How to live to see the 100 years: tips from centenarians

112 year old Texas resident, World War II veteran Richard Overton smokes daily up to 12 cigars and drinks at least four glasses of whiskey.

Фото: Depositphotos

Overton is currently considered the oldest living male citizen of the United States (he was born in May 1906), and he associates his longevity with his passion for cigars and whiskey, as well as his love for ice cream, which he eats every evening, writes Mail.ru.

And he is not the only one who believes that alcohol and not too healthy lifestyle are the key to longevity.

American Place Advice for Elderly People and Their Children A Place for Mom analyzed numerous interviews with hundreds of the oldest people on the planet and asked themselves why they had managed to live longer 100 years. The resulting list calls into question the opinion that healthy eating, physical activity and the rejection of bad habits - is the key to longevity.

About a quarter of long-livers are sure that they live a long time, because they eat right. However, those who all their life allow themselves fatty foods, sweets, carbonated drinks, smoking, alcohol and believes that this way of life has helped to live more than a hundred years, a little more - 29%.

For example, the oldest person who ever lived on the planet, Frenchwoman Jeanne Kalman, who died in 122, smoked most of her life, drank wine regularly and ate a lot of chocolate. It was cigarettes, wine, chocolate, and olive oil that Kalman considered the basis of long life.

115-year-old Greek woman of the Gospel Carnava binds her longevity with a love of Coca-Cola. Her coevals, American Bernnis Madigan and Geralin Talley, also do not adhere to the principles of healthy eating - Madigan eats four glazed donuts a day, and Talley loves pork legs.

112-year-old Gustav Gernette from Germany has never in his life followed diets or played sports, and his peer Batuli Lamichane from Nepal still smokes 30 cigarettes a day. 111-year-old Briton Grace Katherine Jones is sure that a whiskey glass before bed helps her live so long. 110-year-old Agnes Fenton went even further - she drinks not only a glass of whiskey every day, but also three bottles of beer and considers such a diet the secret of her longevity. Their 105-year-old compatriot Jack Reynolds also links his long life with a love of whiskey, adding it to morning tea and evening lemonade, and 104-year-old Pauline Dunhill always drinks gin and tonic at night. Regular drinking of beer is what, according to 104-year-old American Mildred Bowers, helps her live so long. The same opinion is shared by the centenary Doris Netting, who drinks a pint of beer a day.

109-year-old American Ruth Benjamin says she can't live without bacon and always eats four servings of bacon for breakfast. And her 105-year-old compatriot Pearl Kentrell loves bacon so much that she eats it with every meal. 108-year-old Briton John Mansfield has scrambled eggs with grilled pork and beef sausages every day. 105-year-old American Marian Schlesinger always drinks coffee in the mornings, and in the evenings - liquor, and believes that this habit has helped her to live more than 100 years. Peanut butter, chocolates, bacon, eggs and ice cream are the basis of 103-year-old Imogen Young from the United States. A hundred-year-old Frenchwoman Marie-Louise Wirth never eats fruit or drinks milk, but she drinks every meal with alcohol, like a hundred-year-old American Paulina Spagnola. Coffee and wine are considered the secret of their longevity centenary Gregory Tsakhas (Greece), Art Shtigleter and Florence Beers (USA).

Exercise is also not in the honor of long-livers - only 21% of them regularly engage in some kind of physical activity. At the same time 103-year-old Italian Vincenzo Barrata is sure that it's all about sex - he eats only once a day, but he has “many women”, and his compatriot, who lived to 117 years old, Emma Morano, on the contrary, believed that she had a long life the absence of her husband, whom she had once driven out, and never married again, helped.

At the same time, many people who have lived longer than 100 years called predictable things a pledge of long life - good family relationships, active communication with friends and relatives, positive mood, optimism, easy attitude to problems, good sleep, healthy food, regular walking and so on.

“It is believed that life expectancy is determined by heredity and lifestyle, but what is the role of each of these factors - while it is the object of heated debate,” gerontologist David Demko commented on the survey results. - It is assumed that genes account for 25%, and lifestyle factors - 75%, but this ratio may perhaps be different in light of recent research data. Whatever it was, it is already clear that a long life is not reduced only to a successful set of genes and well-established circumstances. ”

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