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Monk, 120, Credits Longevity To No Spices -- and No Sex

Monk, 120, Credits Longevity To No Spices -- and No Sex
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images

A Hindu monk who claims to be 120 ― which would make him the oldest man to have ever lived ― credits his longevity to no sex or spices and to performing yoga daily for hours.

Swami Sivananda, who barely has a wrinkle on his face, was born on August 8, 1896, according to his passport. He is now applying to Guinness World Records to verify his claim, reports AFP. Guinness currently lists Japan’s Jiroemon Kimura, who died in June 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days, as the oldest man to have ever lived.

DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images

Sivananda was born into extreme poverty and orphaned before he was 6-years-old. His relatives gave him away to a spiritual guru and he chose to become a monk. He told AFP: “I lead a simple and disciplined life. I eat very simply ― only boiled food without oil or spices, rice and boiled daal (lentil stew) with a couple of green chillies.” He sleeps on a floor mat and uses a wooden slab as a pillow, AFP reported. He said his long life is due to “yoga, discipline, and celibacy.”

Just in case you need more proof, Sivananda is not the first centenarian to credit their longevity to abstaining from sex. A few months before she died, a Scottish woman said she had avoided men her whole life ― all 109 years of it.

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