My husband’s grandma was a centenarian when she passed away. In fact, at the age of 80, she took a tour up the Great Wall of China putting many of her tour members to shame. My mum lived to a commendable 85 years of age. She didn’t look her age at all, hardly, if ever, visited the doctor, kept herself busy all the time and her house was always spick and span. Both of them died of natural causes and were in fact healthy and very mobile up till their last days. My godma, at the ripe old age of 80+ is still as fit as a fiddle and helps her son out at the market every morning, 6 days a week.

Their secret recipe? Well, one thing in common is all of them were born in China but emigrated to Malaysia when they were very young. We often joked among our family that they were so strong because they were made of “imported materials”. But from our observations, the crux of it all is their lifestyle.

They all lead a simple life. As far as diet, rice is a must for them. No meal is complete without rice - “no rice no strength”. Anyway, rice is the Chinese staple diet as they grew up on rice. Salted eggs, salted fish, some green vegetables are what they would eat with rice three meals a day. Calories count, cholesterol level, nutritional value are not in their vocabulary neither of the least concern to them. They hardly need to see the doctor. If ever they feel sick, just take some herbal concoction and they’re back on their feet in no time. Of course we children would complain that they were not eating right or taking proper medication. To that they would retort “your forefathers in China have been eating such things all their lives and we also grew up that way. You people nowadays are so health conscious yet have more health problems.”

Come to think of it, they are right. Simple lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle, both physically and mentally.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2004 at 12:47 am and is filed under General.