Vegetarian Becomes a Supercentenarian
Picture above from Secrets of Longevity. There are opinions and there are facts when it comes to a healthy diet! The medical dictionary says "Supercentenarian: Someone 110 years old or over (no upper limit). This term was coined in 1991." Only one in 1,000 centenarians becomes a supercentenarian. Bernardo LaPallo became 110 years old a week ago-- August 17, 2011.
He lives in Mesa, Arizona and is a renowned chef. Wikipedia says that he is a pescetarian but that is wrong. Maybe they will fix it when they see this. A pescetarian is like a vegetarian but also eats fish.
A news report says that he is a vegetarian. So which one is correct? From Bernardo LaPallo's blog (November 2010):
Do you eat any animal products at all?Wikipedia says that Lapallo is the world's oldest blogger. You can say that he is not a strict vegetarian like Michael Jackson was who was stricken dead. Bernardo LaPallo suggests 5 foods for living longer on the news show. They are garlic, olive oil, chocolate, cinnamon and honey.
I do not eat meat, except perhaps once a year. Eggs, dairy and cheese comprise a small part of my diet, too.
For much more information on how a vegetarian, vegan or plant-based diet can increase your health and longevity see Prevent and Reverse Disease With a Plant-Based Diet. It also has a video on how this type of diet can help you by Michael Greger M.D.
An M.D. (Steven Pratt) wrote a book with the 21 healthiest foods called SuperFoods Rx (2008). All of these 5 foods are among the 21 foods in the book. Other foods that are among these 21 foods include apples, avocado, beans, blueberries (includes other berries), broccoli, kiwi, oats, onions, oranges, pomegranates, pumpkin, spinach (also other greens), tea, tomatoes and walnuts. Wild salmon and yogurt were also on this list.
This 110 year old (Bernardo LaPallo) has written a 2011 book about health called Age Less Live More. Bernardo was taught herbology by the father of American herbology, Dr John Christopher. He consumes herbal products. They do not have side effects like drugs. Below is him on the TV news. Wikipedia says:
Lapallo was born in Brazil on August 17, 1901, and moved with his family to the United States at age five. He grew up in New York, were he has lived most of his life. In later years he has lived in Mesa, Arizona. At age 110, he is currently working on a second book.On August 17, 2013 LaPallo became 112 years old.
TV News Show 109 Year Old Eats Chocolate
"The longest unambiguously documented human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875-1997), who died at age 122 years, 164 days." --Wikipedia. Du Pinhua was a vegetarian and Buddhist who lived until she was 120 years old. "When she turned 116, she credited her longevity to not eating meat until she was 110 and to never arguing with others."
Teresa Hsu Chih is a vegetarian and is still alive at age 113 years old. She is known as Singapore's Mother Teresa. She is a Buddhist/Roman Catholic and Buddhists are known to meditate. Meditation has been shown to increase lifespan.
Leona Lewis wrote her first song and became a vegetarian at age 12. She has been a vegetarian for 14 years. I like this song of hers:
Leona Lewis- Happy- Youtube
Here is a 108 year old vegan in the news (February 2008). Joel Fuhrman M.D. has around 5 foods for fighting cancer and other diseases. He created an acronym for them. An acronym is the first letters of words to created a word that is an abbreviation. For example laser used to stand for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Scuba used to stand for self contained underwater breathing apparatus.
So Dr. Fuhrman's acronym is GOMBS (rhymes with combs) or more recently GOMBBS. An article on that is on this or one of my other blogs. It stands for greens; onions; mushrooms; berries and beans; and seeds and nuts. So I created an acronym to remember the vegetarian supercentenarian's 5 foods for longevity. The acronym is CCHOG. So that stands for chocolate, cinnamon, honey, olive oil and garlic.
When I wrote this the oldest living person in the world was 114 years old and that day she became 115 years old. Besse Berry Cooper (née Brown; born August 26, 1896) was born in Georgia, USA and now lives in Tennessee. She is a retired teacher.
Here is just one aspect of why a vegetarian diet is better than a diet with a lot of meat. No animal foods have fiber. Fiber helps the colon to function better. All plant foods have plenty of fiber unless it is taken out with processing. For example processing whole wheat (whole grain) into wheat (refined wheat)(refined grain) and processing brown rice into rice (white rice) takes out a lot of fiber and nutrients like antioxidants.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine says:
Dietary fiber intake provides many health benefits. However, average fiber intakes for US children and adults are less than half of the recommendeHe is alive today which would make him 114 years old but it is disputed since the birth certificate says that he was born 10 years later in 1911. He said that they made a mistake on his birth certificate.d levels. Individual s with high intakes of dietary fiber appear to be at significan tly lower risk for developing coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertensi on, diabetes, obesity, and certain gastrointe stinal diseases. Increasing fiber intake lowers blood pressure and serum cholestero l levels.
