102-Year-Old Is Mostly Vegetarian, Still Does Yoga – CleanTechnica

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Charlotte Chopin lives in Léré, a village in France in the Loire Valley, an area known as the ‘garden’ of France. She has been teaching yoga for over 40 years, taking up the practice when she was 50 years old. Her first health tip is to move your body and to eat well — she is mostly vegetarian. She says she mainly eats vegetables, cheese, and fruits. Her breakfast is usually a large piece of toast with a lot of honey and some coffee.

She also walks in the morning and there are plants in her back yard yielding black grapes, figs, and peaches. Yoga is among her daily activities; the video clearly shows she can walk stairs and do yoga. Many of her peers may not be able to — that is, if they are still alive.

The fact that some of her yoga students are also her friends is profound because some seniors become quite isolated in later life. She also is independent enough to live at home.

Depending on what sources you use, French women tend to live about six years longer than French men.

For Charlotte, the 102-year-old woman and yoga teacher, the village she lives in, Lere, has a population about 1,200 and it is not near a huge city with all its traffic and air pollution. A quiet village with clean air and fresh, natural food could be one of the reasons why she has survived so long and is still quite fit for her age, both physically and mentally. The video does not mention if she does or does not consume alcohol or use tobacco products, but one might guess at least she does not use tobacco products.

Two French women actually lived much longer than 102 years of age. A French nun lived to be 118 years of age and Jeanne Calment lived to be 122.

It’s not only in France — women tend to outlive men in every nation.

In the US, it seems there is too much influence of a macho man mindset for health and longevity where dudes think they have to eat too many dead animal parts, pound protein shakes and electrolyte gels and try to improve their max bench press, squat, and deadlift. The idea, which might be a drastic oversimplification or just incorrect, is that physical strength and muscle mass equate to the longest life.

Lifespans in the US for males, on average, are just 75.8 years, according to the CDC. For French males, it is a little over 80 years.

Let the little old ladies doing yoga, walking, not eating much meat (if any), not smoking, and maintaining healthy social connections lead the way. “In terms of sex, women definitely win the longevity marathon by leaps and bounds. Only about 15 percent of centenarians are men, and the other 85 percent are women. Women age more slowly than men, they markedly delay things like cardiovascular disease and stroke compared to men.”

It should also be noted, whether intentional or not, her lifestyle has a low-carbon footprint. Some of the worst foods for climate change are beef, lamb, farmed shrimp, and pork. Apparently, she doesn’t consume much of these particular meats or any. The video does not provide specific information about the little meat she eats nor the precise quantity. Carolyn Fortuna just wrote an article about a similar diet.