Today's news includes the story of man who is apparently the world's oldest father. His wife has just given birth to a baby boy.
The man claims he's 100 years old, but what the newspaper terms his "old age pension" records he is 94 years old. Well, having a baby at the age of 94 is old enough for most of us.
His face is quite wrinkled, but he doesn't appear frail in either the still pictures or the video which shows him operating a crude piece of machinery and wielding a hoe.
His wife is reportedly 52 years old, which is fairly old for a woman to have a baby, though not unknown. She is not addressed directly. Maybe the husband wouldn't allow it. She doesn't appear to be 52, though she's certainly out of her twenties. It's possible that she let someone in the farm's back door, but the social penalties in rural India would be high. But her husband seems eager to claim the credit. Perhaps he's agreeable, for the publicity, or fooling himself.
How long have they been married? Do they have any other children? If so, how old are they? We're not told. Nor anything about the farmer's earlier wife or wives, because she's obviously not his first.
As someone who plans to live and remain virile for a very long time, I'm interested in this farmer's secrets.
Some of his survival must be attributed to sheer luck. He lived through the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic which killed millions in parts of India. He also survived the uprisings against the British colonialists, the subsequent partition of India and the subsequent conflicts between Hindus and Muslims.
But of course, most Indians die of infectious diseases or ones associated with malnutrition.
His daily diet is described as three liters of milk, half a kilo of almonds and half a kilo of ghee.
By itself, that's bad news for advocates of the typical American diet. It's quite high in protein, fat and cholesterol. Plus, I highly doubt that the milk is pasteurized or homogenized.
The almonds are high monosaturated fats and minerals. The ghee is purely saturated fat.
Much Indian cooking uses a lot of healthy spices, especially tumeric which is high in curcumin, which relieves chronic inflammation.
The real question -- unfortunately not addressed in the article -- is whether he also eats rice. It's not mentioned, but perhaps he takes it so much for granted as a dietary staple -- as do most people in Asia -- that it's not worth mentioning.
If he doesn't eat rice, then this seems to be a good example of a high fat, high protein, high omega 3 diet triumphing.
Even if he eats a moderate amount of rice, it could be that, combined with the milk, ghee and almonds, he's simply on the Zone diet and doesn't know it.
And gets moderate regular exercise as a farmer. And his village is probably far from any sources of pollution. Perhaps having a wife over forty years his junior helps keep him active.
Or perhaps he's a father now only because Lord Shiva answered his prayers.
The man claims he's 100 years old, but what the newspaper terms his "old age pension" records he is 94 years old. Well, having a baby at the age of 94 is old enough for most of us.
His face is quite wrinkled, but he doesn't appear frail in either the still pictures or the video which shows him operating a crude piece of machinery and wielding a hoe.
His wife is reportedly 52 years old, which is fairly old for a woman to have a baby, though not unknown. She is not addressed directly. Maybe the husband wouldn't allow it. She doesn't appear to be 52, though she's certainly out of her twenties. It's possible that she let someone in the farm's back door, but the social penalties in rural India would be high. But her husband seems eager to claim the credit. Perhaps he's agreeable, for the publicity, or fooling himself.
How long have they been married? Do they have any other children? If so, how old are they? We're not told. Nor anything about the farmer's earlier wife or wives, because she's obviously not his first.
As someone who plans to live and remain virile for a very long time, I'm interested in this farmer's secrets.
Some of his survival must be attributed to sheer luck. He lived through the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic which killed millions in parts of India. He also survived the uprisings against the British colonialists, the subsequent partition of India and the subsequent conflicts between Hindus and Muslims.
But of course, most Indians die of infectious diseases or ones associated with malnutrition.
His daily diet is described as three liters of milk, half a kilo of almonds and half a kilo of ghee.
By itself, that's bad news for advocates of the typical American diet. It's quite high in protein, fat and cholesterol. Plus, I highly doubt that the milk is pasteurized or homogenized.
The almonds are high monosaturated fats and minerals. The ghee is purely saturated fat.
Much Indian cooking uses a lot of healthy spices, especially tumeric which is high in curcumin, which relieves chronic inflammation.
The real question -- unfortunately not addressed in the article -- is whether he also eats rice. It's not mentioned, but perhaps he takes it so much for granted as a dietary staple -- as do most people in Asia -- that it's not worth mentioning.
If he doesn't eat rice, then this seems to be a good example of a high fat, high protein, high omega 3 diet triumphing.
Even if he eats a moderate amount of rice, it could be that, combined with the milk, ghee and almonds, he's simply on the Zone diet and doesn't know it.
And gets moderate regular exercise as a farmer. And his village is probably far from any sources of pollution. Perhaps having a wife over forty years his junior helps keep him active.
Or perhaps he's a father now only because Lord Shiva answered his prayers.