end
+                            else
+                                peer_ok(ctx, is_backup, id, peer)
+                            end
                         end
                     end
                 else
@@ -600,8 +638,14 @@ function _M.spawn_checker(opts)
         statuses = statuses,
         version = 0,
         concurrency = concur,
+        http_version = opts.http_version or "1.1",
+        expected_body = opts.expected_body
     }
 
+    if ctx.http_version ~= "1.1" or ctx.http_version ~= "1.0" then 
+        ctx.http_version = "1.1"
+    end
+
     local ok, err = new_timer(0, check, ctx)
     if not ok then
         return nil, "failed to create timer: " .. err