Let's face it, living for more than 100 years is not a milestone most of us will reach. But that doesn't mean we don't follow diet, exercise, and wellness regimens in the hopes of making it that far—or at least coming close. If you do live long enough to see a full century, aging often comes with countless ailments and complications that can bring down your quality of life. But that doesn't seem to be the case for one 116-year-old woman, who is doing reasonably well at her very advanced age. Read on to discover the longevity diet she credits for her long and healthy life.
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Maria Branyas Morera is currently the oldest living person in the world.
iStockAt 116 years old, Maria Branyas Morera is one for the record books—literally. According to Guinness World Records, Morera is currently the oldest living person in the world. The San Francisco-born woman secured the title on Jan. 17, 2023, upon the death of France's 118-year-old Lucille Randon.
Morera turned 116 on March 4 of this year. Though she was born in San Francisco, her family moved to Catalonia when she was still a child, and she has lived in the Residència Santa María del Tura nursing home in Olot, Catalonia, since 2000, according to Guinness.
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The 116-year-old woman has no major health issues.
iStockMorera's journey to this point hasn't been without challenges, of course. The 116-woman has had to survive two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, and, most recently, the COVID pandemic, CBS News reported. In fact, she is also the oldest survivor of COVID, testing positive for the virus in May 2020.
But despite this, Morera doesn't have many of the health problems most people her age (or anywhere near it) usually face.
"She’s incredible," Manel Esteller, director of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute and a professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona, told the Spanish newspaper ABC, per The Olive Press.
Working with other Spanish scientists, Esteller has collected DNA samples from Morera to discover more about her long life.
"She has a completely lucid head. She remembers with impressive clarity episodes of her when she was only four years old, and she does not present any cardiovascular disease, common in elderly people," he said. "The only thing she has are mobility and hearing problems."
She has revealed the one secret to her longevity diet.
iStockEsteller, who is world leader in genetics, is hoping to use Morera's DNA samples to find out how much her genes play a part in her longevity, and how much her lifestyle can be credited for. As for those lifestyle choices, Morera has opened up about her longevity diet on her X account, where she regularly updates followers on her life.
In a series of X posts, the 116-year-old woman revealed that she eats natural yogurt every day, as it is a "lifelong food with an infinite number of positive properties for the body."
Outside of that, Morera said she is not very strict about her food intake, though she does keep her portions small.
"Many people ask me what diet I follow to live so many years," she wrote. "I have always eaten little, but everything, and I have never followed any regime."
But she also credits other factors for her long and healthy life.
iStockMorera said that in order to live long, it's also important to lead a lifestyle full of "order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and [staying] away from toxic people."
She has also acknowledged that she believes her longevity and lack of major health issues can be attributed to "luck and good genetics," which is something Esteller agrees with.
"It is clear that there is a genetic component because there are several members of her family who are over 90 years old," he told The Olive Press.
Esteller will research Morera's DNA by comparing her genes with those of two her children: one of her living daughters and a son who has passed.
"We hope the study of Maria’s cells will give us new clues about how to address neurodegenerative or cardiovascular diseases associated with age, and cancer," he said.
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