What the oldest people in the world have said is the secret to their longevity

A Brazilian man described by local media as being 127 years old - an age that would have made him the oldest person in the world - has died.

Jose Paulino Gomes was born on 4 August 1895, according to his marriage certificate, and died just days before he would have been 128.

Gomes's age has never been verified by Guinness World Records and even his family aren't sure - his granddaughter, Eliane Ferreira, told local media she believed he was at least 110 years old, although she acknowledged she didn't know his exact age.

While his age cannot be confirmed, Ferreira had previously discussed her grandfather's secret to a long life: "He was very simple, very humble. His uniqueness was that he didn't like anything industrialised, only things from the countryside, natural," she said.

"He raised chickens, pigs... his food was all from here, had to be grown or raised here. And he always liked to have a little drink."

Another granddaughter said Gomes had only stopped riding horses about four years ago.

But what have other centenarians said about the things that keep them young?

Attitude to living

The officially documented oldest person in the world is currently 116-year-old Maria Branyas Morera, from Spain, who survived Covid in 2020. She inherited the title from Lucile Randon, more commonly known as Sister Andre, who was a French nun and died in January 2023.

Watch: World's oldest person dies aged 118 (January 2023)

According to the Guinness World Records website, Branyas says her longevity is thanks to “order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”

“I think longevity is also about being lucky. Luck and good genetics," she added.

Read more: World's oldest person, U.S.-born Spanish woman, turns 116

The current oldest man in the world is Juan Vicente Pérez (114). He inherited the title from Chitetsu Watanabe, from Japan, who was 112 when he died in 2020. Like Gomes, Watanabe also maintained a connection with nature - growing his own fruit and vegetables until he was 104 years old.

He told the Guinness World Records that his secret to longevity was "not to get angry and keep a smile on your face", while his daughter-in-law Yoko Watanabe said his family had helped to keep him young.

"I've lived together with him for over 50 years, and I've never seen him raise his voice or get mad," she said.

"He's also caring. When I was working on my patchwork hobby, he was the one who praised my work the most. I think having lived with a big family under one roof, mingling with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren helped keep a smile on his face as well."

A healthy diet?

María Félix, from Jalisco, Mexico, who reportedly celebrated her 119th birthday before dying in 2020, attributed her long life to eating good food from the desert.

“What helped me was the nopales (Opuntia cacti), the pingüica (a type of fruit), the purslane and the quelite (a grass),” Felix told NBC News back in 2018, also saying that she liked an occasional drink, including beer, just to "give it a taste". Her age was never verified by the record books but prior to her death she claimed to be the world's oldest living person.

Eileen Ash, who was known as the world's oldest international cricketer, said in 2021 as she celebrated her 110th birthday that red wine was the key.

The manager of St John's House in Norwich, Norfolk, Fiona Mawby, told The Mirror at the time: "She's just such a lovely lady - she wakes up with a smile.

"She always put her long life down to her yoga, which she used to do twice a week.

"And she loves a glass of red wine - she always says that's prolonged her life."

Kane Tanaka, from Japan, who lived to be 119 until her death in 2022, said she enjoyed eating lots of chocolate and drinking lots of coffee. When she was gifted chocolates to celebrate becoming the oldest person in the world and asked how many she was going to eat, she replied "100".

A healthy body...

Duranord Veillard, from the US, was not only one of the oldest people in the world before his death at the age of 111 in 2018 - he is also thought to have had one of the world's longest marriages at a staggering 85 years.

He attributed his longevity to getting up early and doing up to seven push-ups every day.

And one of the oldest people in Scotland, Jessie Gallan, who died aged 109 in 2015, also espoused the benefits of exercise - but had a more radical theory as to why she lived so long.

"My secret to a long life has been staying away from men," she said. "They're just more trouble than they're worth.

"I also made sure that I got plenty of exercise, eat a nice warm bowl of porridge every morning, and have never gotten married."