LGUs to honor Filipinos who reach 100 years old

Filipino centenarians will receive a cash grant, among others, from their local government unit

MANILA, Philippines – Local government units (LGUs) must honor their constituents who reach 100 years old and above,
under the newly signed implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law providing recognition to centenarians.

A plaque of recognition, a letter of felicitation, and a cash grant determined by the LGU should be given to centenarians
on top of the gifts they will receive from the national government.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is tasked to monitor the compliance of LGUs by issuing a
directive to local officials within 60 days of effectivity of the IRR of the Filipino Centenarians Act (Republic Act Number
10868), signed Monday, September 26.

RA 10868 prescribes that Filipinos who live to or beyond the age of 100 will be given a letter of felicitation signed by the
President as well as a P100,000 cash grant. Deceased centenarians will also be given a posthumous plaque.

For the first year of the law's implementation, the monetary gift will be sourced from the available funds of the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Subsequent funding should be detailed in the General
Appropriations Act.

The DSWD has a proposed budget of P17.9 billion for social pension of senior citizens for 2017.

Aside from material gifts, the first Sunday of October will be declared as National Respect for Centenarians Day, which
will fall under the annual celebration of Filipino Elderly Week.

Former president Benigno Aquino III signed RA 10868 into law last June 27, a few days before his term ended.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, together with bill proponents Albay First District
Representative Edcel Lagman and Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, led the signing of the IRR in Malacañang.

To avail of the grants, Filipino centenarians must submit their birth certificate or a valid Philippine passport.

A senior citizen identification card issued by the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), driver's license, pension ID from
the Social Security System or the Government Service Insurance System, postal ID, Professional Regulatory Commission
license, and voter's ID will also be accepted as proof of eligibility.

Applicants are warned that fraudulent claims are punishable "under the pain of penalty as provided under the Revised
Penal Code, Civil Code, and other existing laws for that matter." – Rappler.com

1899-2017

Remembering the World’s Oldest Person, in the Objects She Left Behind

Emma Morano’s singular achievement in life may have been perseverance. She lived for 117 years, crediting her
longevity to raw eggs and her lack of a husband. She died on April 15.

Emma Morano’s small room in Italy. She was celebrated last year as the world’s oldest living person.

VERBANIA, Italy — The last time Emma Morano left her apartment, she was 102 years old. Fame came late in life —
after she hit 110. Last year, she was feted as the oldest person on earth. She had fans the world over. The mayor of her
Italian town thanked her for putting it on the map.

Ms. Morano, the last person documented as being born in the 1800s, died peacefully on April 15. She was 117 years, 137
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days, 16 hours and some minutes old.

 The few worldly possessions she left behind, accumulated over the course of more decades than you or I will probably
live, didn’t take up much space in the tiny two-room church-owned apartment where she spent the last 27 years of her
life.

“We have too many things, too many distractions, too many items offered to us, too many messages, and a person like
Emma struggles to emerge,” the Rev. Giuseppe Masseroni, who himself is 91, said at Ms. Morano’s funeral on Monday.

Her “simplicity is sculptural” — and out of step with modernity, he said.

Next to her bed, Ms. Morano had hung photos of her parents and siblings — five sisters and three brothers — along with
some religious images. Inside the drawer of her night table was a supermarket-aisle anti-aging cream that she had
applied every evening before going to sleep.

One of Ms. Morano’s sisters died just short of 100; another lived to 102.

One of Ms. Morano’s sisters died just short of 100; another lived to 102.CreditGianni Cipriano for The New York Times

For health reasons, Ms. Morano moved as a teenager to Verbania, a small town on Lake Maggiore, in Piedmont. It forms
a recurrent backdrop to the photos of a record-worthy lifetime. In 2015, when The New York Times interviewed her, she
recalled:

“The doctor told me to change air, and I’m still here.”

Her father, Giovanni, worked in a foundry in Villadossola, a nearby town. Eventually, he went blind. Her mother,
Matilde, made slippers by layering fabrics and cutting out a shoe shape. Her family instilled strength of character in Ms.
Morano and her siblings.

“All the sisters were determined,” her niece Rosemarie Santoni said.

She lived alone, surrounded by keepsakes, photographs and other vestiges of a long life.

As a young girl, she would sneak out at night to go dancing with her sisters, her nieces said. This is how Ms. Morano
recollected it:

“My sisters and I loved to dance and we’d run away to the dance hall and then our mother would come looking for us
with a birch stick.”

The reason for her longevity has long been pondered, and investigated, by researchers and fans. Could the lake’s mild
climate be a factor? Or the three raw eggs she ate every day for nearly a century?

A jar of grapes with grappa and sage, prepared by Ms. Morano, in her kitchen.

A jar of grapes with grappa and sage, prepared by Ms. Morano, in her kitchen. CreditGianni Cipriano for The New York
Times

Or an unfortunate marriage and separation in 1938 that made her never contemplate marriage again?

“Emma did not put up with the humiliation of being subservient to a man,” Father Masseroni, also known as Don
Giuseppe, said at the funeral.

She herself had said:

“I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone.”

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The few times she was ill, she refused to set foot in a hospital. She kept rosaries by her bed.
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 The few times she was ill, she refused to set foot in a hospital. She kept rosaries by her bed.

She was devout, wearing her rosaries for decades, though she did not wear them recently because her nieces, her
principal caretakers, were afraid she might choke on them. She hung the rosaries next to her bed, near a photo of her
only child, a son who lived from January to August 1937.

That photograph was buried with her, according to her wishes.

The presents she gave to her relatives tended to be practical: clocks and sheets.

She loved clocks and owned several. “She loved to hear them chime, especially those that sounded like Big Ben” in
London, Ms. Santoni said.

Ms. Morano worked until she was 75, proud that she could pay for whatever she owned. After her separation from her
husband, she had a bedroom set custom-made by a local furniture maker.

“She always said, ‘I paid for it; I had it made,” Ms. Santoni said.

Ms. Morano hadn’t left her apartment for years, Ms. Santoni said. For a time, she had a cat, Lola. And she briefly tried to
raise a pet pigeon and feed other birds, until that caused problems with the neighbors.

Ms. Morano cooked for herself until a few years ago.

She cooked for herself until she was 112, usually pasta to which she added raw ground beef. Until she was 115, she did
not have live-in caregivers, and she laid out a place setting for herself at her small kitchen table at every meal.

“She was very house-proud,” said Maria Antonietta Sala, another niece.

When visitors brought children to see Ms. Morano at her previous home, she would put newspapers on the floor so
their feet wouldn’t dirty it.

After she reached 110, every sunrise increased her fame. Certificates acknowledging her celebrity multiplied. She was
honored by a host of organizations, Italian presidents and schoolchildren. The local gas company even gave her a
certificate for being a loyal customer.

Her mother made slippers by layering fabrics and cutting out the shape of a shoe.She dressed in a varying combination
of a housedress and vest or shawl or both for the last years of her life. That’s how most visitors found her. People came
to see her from around the world. Some kept in touch. One man, who was blind, came every Christmas and Easter.

A woman who attended Ms. Morano’s funeral told Ms. Sala that she had a file of newspaper clippings on her. On the day
of Ms. Morano’s funeral, as her coffin was being lowered into the ground, the woman called out, “Emma, I’m counting
on you to give me as long a life as you had!”

Ms. Morano always took care of herself, going regularly to a hairdresser when she still went out in public, and she even
fretted that she had to be well groomed because of the pilgrimage of visitors.

On the back of this photo she wrote: “Taken in 1943 — Morano E.”

She was always polite and patient, Ms. Santoni said, “but after a while, she would turn to me and say in dialect, ‘Are
they ever going to leave?’”

Ms. Morano was buried in the local cemetery, in the family tomb.

The family tomb, foreground center, with flower pots and a statue. Tributes and certificates from officials had poured in,
commending her resilience.
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 See How the World's Oldest Person Stays Alive

(NEWSER) – A 116-year-old Japanese woman who loves playing the board game Othello was honored Saturday as the
world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records, the AP reports. The global authority on records officially
recognized Kane Tanaka in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka, in Japan's southwest. Her family
and the mayor were present to celebrate. Tanaka was born Jan. 2, 1903, the seventh among eight children. She married
Hideo Tanaka in 1922, and they had four children and adopted another child. She is usually up by 6am and enjoys
studying mathematics.

The previous oldest living person was another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who died in July at age 117. The oldest
person prior to Miyako was also Japanese. Japanese tend to exhibit longevity and dominate the oldest-person list.
Although changing dietary habits mean obesity has been rising, it's still relatively rare in a nation whose culinary
tradition focuses on fish, rice, vegetables, and other food low in fat. Age is also traditionally respected here, meaning
people stay active and feel useful into their 80s and beyond. But Tanaka has a ways to go before she is the oldest person
ever, an achievement of a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years, according to Guinness World
Records.

5 Secrets to Live Over 100 Years Old (The Science Behind the Longest-Living People on Earth)

There are places on earth where, if you don’t make it to 100, it’s almost unusual.
These places have been studied by scientists for decades and have been given a name: blue zones.

As it turns out, blue zones exist only in a few places on earth:

Beyond just living to 100 in much higher rates than virtually anywhere else in the world, these people suffer from a
fraction of the health issues that most westerners suffer from in their 30s, 40s, 50s and later.

Dementia, heart issues and depression are almost non-existent among these people. What this means it that these
people live a fantastic quality of life their entire (long) lives – not just at the end.

That is why this research is so tremendously valuable to most of us.

In the United States, 50% of the people that die every year die from Heart Disease and Cancer – both of which are
somewhat preventable.

We know that there are cultures on earth without heart disease.

And we know that there are cultures on earth without cancer or incredibly low rates of cancer.

And we know that both have a very strong diet and lifestyle component. Yet we haven’t quite figured out why so many
people are dying.

What’s amazing is that in these blue zone communities (in particular, Ikaria, Greece) cancer rates are a fraction of what
they are in the west, heart disease rates are almost HALF of what they are, and dementia doesn’t even exist.

What that means is that not only do these people rarely get many of the diseases you and I would get (and thus live a
more enjoyable, pain-free life), they enjoy optimal health throughout their entire lives – almost until the day they die.

By living a certain lifestyle, not only do you improve your health NOW, this ensures you avoid the major killers later in
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your life.
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 So rather than just saying “okay, but what if I don’t want to live to 100?” these suggestions will help you live an
optimally healthy and happy life now.

Researchers ended up drawing conclusions between three of these particular groups: the Sardinians, the Okinawans,
and the Loma Linda, California group.

What’s interesting is that their “secrets” are not all tangible things.

I’m going to introduce you to the five similarities among the groups, which aren’t exactly secrets, and then after I’ll show
you the individual secrets each of these cultures had. To me, the secrets are what come after these five.

Here’s what they are:

#1 Family

Family is stressed as the most important thing in the lives of these people. It’s a priority to regularly see them, visit
them, and interact with people part of their own tribe. Virtually everything in these cultures revolves around social
interaction.

#2 No smoking (obvious)

#3 Plant-based diet

The major part of each meal was plants.

Note: this does NOT mean they didn’t eat meat or carbohydrates. It means that (like I’ve recommended in this six pack
article), the foundation of each meal is plants, followed by a smaller portion of meat or refined carbohydrates.

#4 Constant low level of exercise (maybe not what you’re thinking of)

When we usually think of physical activity these days, we usually think of going to the gym and hitting it hard.

In reality, the people that regularly live to be the oldest aren’t going through extreme workouts – they’re just getting
regular physical activity like gardening, hiking, or other labor required for farming. And they’re getting this activity every
day.

Regular low or moderate level exercise every day is their exercise.

#5 Social engagement

We see “social ties/family” as 2/5 key characteristics of people who live to 100.

Family and social ties make up an entire 30% of this “secret.” Pretty interesting, right?

But what I wanted was specifics. Having a social life is great, but what was it about the specific characteristics of each
culture that was enabling them to live to an old age?

The Specific “Secrets” of Each Culture

I want to quickly go into a bit of detail on each culture just so you can see how intangible some aspects of optimal health
are. Check out some of the qualities that researchers noted about each culture, that weren’t necessarily as concrete as
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“diet and exercise.”

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 The Ikarian Secret
The Ikarians in Greece have 10x the amount of people that reach 100, compared to the United States.

Here are some of the really interesting things, tangible or otherwise, about them:

They put their family first and have really close family ties – stronger social ties have been linked to lower rates of
depression and stress (source).
They walk an average of 5 miles a day on uneven terrain (as shepherds).
They drink red wine – where studies usually show back and forth research on alcohol, red wine is packed with
antioxidants – what’s interesting is that the Ikarian (like the Sardinian) variety of red wine has three times the normal
levels of most red wine.
Ikarians also have a more relaxed outlook on life and laugh whenever possible. (More on the studies behind the Ikarians
here.)

The Okinawan Secret

The Okinawans in Japan have a fascinating concept they partly attribute to their long lives, called ikigai – which is a
reason for waking up in the morning. It’s almost like a purpose you give to life (or to the day). (Source)

They partly develop this ikigai by having incredibly strong social ties – friends and family that help provide emotional,
physical and even financial support (+1 for friends!) (More on ikigai here.)
Many of the local Okinawans have their own gardens that they play in daily (and obviously get food from, too).
The Okinawans also follow a mostly plant diet, but what’s interesting is that they also have a personal rule where they
only eat until 80% full, called hari hachi bu.
Some Okinawans in their 90s still even have an active sex life. Talk about impressive!

Nicoya, Costa Rican Secret

The Costa Ricans have a very similar rule as the Okinawans – they have something called a plan de vida – a reason to live
(source).

The plan de vida is essentially a purpose or meaning they give to life, which frequently revolves around their social circle
or their family. Family is again a huge component of the Nicoya people’s lives.
The Nicoyans also believe in hard work, they rise with the sun, sleep at least 8 hours a night, and eat their biggest meal
in the morning – and their smallest meal at night.
***

The Million Dollar Question: Is Longevity “All About” Diet and Exercise?
Honestly, we may never be able to synthesize and write a scientific article on “why” these people live long. We know
diet, lifestyle, etc. are critical factors but there are probably many other intangible factors associated with their lifestyle
of longevity and great health.

I want to draw your attention to a few interesting things: the intangible aspects of these people’s lives.

Their social circles. The importance of family.

Having a “reason for living.” Working very hard and being active (not in the gym!), but also having a relaxed mental
attitude towards life so they aren’t getting overly stressed.

What’s incredibly interesting about these blue zones is that we typically associate longevity and health with fitness and
food. In reality, there is an entire mental, social, spiritual and psychological realm that is equally as important.
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What About You?

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 Are you making sure to take into account the intangible aspects of health? Your “social” health, your mental health, your
“happiness” health, your spiritual health?

All these factors play much more into health and longevity than you might think. Eating right and exercise are fantastic
tools and critical for health, but so is inner cultivation and the cultivation of friendships.

How to live to 100 years old as shared by a

centenarian
At 102 years old, Katharine Weber is still seeking out new adventures. Find
out the eight secrets to a longer, healthier and fuller life
by Alanna Glassman Updated Sep 22, 2014

Katharine Weber was born the same year a test aircraft, with wings of steel, silk and electrical tape, took off from an ice
field in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. It was 1909, and it’s fitting that Katharine, who would become an intrepid world traveller,
should share her birth year with Canada’s first flight.
Katharine celebrates her 103rd birthday this month. And a look at her life shows just how much can happen in a century.
She was a child when tanks rolled across French battlefields in the First World War, she survived Canada’s Spanish-flu
epidemic, and in her 20s was a secretary for a shipping company during the Great Depression.
She got married at 38 and, craving adventure, jetted off with her new husband to the Colombian rainforest in South
America, where they lived until Katharine became pregnant with their first of two sons. Later, after her kids left home,
she started travelling in earnest, with trips to Russia, Europe and Australia. At 82, she walked the Great Wall of China.
Often when we think of the elderly, we think of the frail and infirm, the grouchy or senile. We see aging as a losing
battle, but Katharine is proof that it doesn’t have to be. She lives in the same house in Winnipeg where she raised her
sons. She’s always been an avid gardener and last summer enjoyed fresh tomatoes from her backyard. She even
entertains weekly and calculates her taxes at the close of every year.
On her 100th birthday, Katharine’s younger son toasted her full life. “When I think of how it must feel to live through
general strikes, pandemics, world wars, cold wars — and two sons — my first thought is, I’d need some rest,” says
Thomas Weber. “But I look at Mum, and she’s still going strong — sometimes baking cookies or on her hands and knees
at midnight, scrubbing the floor.”
One large long-term study of people over 100 years old shows centenarians share many traits, tendencies and traditions,
even when living oceans apart. Not surprisingly, Katharine embraces many of these healthy habits. And she’s reaped the
rewards with almost no health complaints — even now she doesn’t rely on daily medications and hardly ever wears her
glasses.
But aging is a complex process. And while many of the body’s genes begin to break down once you hit 40, mounting
research suggests there are things you can do to slow it down. “Science shows we aren’t completely at the mercy of
genetics,” says pharmacist and longevity expert Farid Wassef, author of Breaking the Age Barrier.
“We know that because of a study that reviewed the lifestyle habits and genetic backgrounds of twins separated at
birth.” Turns out genes played a smaller- than-expected part in the twins’ likelihood of developing cancer, with their
inherited DNA contributing only 28 percent of the risk. Dietitian Leslie Beck, author of Leslie Beck’s Longevity Diet,
agrees: “A long, healthy life requires good habits. Genes play a role, but the rest is up to you.”
What is Katharine’s secret to enjoying a healthy old age? She also attributes her longevity to more than good genes:
She’s positive, she has faith in life, people and a higher power, and she constantly seeks out new experiences. Read on
for more healthy habits that can help you join the longevity revolution!
1. Never act your age
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In Okinawa, Japan, a region with the longest-living people in the world, residents are considered children until they hit
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55, and a ritual called kajimaya heralds a return to youth on their 97th birthdays.
 In Sardinia, Italy, the traditional greeting, a kent’annos (“May you live to be 100”) is appropriate in a place where age is
celebrated and people work into their 90s.
Katharine doesn’t look or act her age. “Mum is definitely young at heart,” says Thomas. “She recently danced at her
granddaughter’s wedding and still flies out to visit relatives in Ottawa and Vancouver.” Her adventurous spirit has kept
her youthful. Katharine has never stopped searching for new experiences. In her 70s, she toured across Russia, Siberia,
Azerbaijan and Ukraine. A decade later, she made two treks to China. “Age has never stood in her way,” says her niece
Katharine Bergbusch.
2. Shut down stress
Katharine has always embraced a quiet, simple life. “I try not to worry, I just try to live,” she says. “And I try to have
enough trust and confidence in myself to deal with things as they come.” Consciously keeping stress at bay is also
proven to be key in reducing your risk of chronic inflammation and keeping cortisol levels low (research shows
prolonged cortisol spikes may accelerate aging, damaging areas of the brain associated with memory).
The best way to battle stress is to carve out time for the hobbies you enjoy. (Katharine knitted, sewed and made jam
into her 90s and still bakes.) It’s also important to find time in your day for quiet reflection. Research shows meditation
may increase the activity of enzymes that rebuild telomeres, the sequences of DNA linked to aging that act like the
plastic ends of shoelaces — the more they fray, the more you show your age.

3. Eat quality
Calorie restriction (CR) — eating 30 percent fewer calories per day without eliminating essential proteins, vitamins and
minerals — has the potential to extend life and slow aging. In recent studies of rhesus monkeys, with whom we share 95
percent of our genes, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have followed the primates for over 20 years
and found CR delayed the onset of many age-related diseases. Even more compelling: Those who consumed fewer
calories were stronger and looked younger than their counterparts on regular diets. Twenty years after the study began,
80 percent of the calorie-restricted monkeys were still alive, compared with 50 percent of the monkeys on normal diets.
In another study comparing the diets of people aged 35 to 82 over a six-year period, those on eat-less plans improved
their triglycerides, with 95 percent reporting levels lower than the average North American in her 20s.
Proponents of CR say it isn’t about deprivation: It’s a high-quality, low-calorie diet that might mean cutting 300 to 500
calories (a bag of chips and a soda) out of your day. Meals are planned with long-term nourishment in mind. Think
nutrient-dense vegetables and fruits (seven to 10 servings), complex carbs that slowly release energy (unrefined whole
grains and legumes) and healthy fats from olive oil and oily fish. “CR can be such a simple change that it looks like little
more than a lean health food diet,” says Brian Delaney, co-author of The Longevity Diet.
Beck also notes the connection between calories and long life. “Calorie restriction is believed to extend lifespan in two
ways: First, cutting calories reduces the production of free radicals, highly damaging forms of oxygen linked to aging. It
also seems to increase the resistance of cells to stress, helping them live longer.”
4. Sleep and have sex
“Most North Americans live in sleep deficit,” says Wassef. “If you look at long-lived cultures, you’ll see they get routine,
adequate sleep. They prioritize it and they don’t feel guilty about it.” Lack of sleep can offset important hormonal
balances and it contributes to weight gain, depression and heart disease.
A little nocturnal action also has lifelong benefits. A study by Duke Medical Center in North Carolina found a woman’s
past enjoyment of sex (indicating a history of a healthy, active sex life) was one of the top three most important
predictors for increased and enhanced longevity, adding as much as four extra years.
5. Move every day
Exercising today offers benefits beyond tomorrow. Yoga, dance, tai chi and other core-building workouts improve
balance to help you avoid falls as you age. “Turn your home, community and work into places that present you with
natural ways to move,” says Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve
Lived the Longest. “Focus on activities you love like gardening, walking and playing with your family.”
Research also shows the fountain of youth may flow between the treadmill and dumbbells. “Muscles weaken with age;
physical activity helps rejuvenate their stem cells and promote circulation,” says Dafna Benayahu, a medical researcher
at Tel Aviv University. “Regular workouts may undo signs of aging elsewhere in the body.” One study found the cells of
gym users who clocked 150 minutes of vigorous exercise a week looked about 10 years younger than non-exercisers.
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The best news is, it’s never too late to start. Another study found improved memory skills in women aged 65 to 75 who
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took up strength training once or twice a week.

 6. Connect
On Sundays, Katharine’s kitchen is filled with warm smells of foods reflecting her German heritage — roasts, rolanden or
schnitzel. “Sunday dinners are a tradition we’re never going to give up,” says Thomas. All the way across the globe,
centenarians cherish close ties. In Okinawa, they form part of a person’s ikigai, or reason to live. Elders connect with
young people and report some of the lowest depression levels in the world. “Centenarians generally don’t stay isolated,”
says Wassef. “Prolonged loneliness can weaken the immune system.” He points to a study involving 7,000 people:
Women who felt friendless were five times more likely to die from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers.
7. Tweet about it
There’s a growing movement in social networking among the 65-and-older set. Nearly half of all internet users are
between the ages of 50 and 64, and social networking among those 50 and older rose from 22 percent in 2009 to 42
percent in 2010. Googling grandmas report up to a 30-percent decrease in loneliness and symptoms of depression,
according to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Leslie Beck’s Longevity Diet stresses the importance of
stimulating your mind daily to keep your brain active and improve cognitive skills. On weekday mornings, Katharine does
crossword or Sudoku puzzles and catches up on the Winnipeg Free Press to help her stay sharp.
8. Just believe
A survey of centenarians found almost a quarter attributed longevity to their faith. Katharine doesn’t fear death, but she
also doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. Instead, she finds peace in her belief in a higher power and the
goodness of people. Her father was a Lutheran pastor, and she’s always taken an active role in church. According
to Leslie Beck’s Longevity Diet, when researchers look at the power of religion, they note the important benefits of
believing in something outside of yourself. Even if you’re not religious, you can tap into the power of belief, whether it’s
getting involved in your community, volunteering for a cause you find important or finding peace outdoors in nature.
Longevity hot spots
Lunenburg and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: One of the highest concentrations of Canadian centenarians lives along these
craggy seaside coasts. Experts point to something special in the salty ocean breezes, people’s fish-rich diets and their
stress-free community spirit.
Okinawa, Japan: This archipelago’s residents eat three times the vegetables, twice the fruit and 30 percent fewer
calories than the average North American. Hara hachi bu (eight parts out of 10) governs each meal, meaning they stop
eating when they’re 80 percent satisfied.
Sardinia, Italy: Evening meals are washed down with a glass of red wine squeezed from local grapes loaded with
flavonoids, which are believed to reduce heart attack risk by up to 50 percent.
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica: This close-knit community enjoys a high-fibre diet of beans and corn, and dinner is the
smallest meal of the day.
Icaria, Greece: Locals take regular midday naps, drink herbal teas every day and love goat’s milk, which has unique fatty
acids that may protect against age-related inflammation.
Loma Linda, California: Many residents are practising Seventh-day Adventists, and researchers credit their health to a
handful of nuts four to five days a week and alcohol- and nicotine-free lifestyles.
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