World’s Oldest Woman Claims The Secret To Her 127 Years Is Eating Chocolate

Cutting down your chocolate intake could be cutting years off your life. Well! That’s according to the world’s oldest woman.

And let’s face it. When you’ve lived on this planet for 127 years, you’re probably going to know a thing or two about a thing or two.

Mexican woman Leandra Becerra Lumbreras turned 127 today. An age which reportedly makes her the oldest human to have ever lived. Either way, with that many candles to blow out, it’s going to be a rather large cake that the sweet-toothed old lady is going to be slicing into.

Which is just as well, because the woman who has lived a century longer than the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, is pretty partial to anything sweet – especially chocolate.

In fact, the birthday girl believes eating chocolate is one of the secrets to a long life. Her Granddaughter Celia Hernandez told Mexico’s El Horizonte newspaper:

“She’s always had a good tooth, even at her old age. She has no diabetes or hypertension so she can eat as many chocolates and sweets as she likes.”

Japan’s Misao Okawa is currently the oldest documented living person in the world, but Ms Lumbreras is apparently 12 years older. The Mexican authorities just need to provide her with a new birth certificate, because she lost her original moving house 40 years ago.

Born on August 31, 1887, the chocolate lover was already 27 when World War I broke out. She was already a pensioner when Queen Elizabeth was crowned, and when man first set foot on the moon, she was a spritely 82.

However, for the former seamstress from the Western Mexican city of Zapopan, old age comes at a cost. She has already buried her five children, and several of her grandchildren. Yet with another 73 great-grandchildren, and a further 55 great-great-grandchildren, Ms Lumbreras is definitely not going to be short of company during her birthday party.

During the 1910-1917 Mexican Revolution, Ms Lumbreras fought alongside the men as a leader of the Adelitas. And although she is now deaf and suffers from cataracts, she still regales her family with tales as old as the hills. Granddaughter Miriam Alvear explained:

“She is entirely lucid. She blows your mind with stories from the revolution. She was always a woman who fought. She was still sewing and weaving until about two years ago. She never ceased to be active, that’s why we think she’s lived so long.”

Yet ask the birthday girl, and as well as chomping on chocolate, she’ll tell you the secret to her ripe old age is never getting married and sleeping for days on end.

Whatever her secret, it’s certainly worked. Happy birthday Ms Lumbreras.