Is this the secret to a long life?
Having been born in Italy in 1899, Emma Morano became the last living person to be born in the 1800s.
She passed away at the age of 117 on 15 April 2017 but after becoming a supercentenarian, Morano was asked on several occasions what her secret was in living so long.
The Italian ate and drank the same thing everyday which she believed was the secret to a healthy lifestyle.
Although many of us would love to live to the ripe old age of 117, we can’t see many people following in her footsteps as she revealed she ate three eggs, two of which were raw, each day for more than 90 years.
Morano also drank a traditional Italian alcoholic beverage each day called grappa (now that part we might be able to manage!)
In an interview with La Stampa in 2011, she said: “I eat three eggs a day and to digest I drink the grappa that I prepare myself: I put it in a jar with seven sage leaves, a bunch of rue grass and some grapes. Then I drink it with a spoon.”
Her doctor revealed that the 117 year old rarely ate any fruit or vegetables.
Morano believes that steering clear of men after leaving her abusive husband is another reason she managed to live so long.
Morano explained how she’d been in love with a man who died in WW1 and she wasn’t interested in anyone after that.
However, a young man who lived in the same neighbourhood as Morano had bluntly asked for her hand in marriage one day and she had no choice but to say yes.
“I didn’t want to marry him, but he forced me. We lived in the same courtyard and one day he sent his mother to call me.
“I went there, and he said to me, ‘If it suits you, you can marry me, if not I’ll kill you’. I was 26 years old. I got married.”
Morano had a child, a little boy who sadly passed away at just six months old and just a year later in 1938 she kicked her husband out.
The former factory worker worked until she was 75 and stayed active during retirement.
She also credits genetics with her good fortune as her mum lived until she was 91, and a number of her sisters had also reached their 100th birthdays.
John Alfred Tinniswood from England became the oldest living man earlier this year at the age of 111 but when asked about his secret to living so long, he replied with a very different answer to Morano.
He told Guinness World Records: “You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it.”
Source: joe.co.uk
