A glass of beer a day keeps the doctor away, according to one wise centenarian.
New York City’s Antoinette Inserra has revealed her secrets to a long, healthy life, boasting her balanced diet and her daily nightcap — either a glass of vermouth or beer — act as her youth-preserving elixirs.
“I love my beer,” Inserra, from Staten Island, told Today.
That must “be her secret,” quipped Inserra’s daughter Phyllis Scotto, who said that her mother is “ready to go out with her makeup on” every day. The outings, she said, keep Mom young.
“My daughter takes me out. I take the walker, and this is enough for me. I’m happy with that,” said Inserra, who just celebrated her 104th birthday in April.
Her balanced diet includes lots of soft-shell crab, pepperoni and vegetables, too, with Inserra touting spinach as her favorite leafy green. But no day would be complete without her regularly scheduled night cap: a glass of beer or vermouth.
Clearly, something’s working. She’s witnessed her family grow by multiple generations, with her four children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She’s defied the odds — surviving two bouts of COVID-19 — and is now taking it “one [birthday] at a time.”
“She got to see my son get married, which we didn’t think she would,” said Scotto. “She had COVID twice, and she survived. And then she got to see [my son] have his first baby. So it’s been quite an accomplishment she’s made. She surprises everybody.”
Inserra, a shopping and gambling enthusiast, married her husband, Vincent, in 1944. The pair met when she was just 18, but Vincent passed away at the age of 68.
“What can you do when something happens? You just let it go, you do what you can and that’s it,” Inserra said, remembering that nugget of wisdom when facing negativity.
Keeping a positive attitude and finding joy in life’s simple pleasures is how the pensioner stays happy and healthy.
“I just say look nice and make nice friends. Be nice to them, and you’ll have good friends,” she advised. “That’s the way I look at it.”
Inserra isn’t the only centenarian who has imparted the secret to a long life.
A 109-year-old Brit said that she swears by being “stubborn” and drinking “plenty of water.” Another advised to “avoid talking to strange men and you’ll be just fine,” while one woman revealed it’s “love” that keeps her young.
The rate of Americans living to be 100 or older has doubled in the last two decades, and experts want to know why. Amid claims that humans could potentially achieve immortality, researchers are picking apart the DNA of the world’s oldest population to figure out what makes them tick.
A study published this year analyzing the DNA of centenarians found that their immune systems were able to better recover from infections.
“Centenarians, and their exceptional longevity, provide a ‘blueprint’ for how we might live more productive, healthful lives,” the study’s senior author, George J. Murphy, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University, said in a statement at the time.
“We hope to continue to learn everything we can about resilience against disease and the extension of one’s health span.”
