Three Centenarian Icelanders Share Their Secrets For Longevity

Three Icelandic women, all 100 years old or older, offered their methods for attaining a long and healthy life, at an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of Iceland’s sovereignty from Denmark, Fréttablaðið reports.

All Icelanders 100 years old or older were invited to the Hrafnista nursing home in Reykjavík recently to meet President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson and First Lady Eliza Reid for the occasion. Many of them made an appearance, and as reporters are wont to do with centenarians, some were asked how they believe they have managed to live as long as they have.

“I decided when I was a kid that I would be honourable my whole life,” Guðrún S. Kristjánsdóttir, aged 100, told reporters. “I’ve tried to live up to that.”

“I make it a habit to go swimming for a half an hour at a time,” Auður Helga Jónsdóttir said, mentioning that there is a 50-metre pool near where she lives in Kópavogur.

Guðrún Kristín Ingimundardóttir offered a more prosaic key to longevity: “I eat a lot of sugar and drink a lot of coffee.”

Apparently it also helps to simply live in Iceland. According to available data, Icelanders have the sixth highest life expectancy in the world, surpassed only by San Marino, Macau, Singapore, Japan and Monaco, in ascending order.