As we age our body breaks down.
Lets take our knees for instance.
When we are 18, a 5 mile run probably wouldn't produce any knee soreness at all.
However, make you 80 yr old grandpa run 5 miles and, if he even survives,
his knees would probably swell up like balloons and be very painful.
As we age our doctor will advise us scale back our activities, slightly, so
that we will not put stresses on our body that we are no longer able to handle.
While all of this sounds rather obvious, there is a point.
The point is that people who readily accept a reduction in certain
physical activities as true, do not accept that same reduction
as it relates to their teeth.
As our knees are no longer able to sustain harsh physical activity
our teeth are no longer able to sustain harsh chewing.
People come into my office, all the time, with broken teeth and say things
like, "I don't get it. I've always eaten cashews."
That statement contains everything I need to know.
A life time of cashews does not mean that you can eat them forever.
Quite the opposite actually.
It means that your teeth have endured a lifetime of harsh chewing
and you need to scale back to kinds of food you eat.
You can no longer run marathons and you can no longer continue to eat
the same hard things that you always have. The painful truth is that
as we age we must scale back our activities.
And that most assuredly includes what you choose to chew.
