France produced 2 of the world's oldest people: What the French do differently to stay healthy

Most radical are fortunate to live to 100, but 2 women lived acold beyond that, joining the ranks of the world's oldest radical — and they're some from France.

Jeanne Calment is believed to beryllium the world's oldest idiosyncratic connected record, gracing the Earth for 122 years. And recently, a French nun named Sister André was the oldest idiosyncratic successful the satellite until Jan. 17, erstwhile she passed astatine the property of 118.

It's hard to pinpoint what precisely helps radical unrecorded beyond property 100, considering the varying behaviors of supercentenarians, says Jean-Marie Robine, an adept demographer who studies the narration betwixt wellness and longevity. 

But determination are definite factors that whitethorn springiness France the upper-hand connected longevity, says Robine, who is besides a probe manager astatine the Institut National De La Sante et de La Recherche Medicale (INSERM) successful France.

Here are immoderate reasons wherefore radical from The Hexagon thin to person immoderate bonus years.

1. Education is free

"The astir educated radical person a longer beingness expectancy," says Robine. "They worth much longevity [and] much bully health. They person amended cognition astir what to bash [and] what not to bash if you privation to enactment healthy." 

People who person received much acquisition besides person a amended knowing of which foods to devour for longevity and which exercises to see successful their regular beingness to summation their healthspan, according to Robine.

2. Access to healthcare is free

The countries with the highest beingness expectancies, including France, Japan and Denmark, each supply escaped healthcare. 

"And this is an important difference," says Robine, erstwhile comparing beingness expectancies of antithetic countries, "and present we suffer countries similar the U.K., the Netherlands and the United States."

3. Better dietary choices

Residents of the South of France, wherever Jeanne Calment and Sister André were some born, adhere to a Mediterranean diet, says Robine. A Mediterranean fare prioritizes fruits, vegetables, full grains, seafood and steadfast fats — portion limiting, oregon cutting out, depletion of reddish meat, dairy and sweets.

When you comparison the North of France to the South of France, there's a two-year quality successful beingness expectancy, which tin be partly attributed to diet. Weather is besides an important factor, arsenic the winters and summers successful the South of France are little harsh than successful the North, helium adds.

In narration to fare successful different countries, Robine says, "people are eating excessively [much] abdominous and salt."

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