115-Year-Old Woman Credits Longevity to "Being Single"

Today the New York Times has a lovely profile of Emma Morano, an Italian woman who, at 115, is the oldest living person in Europe. Born in 1899, Morano credits her longevity to two things: eating raw eggs and staying single.

Morano told the Times that she’s been eating three raw eggs a day since she was a teenager when “a doctor recommended them to counter anemia.” That’s an estimated 100,000 eggs over her lifetime.

In addition to eating eggs, Morano recommends the single life:

She is also convinced that being single for most of her life, after an unhappy marriage that ended in 1938 following the death of an infant son, has kept her kicking. Separation was rare then, and divorce became legal in Italy only in 1970. She said she had plenty of suitors after that, but never chose another partner. “I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone,” she said.

Morano’s doctor confirms that she’s in excellent health. New life philosophy: Stay single, eat eggs, live forever.