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Susannah Mushatt Jones: World’s Oldest Woman Credits Her Longevity To Eating Bacon

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 03:51 PST, Oct 7, 2015

Susannah Mushatt Jones, the world’s oldest woman at the age of 116, credits her longevity to her daily dose of bacon.

Each morning for breakfast, Susannah eats a hearty helping of bacon, eggs, and grits. But the bacon eating doesn’t stop there. An aide from the public housing complex for the elderly in Brooklyn, New York, said Jones will eat bacon all throughout the day.

“She’ll eat bacon all day long,” the aide said, according to the Huffington Post.

Susannah Mushatt Jones was born on July 6, 1899, joining a family of 11 children, and a father who worked picking cotton in Lowndes County, Alabama. When she was old enough, she joined her father in the fields before heading to New York to work as a nanny and live-in housekeeper in 1923.

Jones is now only one of two people who were born in the 19th century, and she was named the world’s oldest person in June, 2015. While Jones has lost her eyesight and is hard of hearing, she is not bedridden, and she only takes two medications a day.

Susannah, who is known as “T” (short for auntie) to her 100 nieces and nephews, also became the world’s oldest woman, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. While Jones said the secret to a long life is partially due to her eating habits, she also explained that she doesn’t drink or smoke, and gets plenty of sleep. Lois Judge, Susannah’s niece, said her aunt gets roughly 10 hours of sleep each night, and takes regular naps throughout the day.

“I never drink or smoke,” Jones said. “I surround myself with love and positive energy. That’s the key to long life and happiness.”

Dr. Thomas Perls, New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center Director and Professor of Medicine at Boston Medical Center, said he believes Jones has lived such a long life due to good genes.

“By no means should anyone, therefore, think that eating bacon is good for them because [Jones] eats bacon,” Perls said, adding that there is no scientific evidence that proves eating bacon can help people live longer lives.

Susannah’s niece, Dr. Lavilla Mushatt Watson, published a biography about her aunt’s life, entitled Susannah — Our Incredible 114-Year-Old Aunt.

Jones isn’t the only person to credit eating bacon to a long life. Pearl Cantrell, who died in 2013 at the age of 105, enjoyed bacon so much that Oscar Meyer sent one of its Wienermobiles to her home to deliver some of her favorite food.

“I love bacon, I eat it everyday,” Cantrell said at the time.

Elizabeth Sullivan, 104, says she has another longevity tip. She says she drinks three Dr. Peppers a day, even against doctors orders.

“Every doctor that sees me says they’ll kill you, but they die and I don’t,” Sullivan said earlier this year. “So there must be a mistake somewhere.”

The oldest person ever to have lived was the French woman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 years and 164 days, according to Guinness World Records. Emma Morano, of Verbania, Italy, is the second person alive who was born in the 1800s. She is a few years younger than Jones and is Europe’s oldest living person. She credits her long life to eating several raw eggs each day.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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