The motivating and inspiring supercentenarian created a website: Age Less, Live More; and authored two books: Beyond 100: How to Live Well Into Your Second Century; and Age Less, Live More: Living with Health and Vitality to 107 Years and Beyond.
LaPallo claimed that he had not been sick for one day in his entire life, he accredits this to his healthy lifestyle and diet consisting of fish, all organic fruits and vegetables, walking every morning, and avoiding fried foods and fast foods, and red meat at all costs. At an early age his father instructed him to stay away from red meats, and LaPallo always believed this to be best for good health.
Bernando’s father was a doctor who lived to be 98 years young. Not only did he take his father’s advice on how to eat well, but he also listened to instructions on how to live well. As such everyday Bernando would read, do crossword puzzles, walk, and do other life enhancing activities saying he learned so much throughout his life because he always wanted to live healthy so he could age well.
The five foods he said he ensured he consumed daily are: garlic, cinnamon, honey, olive oil, and chocolate in addition to plenty of organic fruits and vegetables that he accredits to his success. He also enjoyed fish, whole grains, broths, and healthy soups and salads, some of his recipes can be found on his blog for barley soup, fresh fruit salad, and more.
Garlic is a known and documented powerful immunity enhancer, cancer fighter, and liver detoxifier. Cinnamon is wonderful for anti-aging, immunity, blood sugar, and heart health. Honey has been used for thousands of years for its anti-inflammatory, heart health, and anti-aging benefits. Olive oil is another well studied and known powerful anti-inflammatory, and great source of vitamin E, healthy fats for the heart, and high levels of cancer fighting properties. Chocolate has incredible anti-inflammatory, immune boosting, and anti-aging properties. Although his food choices are indeed fantastic, avoidance of red meat may not have had anything to do with his longevity as in recent years thousands of studies have discredited the false assumption of red meat being bad for you in some way, as long as healthy pasture raised meats are consumed.
If you could live to be over 100 and still be happy, functional and energetic wouldn’t you want to do that, most would. LaPallo once said, “As the old saying goes, you are what you eat, and that is very true.” and he had a catch phrase of “Keep your liver and colon clean.”
Bernando LaPallo passed away on December 19, 2015, quickly at home without chronic illness. His heart stopped beating just four months after his 114th birthday, but he made it there happy and a passionate testament of his healthy lifestyle, outliving his doctors and critics.
During his lifetime he trained in the culinary arts; obtained accreditations in massage therapy, reflexology, herbology, and podiatry; and became an author and lecturer. About 1 in 1000 centenarians make it past being 110 according to Supercentenarians, there are only a few hundred in the world and among those only a few dozen have been officially verified. Lapallo was recognized as the oldest living Brazilian in the State of Arizona, which was noted to be older than the state itself, and he did it happy with flare. What an inspirational man.
