How about this for inspiration. Author, blogger and Super Centenarian Bernando LaPallo will be 111 this year, and feels on top of the world: "As I move into my 111th year of life, I still feel great and am grateful for my good health which allows me to stay active both physically and mentally. I have never been sick in my life."

How about this for inspiration. Author, blogger and Super Centenarian Bernando LaPallo will be 111 this year, and feels on top of the world: "As I move into my 111th year of life, I still feel great and am grateful for my good health which allows me to stay active both physically and mentally. I have never been sick in my life."

Bernando walks briskly or runs at least a mile daily, reads and writes voraciously, looks half his age, and is called daily by people worldwide eager to hear how he's done it.

How Has He ‘Done It’?

Simplicity, humility and natural living: “You don't need a recipe book or health guide to age less and live more” he says.

According to Bernando what you do need is to "Eat properly and get your rest as stress is a killer."

Specifically, eat: raw fresh veggies, super-foods, raw nuts and berries, extra virgin olive oil, raw honey, cinnamon, fresh garlic, dark chocolate , barley soup, fresh coconut  and plentiful alkaline water.

He especially stresses the value of the following fresh foods since: “Cooking your foods kills the nutrients...”

• Fresh organic fruit and veggies: for low calorie, high fibre and nutrient rich vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phyto-nutrients and antioxidants boosting vitality and balanced health. He’s a big fan of juiced fruits and veggies. 

• High quality, organic, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil: use on the skin as lotion, in foods and salad dressing to lessen the risk of colon cancer and heart disease.

• Dark, organic chocolate: to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, stress and depression.

• Organic garlic considered nature's antibiotic which helps to fight coughs and colds, and aids digestion and intestinal health.

• Organic cinnamon: antibacterial and antifungal; reduces leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells.

• Organic honey: has antioxidant and antibacterial properties and boosts energy and weight loss.

...all "to be eaten in moderation, slowly, and only at certain times of the day. Ensure you sit down to eat and relax afterwards, as opposed to eat on the go like fastfood drive thru’s".

Bernando credits his health and longevity to his father, a doctor, who lived to be 98. "I can remember things my father told me when I was 8 years old....He told me not to eat processed red meat...He said lamb is OK but red meat, stay away from it. Hot dogs, French fries and all those things don't eat it."

His father also encouraged his culinary interest resulting in Bernando studying cooking at the Sorbonne  School of Culinary Arts in the 1920’s. “We had to learn about the origins of food like barley, coconut and the like and their uses which is something that is not taught in America today.”

Indeed!

Another healthy habit gleaned from his dad is, he says: "treating his body as a temple. It’s important to clean out the colon on a regular basis and to look after your feet and clean them regularly. If our inner vital organs can do the jobs as they were designed, then we should stay healthy and live a long life. Use olive oil rubbed into the skin of the feet and also on your body and face... Then you'll never rust."

Clearly, despite Bernando’s simple life and attitude, his father inspired him to have a rich life worth living.

"He taught me how to live, how to eat and to have faith in God and he would take care of me," smiled LaPallo. "And so far it has happened. Amen."