It’s probably not an issue for you, but one of the toughest disciplines for me is eating healthy. I grew up on fried chicken, fried okra, fried cornbread, etc. I genuinely love to eat.

The old adage is “you are what you eat.” If that is true, I am ready to start laying eggs! I am making efforts to eat healthier the older I get.

David Murdock is an 87-year-old billionaire. He is really taking seriously his eating habits and is convinced that he can live to be 125-years-old.

Murdock says he has never had a backache, or headache, or anything else that most of us think of as being a part of growing older. He attributes good health to his healthy eating.

He has already spent $500 million building a massive research campus in North Carolina. He believes that the key to longer life is a low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and antioxidants.

Three times a day he drinks smoothies consisting of ground up orange rinds and banana peels and his meals mainly consist of seafood, egg whites and nuts. If he is eating in a restaurant and a waiter brings butter, he says “take the death off the table.”

His wife died in 1985 of ovarian cancer. He is convinced that if he had insisted that she eat more healthy, he could have saved his wife’s life. He doesn’t necessarily try to proselytize people today to his way of thinking. He just says, “it is okay if you eat that way. You’ll go before me.”

While I have tried to maintain something of a healthy lifestyle, I have a lot of improvement to make in the area of eating. When you see me at a restaurant eating fried chicken, don’t judge me too quickly. While I am making some strides towards better habits, I am nowhere near the place that I need to be.

Part of my rationalization is my Dad. He did eat not very healthy and lived to be 96. I remember one day at age 94 he was eating a big plate of fried chicken. He looked at me a little quizzically and said, “Do you think I could have lived longer if I hadn’t eaten so much fried chicken?” Good question.

A convicting passage of scripture is I Corinthians 6:19, 20. Paul says “Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

With all the obesity in our nation, and I understand Alabama ranks at the top, all of us need to do a better job of practicing healthy habits and teaching them. I am looking to grow in that area.

So, please pass the broccoli!