The foods in your daily diet play a big role in how healthy you are and how long you live. In fact, one of the key practices of people in blue zones is to eat mostly plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables and nuts.
In previous interviews with CNBC Make It and other publications, many centenarians attributed their long, healthy lives to their diet.
Here’s what four people ages 99 and older say they always eat, and also what they never do.
Elisabeth Franz, 115
Elizabeth Francis, the oldest living person in the United States at 115, told ABC 13 that she eats “everything.”
But Francis “always grew her vegetables in the backyard. I never saw her go to a fast-food restaurant, like Chick-fil-A and all the places I liked to go. She never did that,” her granddaughter Ethel Harrison told TODAY.com.
In addition, Francis has never smoked and does not drink alcohol, Harrison noted.
Deborah Szekely, 102
At 102, Deborah Szekely still helps run her fitness resort and spa three times a week. Szekely has been eating a mostly plant-based diet since she was a child.
“I’m a pescatarian. And I was actually lucky enough to never eat meat thanks to my parents,” she told Make It.
Your typical breakfast, lunch and dinner looks like this:
- Breakfast: Yoghurt, a banana and whole grains.
- Lunch: Salad at home, she said, or lunch at a restaurant.
- Dinner: A meal of fish, salad and a baked potato or she tries something new.
Their diet is very similar to the Mediterranean diet and includes fish, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables.
Shirley Hodes, 106
Shirley Hodes, who was 106 when she spoke to Make It in March last year, said she wanted to limit her consumption of animal fats and drink only skim milk.
“I like to eat simple, balanced food without too many sweets,” said Hodes, who followed the guidelines she learned in a Red Cross nutrition course during World War II.
Daisy McFadden, 99
When Forbes spoke to Daisy McFadden in 2010, she was 99 years old. She talked about what she usually ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Their meals usually included:
- Breakfast: Oatmeal, cranberry juice and a banana.
- Lunch: Salad with beets, cucumbers, tomatoes and chicken or fish
- Dinner: Lean meat and steamed vegetables
- Dessert: Fresh fruit
“I don’t drink lemonade at all, and I never did,” McFadden told Forbes. Instead, she drank water, juice, milk or iced tea.
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