The world’s oldest person has revealed the lifestyle secrets behind her longevity and they have nothing to do with exercise.
Misao Okawa, who turns 116 years old this week, says a diet of sushi and oily fish such as mackerel has helped her live a life spanning three centuries. The Japanese great-grandmother eats three meals a day and sleeps eight hours a night.
Her favourite meal is mackerel on vinegar-steamed rice, which she eats least once every month, the head of the Kurenai retirement home where she lives, Tomohito Okada, told The Telegraph.
Misao Okawa.
Mrs Okawa went into the care home 18 years ago at the age of 98. She was widowed in 1931.
A mother of three, Mrs Okawa has a surviving son and daughter who are 94 and 92 years old themselves. She also has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Mrs Okawa became the world’s oldest person following the death of another Japanese person, Jiroemon Kimura, who died last year at the age of 116.
While Mrs Okawa is the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth, a Bolivian indigenous farmer claims to be 123 years old.
Official birth certificates were not issued in Bolivia until 1940, 50 years after Carmelo Flores Laura’s claimed year of birth, but the country’s Civil Registry Office has confirmed that a baptism certificate and national identity documents which list his birthday as July 16, 1890, are legitimate.
Flores Laura thanks his traditional Andean diet of quinoa, mushrooms and coca for sustaining such a long life – as well as lots of walking and alcohol.
Carmelo Flores Laura, 123 years old.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
