If you want to live to 100 and beyond, perhaps you should follow the routine of the world’s oldest person.
That title currently belongs to 118-year-old Sister André (Born as Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904), a nun living in southern France. Sister André is the 4th-oldest human of all-time and the oldest survivor of COVID-19, overcoming the virus around the time of her 117th birthday.
How has she achieved such incredible immunity and longevity?
It could be the result of her daily indulgences. Specifically, she enjoys chocolate and drinks a glass of wine every single day.
In case you think this is just a coincidence and Sister André is an outlier, consider that the oldest person in recorded history — Jeanne Louise Calment who lived to be 122 years old — also ate chocolate and drank wine every day.
In fact, we know that drinking wine daily is one of the common denominators in the Blue Zones, the places around the world where people live the longest.
There is science behind why these treats actually produce health benefits.
People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol, including red wine, seem to have a lower risk of heart disease. This can be explained by the antioxidants in red wine, especially the polyphenol called resveratrol, which might help prevent damage to blood vessels, reduce LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol), and prevent blood clots.
Chocolate is also a powerful source of antioxidants, including polyphenols that lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol, and reduce heart disease risk. Some research has even shown that cocoa and dark chocolate have more antioxidant activity than common “superfoods” including blueberries.
Whatever the mechanism, chocolate and wine certainly aren’t hurting the longevity of the world’s longest-lived people.
If chocolate and wine are part of their daily habits, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be a part of ours, too.