How to Live to Be 100

In a recent article that I read, twenty-five centenarians (people who reach 100 years old) were interviewed to discover their secrets of longevity.

While you would think that many of their lifestyle choices would be extreme health fads or habits, they are actually more normal and homespun than you might think. Ice cream and chocolate made the list. So did beer, wine, whiskey, and gin and tonic. One lady loved bacon and potatoes, every day.

Ordinary foods like coffee, eggs, sushi, olive oil, oatmeal, homegrown vegetables and honey were all diet staples of these super-seniors.

Social choices also showed up – one woman claimed that her long healthy life was a result of her staying single, while another gentleman attributed his reaching old age to brain games that kept him fresh and aware.

Sleeping, dancing, and running were favored activities, while some elders revealed that they credited their daily infusions of diet Coke, M&Ms, and other junk foods. One elegant lady even named “fancy lingerie” as her reason to keep living on.

The point is, we have a lot of latitude on what we should be eating, drinking, thinking, or doing – it’s really more about the meaning of what we do, not the actual deeds.

But the predominant theme amongst these over-100 role models was… less stress. “Don’t worry about the little things if you can’t do anything about it” was the battle cry of one 107-year-old. “Forget about it!”

Now that’s a lesson we can all live longer by.