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Topics: Health, Cancer, Food and Drink, US News, California, Fitness, Alcohol
Liv Bridge
Topics: Health, Cancer, Food and Drink, US News, California, Fitness, Alcohol
A nutritionist who has reached the grand age of 101 is still as fit and active as ever, and has shared his top tips for living a long and healthy life.
Doctor John Scharffenberg from California was born in December 1923 and still lives an independent life as a 101-year-old.
He drives, travels the world and manages his own YouTube channel, aptly named Viva Longevity!
The centenarian has shrugged off the suggestion that his long life boils down to genetics and luck, as he has outlived both of his brothers and said his parents died from different health complications, with his mom dying in her 60s from Alzheimer's while his father died from a heart attack at 76.
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So what does he recommend we do to follow in his footsteps?
Dr Scharffenberg says he's never picked up a cigarette. As such, he's put avoiding tobacco pretty high up on his list of things to ditch if you want to live longer.
It's no secret tobacco is bad for us, with the CDC warning the stuff practically harms every organ in the human body, enhancing the risk of diseases from cancer to diabetes.
This could be a tough pill to swallow, but the nutritionist said he straight up doesn't drink alcohol and slammed the theory that a glass of wine a day is 'good' for us.
Scharffenberg said any alcohol consumption, no matter how small, elevates cancer risk, which is supported by a cancer biologist who said even one beverage hikes the risk of the deadly disease.
According to the NHS, eating too much sugar can contribute to weight gain and tooth decay, and Dr Scharffenberg says he often modifies recipes to cut out sugar.
One of his favorite adaptations is a recipe made by his wife which involves making waffles with oats and topping them with berries, cashew cream and bananas as opposed to a sugary syrup.
For the professor, maintaining fitness through exercise is the key to living longer which he says may have set him and his less active brothers apart.
And it doesn't have to be particularly strenuous either, a brisk walk or some gardening will do the trick as the doc said he used to cultivate a garden stretching two acres, growing thousands of strawberry plants, fruit trees and grapevines, which helped him keep fit.
"I did it all by myself, so I exercised a lot," he admitted. "I worked hard. Even though I'm a nutritionist, exercise is even more important than nutrition."
Scharffenberg added: "The time of life you get it is what's important - middle age, from 40 to 70. That's when you need it, because that's the time when people usually relax, have more money, buy more food, sit around more, eat more [...] and that's the wrong way to go."
He also highlighted a study that revealed people who walk more than two miles a day have a death rate half of that of non-walkers.
In the same spirit as keeping fit, keeping your weight in the healthy range is also a good idea.
To help, the 101-year-old said he believes in intermittent fasting where he will eat breakfast and lunch but skip dinner as some researchers say the practice helps to manage weight and even reverse some forms of disease, as per John Hopkins Medicine.
Dr Scharffenberg subscribes to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, meaning he follows a mostly plant-based diet that includes milk and eggs.
The vegetarian says he's abstained from meat since he was 20 years old and prefers fruit and vegetables - particularly mangos, persimmons, macadamias, nuts, seeds, and potatoes.
Finally, he recommends eating less saturated fat, emphasising in one of his talks: "The optimum diet is the vegetarian diet.
"I pray that all of you will live the right lifestyle."
Noted!