Cholesterol: the longevity diet

Emma Morano is the oldest person in the world and the only living person who was born in the 1800s. She is 117, is in excellent health, and has a sharp memory. Her secret to longevity: eating three raw eggs a day. She’s been doing this since she was a teenager. By now, she will have consumed around 100,000 eggs in her lifetime. So let’s hear it for cholesterol! (Egg yolks, I’m sure you know, rate the highest for cholesterol.) Maybe I should up my egg intake from two a day to three.

Then there’s the oldest living yoga teacher: Tao Porchon-Lynch, who’s 98 and teaches five 90-minute yoga classes a week! She drives with confidence and travels all over the world giving yoga workshops. She doesn’t drink water (only wine and tea). Here’s what really gets me: she wears only high heels, saying that they help “elevate her consciousness.” I can’t imagine! (I haven’t worn high heels in about 60 years—and not very high ones at that).

Athletes in the World Masters track and field events include Ruth Frith who competes in the 100-plus category in shot put. She eats no vegetables. Ugo Sansonetti, 97, who is a world record holder for various races in the Masters is fueled mostly by cow’s milk. 

All this is to say you might do well to ignore diet advice.

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