6 Healthy Habits Of People Who Lived Past 100

Living to 100 years old may be something that you aspire to, but with the U.S. average life expectancy sitting at 81 for women and 76.5 for men, it is far from guaranteed in this country. While genes play a role to a certain extent, studies on those who do make it to 100 suggests that improving your lifestyle in your younger years can make a big difference in your chances of living for a whole century. While there is no magic activity or food that can make it easy to become a centenarian, understanding the habits of people who stay healthy in old age can give you a huge advantage.

One of the most clear cut obstacles to living to 100 is one that won't be a surprise: smoking. In a 2024 study, never smoking was found to be one of three main factors that influenced the chances of living to 100 years old. A separate study found that an enormous 92% of Chinese centenarians surveyed were non-smokers, suggesting that tobacco use has a huge negative influence on any aspirations to survive a century.

This information should be no surprise to anyone who has an interest in health and longevity, since smoking introduces a cocktail of toxins, including known carcinogens, and can cause heart disease, infertility, and type 2 diabetes. It even causes issues with joints and bones. If living to 100 is on your bucket list, smoking needs to go, in addition to picking up some of the other habits of centenarians.

You don't need to be a world class athlete to be fit and healthy, and a key habit shared by those who live long, happy lives is daily movement. Whether it is cardiovascular exercise, strength training, or walking, physical activity helps to keep your body supple and prevent the usual aches and pains that many of us assume are inevitable with aging.

One study showed that higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, which can be measured by VO2 max, are correlated with lower instances of cancer and cardiovascular disease, suggesting that getting in a daily walk will do more than just clear your head. And the good news is, even if you are not currently hitting your exercise goals, switching from low activity to moderate exercise is beneficial at any age "At 80, many may wonder if it's too late to exercise," says Professor Lijing Yan from Duke Kunshan University. "Our research concludes that it's never too late to start. The key is to get active." 

You don't need to start hitting the gym six nights a week or embark on a punishing cardio routine to add years to your life. Doing exercise you enjoy is the most important factor, as you are more likely to stick to it in the long term.  Gardening, Tai Chi, swimming — and don't forget sex — all raise your heart rate and contribute toward longevity. If you are planning to exercise to 100, you'd better make sure you enjoy what you're doing.

It seems that every year a new diet appears that promises to give you unlimited energy, stop you aging, or help you lose 50 pounds in one week. While fad diets come and go, there is one feature that appears time and again in the healthy eating plans that stand the test of time — eat plenty of plants.

While being completely vegan has its controversies when it comes to health, nourishing your body regularly with plants is pretty much irrefutable as a health measure. A study looking at Blue Zones — parts of the world where residents more frequently live past 100 — found that plant rich diets seem to be consistent across all five.

The 2016 showed that legumes such as fava beans, soy beans, and lentils featured heavily in Blue Zones, but fresh, seasonal vegetables such as spinach, beets, and chard are also mentioned as top choices. Meat is eaten rarely in the Blue Zones, around five times per month, with fish being eaten more often, up to three times per week. Importantly, processed food is eaten very rarely, and soda doesn't show up at all. Compared to the average American diet, the eating habits of centenarians feature a wide variety of whole foods, especially fruit and vegetables, that should be introduced into the diet of those wishing to increase their longevity.

Getting enough sleep in our jam-packed lives can be difficult, and it is often one of the first things to suffer when life gets a bit too much. Regularly losing out on sleep, however, is detrimental to physical and mental health, and getting between seven and nine hours of sleep every night is another common habit that appears in centenarians living in the Blue Zones.

During sleep, our body uses the down time to heal, commit information to memory, and fight disease. There are four main stages of sleep, and they are all crucial for good health. To benefit from all four stages, we must sleep for at least two hours uninterrupted, which is why a restless night of tossing and turning can leave you feeling less than refreshed in the morning.

A 2025 study showed that regularly getting fewer than seven hours sleep per night is associated with an increased risk of dying from any cause. It increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, as well as increasing anxiety levels and stress. However, this does not mean that more is always better. Oversleeping, which is considered to be more than nine hours per night on a regular basis, has been associated with a weakened immune system and back pain, and could potentially double the risk of mortality. This means that getting the sleep balance right is the key if you want to thrive in your later years. An early night followed by a bright start in the morning could leave you feeling refreshed and energized, and help get you closer to the 100 year mark.

Most people won't be surprised to see eating well and moving regularly on the list of ways to extend your lifespan, but there is a more subtle habit that appears regularly in people who make it past the century mark. Many centenarians are part of a social community that creates a sense of belonging, and studies suggest that this can have a direct impact on longevity.

According to the World Health Organization, connection with others can increase longevity and lower the risks of chronic disease. Having a social group to help us through tough times, and having people to look up to and inspire us can have physical benefits as well as psychological. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention also states that connection reduces the chance of heart disease, anxiety, and dementia, and can improve our eating and sleeping habits, making it a triple-whammy when it comes to improving longevity.

If you don't have a huge group of friends that you go out with every weekend, that doesn't mean you can't benefit from social connection. Church groups, neighbors, and family all count, and help to keep us mentally grounded and reduce feelings of loneliness. If you feel your social circle could be increased, volunteering has been linked to better health, and could help add those extra years by encouraging empathy, and giving you a renewed sense of purpose.

Our modern society doesn't allow us to entirely remove stress from our everyday lives — just heading to the grocery store can be enough to get the cortisol racing. The key to longevity, is to learn to manage stress and anxiety effectively, which is a habit that centenarians seem to be proficient at.

In a 2021 study, researchers concluded that chronic stress can "speed up" the biological clock, the exact opposite of what we want if living to 100 is the goal. Managing daily stress seems simple enough in principle, but finding the time to focus is a big part of the challenge. Mindfulness practices such as meditation and yoga have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, and have beneficial effects on the nervous system such as reducing inflammation. A study from 2023 showed that meditation has the power to physically change the body, lowering blood cholesterol levels, and increasing high-density lipoproteins, often referred to as "good" cholesterol.

There is a saying often attributed to Zen tradition that says, "Everyone should meditate 15 minutes a day unless you don't have time. Then you should meditate an hour a day." In modern terms, this means that in our jam-packed, hectic days, taking time each day to reflect and relax is beneficial for our mental and physical health. While mindfulness alone isn't going to guarantee that you qualify for a Presidential birthday greeting by hitting the big 100, along with the other habits on this list, it represents small steps that can be taken in our regular lives to tip the odds in our favor for a long and healthy life.