The Secrets To World’s Oldest Human’s Long Life, Aged 117, Will Surprise You

The world’s oldest person, who turns 117 in November, has given us a clue as to how she’s achieved such longevity and they may come as a surprise.

She is the eldest of 8 children who has outlived all her younger siblings, but Ms Emma Morano is still some way off the previous record, held by France’s Jeanne Calment who lived to be 122.

Morano, from Verbania, Italy on Lake Maggiore, is the last known person alive to have been born in the 19th century, and she puts her longevity down to eating eggs and cookies daily – but hardly any fruit or vegetables, Dailymail reports.

”I eat two eggs a day and that’s it. I eat cookies. But I do not eat much because I have no teeth,” she said.

The egg habit dates from when she was diagnosed with anaemia at 20 in the wake of World War I and a doctor advised her to eat three a day, two raw and one cooked.

But it’s not in the eggs themselves, perhaps, that the secret lies, but in their preparation or in her case, lack thereof. Morano has said she’s eaten two eggs raw for decades since then, adding that the cookies sound much more appetizing.

She maintained the eating habit for 90 years and is believed to have eaten over 100,000 eggs and counting.

”Emma has always eaten very few vegetables, very little fruit. When I met her, she ate three eggs per day, two raw in the morning and then an omelette at noon, and chicken at dinner,” said Mr Bava, who has been her doctor for the past 27 years.

Now she lives mostly on biscuits ‘and does not want to eat meat because she doesn’t like it anymore and someone told her it causes cancer,’ he added.

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”She is a very determined person. She has never wanted to go to hospital, she’s never received any particular [health] care. She’s suffered from a bit of bronchitis, had a [blood] transfusion, and some stitches, but always at home.

Now she’s well, she’s very well, but it’s clear she lives every day in a very, very precarious equilibrium,” he added.

While her mind is alert, she is very deaf, speaks with difficulty and does not see well enough to watch television, spending her time instead either sleeping or snacking.

Although she is not planning to celebrate her birthday on the 27th of November, the world record holder said she expects well-wishers to come from far and wide to mark the day. 

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images