Article 1: Interview with my first Centurion

As I've posted before, I work with the elderly population, you can see that post here, and I love it. I have had the great opportunity to work with several centurions (100 +)  the oldest individual I've worked with was 105! Many of them are tired of life, just because they were out living all their loved ones, not because they were suffering physically, but others still felt they had more to give in this life. This interview I had was with a centurion who had just turned 100. I met her when I first began really changing our family eating and health habits, so I was interested in how she had done it, how had she lived independently for so long, how was it that she still had all her mental facilities about her? So I began asking the questions.
For legal reasons I'll call her "June", she was feisty and loved to crack jokes

Me: "June, what is your secret? How have you made it to 100?"
June: "Bananas," then she laughed
Me; "Do you like a lot of fruit?"
June: "Yes, tons of delicious fruit...and broccoli"
Me: "Do you eat a lot of dessert?"
June: "Only dark chocolate bars....I love dark chocolate!"
Me: "How is it that you came to see me here?"
June: "I tripped over a d%*& rug!"
Me, laughing "Do you like to eat a lot of meat?"
June:  "No, yuck, no red meat! I'll maybe eat some turkey, but mostly broccoli!"
Me: "Do you like dairy at all?"
June: "yes, I love cottage cheese, maybe some milk, but mostly broccoli" smiling....
Me: "It sounds like you've always been pretty healthy!"
June : "Yes, but I do love dark chocolate!"

I went on to learn, that she truly did love leafy greens and other vegetables as well. I was with her for her breakfast one morning, she asked the nurses aid to take away her pancake and eggs and come back with a bowl of raw broccoli! Dead serious, that is what she ate for breakfast and she looked as if she was in pure bliss! Now I'm not saying go bust out the salad ingredients for breakfast, but what I saw with this lady, and many others is they don't follow they typical staple diet of large meat portions with vegetable sides, almost opposite actually! They have a balanced sweet intake...it worked for her! This was only part of the conversation we had together, but now it has me talking to most of my 95+ individuals asking them how they've done it. She has since passed on, but she did so healthy, she lived alone her entire life, a fall is how she ended up with me, but she was still able to keep her mind overall health for an entire century!