NORTHFOLK, California — The world is truly full of tips on how to live longer—from dietary recommendations to a stress-free environment—but when a 101-year-old nutrition professor talks about longevity, everyone should listen!

At a year over 100, Dr. John Scharffenberg, who was surprisingly born in China, still drives his red Toyota Prius and travels the world while revealing his simple lifestyle habits that anyone can follow for healthy longevity.

The adjunct professor from Loma Linda University's school of public health in California is a YouTube star who often shares during lectures and seminars his healthy living tips that he himself follows and includes intermittent fasting and eating a plant-based diet.

He was in Madagascar last summer, Europe in the fall and has been invited to talk in Las Vegas this year.
It's worth to note that longevity doesn't actually run in thevScharffenberg family—his mother died in her 60s from Alzheimer’s disease and his father followed from a heart attack at 76—so genes aren’t a factor in helping him live beyond 100. But he has also outlived his two brothers, which he attributes to being much more active than they were.

“The main difference was I got a tremendous amount of exercise,” Scharffenberg, who lives with his son in North Fork, enthused during an interview over a local television network.

“The time of life you get it is what’s important—middle age, from 40 to 70. That’s when you need it, because that’s the time when people usually relax, have more money, buy more food, sit around more, eat more . . . and that’s the wrong way to go,” he added.

Scharffenberg points out that cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, is the main culprit in cutting people’s lives short: "Around the world, it is the leading cause of death—but most cases can be prevented with lifestyle."

Dr. Scharffenberg was born in December 1923 and he says people can live longer by following seven lifestyle rules:
* Don’t use tobacco
The 101-year-old doctor has never smoked. Smoking harms most every organ in the body and is the leading preventable cause of disease, death and disability in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.
* Don’t drink alcohol

Scharffenberg says he’s never drunk alcohol. The notion that light drinking is good for health is not true, he notes, pointing to studies that show any protective effects for the heart are offset by an increased cancer risk—a link highlighted by the U.S. surgeon general this year.

No amount of alcohol is truly safe, experts say, echoing the World Health Organization's guidance.
* Exercise
“Even though I’m a nutritionist, I think exercise is even more important than nutrition,” Scharffenberg says. It doesn't have to be running a marathon, he asserts.

His main form of exercise during middle age—the time of life he urges people to be especially active—was working on a large, forested property he bought in the mountains north of Fresno. It required him to clear land for a road and a house, and then cultivate a 2-acre garden that included 3,000 strawberry plants, 80 fruit trees and grape vines.

“I did it all by myself, so I exercised a lot,” the centenarian recalls. “I worked hard.”

His go-to activity was gardening, but Scharffenberg says walking is another great exercise.