But the world's oldest person is alive and well!

Yes, it is a 'the king is dead, long live the king' situation.

Language is weird sometimes.

And again as in the oldest person on earth (Violet Brown,117) none of these two cases of super-centenarians are [unsurprisingly] vegans or vegetarians.

Surprisingly, many of them are regular smokers. If your genes treat you well it seems diet is negligible.

For example, there are genetic abnormalities resulting in extremely low cholesterol, no matter how much calories they eat, atherosclerosis will never appear.

Living long is obviously a sign of serious immunity towards all kinds of poisons.

That doesn't have too mean too much, if the general population of vegetarians is fairly small.

It might mean a lot, though. But it doesn't diminish moral reasons to stay vegetarian.

(Full disclosure: I like meat, but once we have good and cheap lab-grown burgers, I will probably turn into a convinced vegan zealot.)

Is meat grown in a vat vegan? I'm curious, I really don't know where that religion draws the line.

As I was implying, in practice the line is drawn where convenience dictates.

But to take your point serious: some people already face that problem when deciding whether eating placenta is fine.

Religion?

Vague moralistic teachings combined with dietary restrictions are hallmarks of religions across time and space.

Group exercising is a hallmark of militaries across time and space. It doesn't make a gymnasium into a military post.

Industrial scale killing and angry self justification are the hallmarks of totalitarian regimes.

I do eat meat, but the immorality of it is obvious.

Wearing clothes is a hallmark of religions across time and space...

The article's author must have loved writing this sentence:

>Inside the drawer of her night table was a supermarket-aisle anti-aging cream that she had applied every evening before going to sleep.

Clearly it didn't work. I'd think a much better anti aging cream would be cyanide mixed into butter. I doubt it would be sold in the supermarket though.

== All joking aside, it is interesting to read of her life, and to reflect on self-help literature. It does seem like the people who live the longest have less interesting lives.