What's the world's oldest man's to longevity? Skipping three squares a day…If you remember my recent post on Walter Breuning; he’s currently the world’s oldest man having recently (9/21) celebrated his 113th birthday. Remarkably he is also quite a personality and quick witted as you can see the previously linked video interview with him earlier this year.
In lieu of dinner, he puts away a big breakfast and a big lunch…
"I think you should push back from the table when you're still hungry," Breuning told USA Today. "You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much."
What I find notable in the story is a couple things. First Walter skips dinner effectively maintaining a low calorie diet. This is the basic premise of the CRON diet (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). Everything Walter eats is healthy and natural as he stays away from restaurants and excessive foods. What I like even more is that he isn’t a stickler about it though. He still likes his occasional sweets and cakes. Thanks my kind of guy.
Second, the man has had a purpose in life and has worked hard well into his advanced years. The article says he worked all the way up to his 99th year! This supports one of the main findings presented in The Blue Zones, which I reviewed last month and recommend picking up and reading in your spare time. In the Blue Zones author Dan Buettner found and reported that the longest lived pockets of the world all share (among other things) hard work into their advanced age in common. Regions where the elderly maintained a working lifestyle as opposed to a sedentary lifestyle had a greater proportion of centenarian. Walter definitely lends support to that theory in this respect.
Walter is defiantly a character and I’m glad to say he’s still sporting a smile; I hope if I ever make it into my second century I can be as happy. Check out the full article for more details on Walter Breuning’s recent birthday interview and more on his longevity secrets.
Source
New York Daily News, 9/28/09
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