Seniors can’t eat like teenagers.

When you were young you ingested just about anything: sugary sodas, greasy fries, junk food, and snacks.

We were duped by our culture that developed our tastes for high levels of sugar, salt and fat.

We want to think that our bodies were made to naturally process everything we put in them--indefinitely.

We expect our bodies to extract whatever nutrition they can and just eliminate the bad.

Every body is different, but at some point, each of us begins reaping what we have sown over the years.

Years of too much sugar and carbs results in obesity and diabetes.

Years of too many animal fats result in clogged arteries and heart attacks.

Years of not enough raw fruits and vegetables result in weak immune systems.

Years of oxidation at the cellular level with little intake of antioxidants results in cancer.

Hippocrates is credited for the phrase, ”Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

What he actually wrote was “In food excellent medicine can be found, in food bad medicine can be found; good and bad are relative.”

Our problem today is that we need to redefine what is meant by “food.”

Today we have far more understanding of which foods are good for you and which are bad.

Some wisdom comes with age, but eating habits and appetites can be very hard to change or control.

For instance, eating meat at every meal is an entrenched eating habit for our culture.

Our bodies do not require meat every day, yet it is unthinkable for most to go a single day without it.

I have a friend my age who told me he was a “meat and potatoes” guy and that he never ate a salad or vegetables.

It was like he was stating an unchangeable condition that he was born with.

We may lose a lot of freedoms, but you still have the freedom to decide what goes in your mouth!

Next: To see or not to see.

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.