THE oldest woman in the world at 116 says the secret to her longevity lies in a Peruvian mountain diet of goat’s meat and sheep’s milk
Despite living in extreme poverty in the heart of the Andes, she is in the running to become the oldest person in the world.
Born on December 20, 1897, Filomena Taipe Mendoza is only three months older than Japanese Misao Okawa, who is the world’s oldest person according to Guinness World Records and the US-based Gerontology Research Group.
Peru’s Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion says Taipe Mendoza’s identity card shows the date she was born.
“I am not of the past century, young man, but the other one … I am very old,” she told an official accompanying her to cash the first cheque of a retirement program for seniors living in poverty.
“My secret to longevity is a natural diet: I always ate potatoes, goat meat, sheep milk, goat cheese and beans,” said the wizened Taipe Mendoza, who has never left her impoverished village in Huancavelica.
“Everything I cook comes from my garden,” the ministry quoted her as saying. “I never had canned soft drinks. I had a very hard life, I was very a young widow with nine dependent children and I worked hard to raise them. Only three of them are alive.”
The pension means Taipe Mendoza will now get free medical care and receive every month about 250 Soles ($90).
Her one great desire? “I wish I still had teeth.”
Source: The Australian