How to Live to a Hundred

# Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you... #

Welcome to a rare and unusual birthday party.

# Happy birthday, dear Doris Happy birthday... #

Doris Griffiths, born in Neath in 1910, is 105 today.

Thank you all very much. Thank you all.

APPLAUSE

Doris is one of more than 600 people over 100 years old

living across Wales in 2015, the highest number ever recorded.

What I want to know is what's the magic, what's the secret?

I have what I want to eat

and my favourite breakfast is a nice bit of toast.

But while Doris is living proof that a growing minority of people in Wales

are living healthier, longer lives,

what can I do to help guarantee the same for me and my young family?

It is part of being a mum that you want to give them

the best possibilities in life right from the minute they're born,

especially when an alarming number of us

are already struggling at an early age.

I could have a heart attack any day.

I just feel like I could be a bit of a ticking time bomb.

So what is it about Welsh life and Welsh lifestyles that's got

Doris Griffiths to the grand old age of 105,

while 31-year-old Lee Tantem fears that every day could be his last?

I'm Michela Chiappa and I'm a proud Welsh woman with strong Italian roots

and I'm hoping to use those roots to try

and solve the secrets to a long and healthy life.

'It's a journey that will take me across the valleys of South Wales...'

How does it feel to be Merthyr's only centenarian?

That's a pretty cool achievement.

'..and then on to Sardinia and the valley with the highest percentage

'of 100-year-olds in Europe.'

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

I just asked what is the secret of living until he's 100,

and he said it's not to die before.

So what is the answer?

Have we any choice in avoiding an early grave?

Well, I've travelled from South Wales to Sardinia

to search for the secret of living a long life and a happy one.

So stay with me in the hope of answering a life-and-death question -

how can we live to 100?

Merthyr in the South Wales valleys, the town where I was born

and raised, and where much of my family still live today.

Although as my surname Chiappa probably suggests,

Merthyr is not where we originally came from.

My family moved from Italy to Wales to set up this business

here in Merthyr over 50 years ago and the one thing

they all talk about is how similar the Welsh and the Italians are.

We all love food, family and community,

but one thing has definitely changed and that is how long we live.

During my lifetime,

life expectancy in Italy has risen by an average of 15 years

and while the same is true of the more prosperous parts of Wales,

in many towns and valleys throughout South Wales,

life expectancy is among the lowest in Western Europe.

For example, people from my hometown of Merthyr will live on average

10 years less than someone living in the affluent areas of Cardiff.

So what's going on?

Well, we've all heard the stats - Wales is the most overweight nation

in Europe with the highest rates of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

So I'm going to begin my quest to discover the secrets to a longer life

by looking at the human face of the problems that prevent us living one.

So this is Lee and Leanne Tantem with Lee's son Adam

and six-month-old Maisie.

They live near Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valley.

Lee works full-time and Leanne is currently on maternity leave.

Both are in their 30s and both are worried about their health.

Just like the majority of us they try to eat well,

but the combination of a hard-working, busy lifestyle

and temptations of takeaways and convenience foods are strong.

Ta-da!

Me and Leanne met in Slimming World.

We were both doing really, really well.

I'd lost about two stone, Leanne had lost three,

and then we got together and we got comfy and the cosy nights in

with takeaways and chocolate in front of films and...

Well, for me, I've put on all of it and more,

so we're both to blame, really.

We'd both be slim now if we hadn't met, I expect.

# Giddy-up, we're homeward bound... #

You know how it is,

you start feeling a bit comfortable with each other.

We started eating sort of more takeaways and not really sticking to

a plan and it just kind of escalated from there, really.

Our lifestyle isn't very good.

To be fair, we could probably do with a bit more exercise.

I've got a very bad relationship with food.

Food is something I enjoy very much, maybe too much,

from quite a young age.

I suppose food was my first love.

It's not that the Tantems can't cook,

they can, and they do rustle up whole meals from scratch.

It's just that, like so many of us,

they regularly fall back on the easier options.

We've got our processed food. Hash browns, not proud of it.

Turkey drummers...

..Magnums.

I like processed food, don't get me wrong,

but it's not good and I don't...

I know I do, but I don't like giving it to the kids. I like to...

Hang on a second, I'm a bit out of breath now.

See, that's just from bending over there and wrestling with that.

It's not good. It's not good, is it?

We've got a few health problems in the family.

My father's side of the family, there's diabetes.

My mum's had two heart attacks over the last 10 years.

My dad, then, he suffers with angina on top of a ton of other things

and I just feel like I could be a bit of a ticking time bomb.

I could have a heart attack any day and I really need to do

something to make sure I don't, so my lifestyle has to change.

So Leanne and Lee can cook but, like many of us,

life often gets in the way of a healthy diet.

But their story has definitely spurred me on

my journey of discovery.

In particular, is the answer to a long and healthy life really just

a matter of cutting out takeaways, processed foods and sugary treats?

Well, if you're doing it to excess, then absolutely.

But, by the same token, I'm currently far from convinced

that a life of mung beans and salad

is a sure-fire recipe for reaching 100.

My family, for instance, have always indulged in a little of

"la dolce vita" and it's never done us any harm.

Cakes, cream, mascarpone, wine, pasta, cheese.

We've never overdone it.

CHILD MUMBLES But we've always indulged a little.

-Mm.

-Mm. 'And regularly.'

THEY MUMBLE

And reaching our eighties and nineties is a common feature

with us, so I believe that a little bit of what you fancy

is definitely one of the ingredients in the recipe.

Although, I guess, the only way to begin to work out

the secrets of longevity is to go straight to the source, as it were.

Here in Wales, there are currently 679 centenarians,

but, as life's too short to visit them all,

I'm going to visit just three of them.

Starting with an invite to a birthday party.

I'm going to a birthday party later on of a lady who's 105,

Doris in Neath. And, for her, I'm going to make my grandmother,

my nonna's, very special crostata recipe.

It's basically a jam tart,

but it is a dish that my nonna always used to have in her kitchen.

It was like magic. The minute that last slice would go,

another one would appear. And it was something she always had there

on the side for anybody, the kids, the adults,

a sweet treat with a cup of tea.

My nonna's house was never without a tart or a cake.

It was always home-baked, never shop-bought,

with home-made jams from well-worn family recipes

that I'll be handing down to my children,

as they were handed down to me.

Steady, yeah? Grazie. Mettere il forno.

CHILD TALKS

'And, as I bring my crostata to Doris Griffith's 105th birthday party,

'it wouldn't surprise me to find that, just like my nonna,

'Doris has always enjoyed a regular slice of something sweet.'

PIANO PLAYS

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday, dear Doris

# Happy birthday to you. #

-Thank you all very much.

-Ey!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Go on, blow them out.

Thank you all very much. It's been a big surprise for me and, yep...

I didn't... It makes a difference, when you're on your own.

-ALL:

-Ah!

-To see all these people and say

where on earth they've all come from.

LAUGHTER

So, watching Doris, lively, sprightly, engaged in her

surroundings, I wondered if longevity is simply predestined.

Written in our genes.

CHOIR SINGS

So I was surprised to learn that Doris, born in Neath in 1910,

was the only one of five children to survive

either an infant death or a miscarriage.

CHOIR SINGS

Educated at Gnoll School in Neath, she entered domestic service

at the age of 14 and spent the next 51 years working as a cleaner,

a receptionist and in the kitchens, back at her old school.

She married Ivor at 21 and had the first of her four children at 25.

And, outside of work and family, life revolved around the chapel,

where she sang in the choir and became a Sunday school teacher.

CHOIR SINGS

After Ivor passed away 39 years ago in 1976,

Doris continued to live in their home right up until last year.

In every particular, her life, her upbringing,

her story is echoed in any home, in any town in any of the Welsh valleys.

So what made Doris the rare exception that made it to this incredible age?

What I want to know is, what's the magic? What's the secret?

Well, I don't know that there's any secret.

I live quite cheap and easy.

I have what I want to eat

and my favourite breakfast is a nice bit of toast.

-Nothing better.

-And then, I...

Sometimes, I have a bit of cheese with it.

Or an egg, you never know.

Anything goes with me.

I eat quite a bit.

-Always on the meal times.

-OK.

-Three...

-Three times a day?

-I don't eat between meals at all.

Very rarely. It's just ordinary living, sort of thing.

And your support networks?

Your family, your friends, having people that can help you

-and you can depend on.

-Yeah.

-Do you think that's an important thing?

-Ooh, yes.

I mean, if you've got your family with you,

you've got some backbone, haven't you?

Living is easy, if you're willing to do it.

So a positive mind, maybe?

Because, I mean to say, life...

I don't know, sometimes people talk as if life is awful to live.

Awful hard to live.

I don't think so. It's what you make it.

And, I mean, if you want to make it a good life, it's up to you.

But if they want to upset it, well, that's their fault, isn't it?

So I need to say, it's you are the important person all the time.

And it's you - I've got to make it, nobody else.

'What an extraordinary woman.

'Wise, funny, straight talking.

'But what did I learn from Doris?

'Well, diet wise, eat whatever you want seems to have been her motto.

'But keep it simple.

'Don't overindulge - common dietary sense, really.'

Although she did confess to having a little soft spot for some cheese,

which goes with my "a little bit of what you fancy" theory.

She did also make it very clear how important a strong network

of family and friends is, which was also something

I was expecting to hear.

What really struck me about Doris was her absolute belief

that it's YOUR responsibility

to be true to yourself and your own life.

I suppose it's what we call having a positive mental attitude.

But, surely, you can't just will yourself to 100?

Although there must be an element of this in the next person

I'm going to meet, because he really is unique.

Not only is he the sole centenarian, male or female,

in my hometown of Merthyr,

but he's outlived the average male life expectancy

for the area by 30 years.

And his name is...

Eric Antwerp Jones.

So, Eric, how does it feel to be Merthyr's only centenarian?

That's a pretty cool achievement.

Well, I don't know.

I feel great, myself.

What do you think are the secrets to your success?

Well, I don't think there's anything secret about it at all.

I've just done what I wanted to do when I felt like doing it.

You know...

I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Do you think it's about being healthy?

Do think it's about having a tipple every now and again?

Is it always just purely enjoying life and being positive?

I'll have a tipple now and again, yes.

In terms of living a long life,

do you think it's important to work hard?

You've clearly worked very, very hard through your life.

Well, I always worked. Never been without a job.

At 14 years of age, I started work, underground, down the pit.

MINE WHISTLE BLOWS

In 1928, just like tens of thousands of Valley boys of his generation,

Eric left school one Friday and was working down the pit by Monday.

His escape from that dirty, dank and dangerous world

came five years later, when he joined the Welsh Guards.

1935, I think it is.

-Gosh, very smart.

-I'm over there somewhere.

Serving with distinction throughout World War II,

he rose to the rank of sergeant.

On the domestic front, Eric married his sweetheart, Ena,

in 1940 and they went on to have two children, Linda and Hywel.

After the war, Eric became a Merthyr police officer,

retiring in 1966 and taking up further working stints

as a hospital porter and a factory worker,

before finally putting up his feet

after 54 years of solid work in 1982.

Ena died just short of their golden wedding anniversary in 1990

and now Eric lives with his son Hywel in Merthyr,

the town he has never left, in spite of a number of opportunities.

They say there's something about Merthyr, it brings people back

-and people don't want to leave.

-I didn't want to leave Merthyr.

-A Merthyr boy through and through?

-Oh, yes.

I've never been anywhere else.

I was born in Merthyr and my family run The Station Cafe.

-Yeah?

-Yeah. Tony and Frank Viazzani.

-Tony? Good God!

Tony Viazzani.

-Yeah, he was my dad's uncle.

-Tony? Good God, aye.

I knew Tony well.

-And my grandmother was Louisa, his sister.

-Yeah.

Cos that was a real sense of community, wasn't it,

-the station caff?

-Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

When everything went quiet at night in Merthyr,

everybody seemed to gather in Viazzani's!

SHE LAUGHS

-It was a big family enterprise, wasn't it?

-Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

So I'm going to put you on the spot now.

If you had to pick three things, I want three pieces of advice

for living a long life, what would they be?

Oh, dear. Well, one thing -

if you are interested in a particular sport, follow it.

It had a great part, sport, in my life.

Family life, of course.

Look after your family.

And the last one?

Be positive? Always enjoy life?

I always did enjoy life. Always did.

-That's great.

-Always did enjoy life.

I know we're still at an early stage in this journey,

but having chatted to both Doris and Eric,

their lifestyles actually have a lot in common.

They both work hard, live simply,

have cherished families and enjoy wholesome hobbies, but with the

odd overindulgence here and there - isn't that how we all live anyway?

Well, actually, no, because life in 21st-century Wales,

particularly working life, is no longer driven by the physical

labours of domestic service, manufacture or industry.

For almost 70% of us, our nine-till-five existence

is an office-bound, deskbound sedimentary experience.

We don't get the natural workout of a coalminer, a bobby on the beat

or a maid in service who spend their days on their feet.

And then most of us come home from a mentally draining day at the

office, too tired to use that gym subscription we took out in January.

And so we slump in front of the TVs with our microwave dinners.

Surely, this is no recipe for longevity.

My final expert on living a long life lives about 20 miles away

and, apparently, I'm not to pick a fight with him.

This is Ronald Prince. 100 years old and still fighting fit.

Ronald, from Aberdaron near Pontypool,

works out in the gym every week.

Aside from always living an active life,

he believes there is something else behind his longevity.

Age is partly due to genes.

As the doctor once said to me, he said, "If you want to live long,

you've got to choose your parents very carefully."

-Do you think it's all about genes or...?

-It's a mixture, isn't it?

It's partly genes and partly diet.

Ron's parents both died in the 1960s

when the average life expectancy in the valleys

was 67 for men and 74 for women.

Ron's father died at 82, his mother, 85,

by which time Ron himself had already led a full and productive life.

Born in Abercarn in 1915, he attended Abercarn School

and then secondary, leaving at 16

to work as an apprentice radio engineer in Newport.

During World War II, he worked the land in Pembrokeshire where

he was also a caretaker at a hostel for Land Girls.

Here, he met his future wife, Grace,

who was working as a nurse in a children's TB hospital.

Married in 1947, they went on to have two daughters, Mary and Sue,

and Ronald spent the remainder of his working life

with the Chaloner Bros, an electronics shop in Pontnewynydd.

He retired in his 70s when the shop itself closed,

not that Ron has ever truly sat back and put up his feet.

In his extensive garden,

Ron continues to grow his own organic vegetables.

Fresh food that forms the bulk of his meals.

This isn't just about having some free food in your garden.

This is some serious work that keeps you not just

healthy from the food, but busy, active, because...

I try the vegetables and they've certainly

got a much better taste than what you buy in the supermarket.

-Do you like them raw?

-Yes, I'll have a go.

There's nothing like the ones you grow yourself. The taste.

What, in your opinion, do you think is the secret to living longer?

You've said genes and diet but from what you've described to me,

there's more going on here. Busy life, keeps you active?

Well, it's a mixture, isn't it, really?

And I've been very fortunate with the family

and a very good wife. We were married about 67 years.

She died three years ago and I've got two very good daughters,

so I've been very fortunate in my family.

Family, busy industrious lives, genes and a good diet.

These are the common themes in all three of my centenarians' lives.

And there's something else - each of them has such a positive outlook.

They enjoy and embrace their lives so I wonder,

is the key to longevity as much about your psychological health

as it is about your physical wellbeing?

And if that's the case, are some people just born happy and contented?

Is there a happy gene?

Or is it about our upbringing, our surroundings, our families?

In search of an answer,

I'm heading to visit Professor Vanessa Burholt

at Swansea University's Centre For Innovative Ageing.

Professor Burholt is a world authority on gerontology,

the scientific study of old age.

-Hi, Vanessa.

-Hi, Michela!

What, in your opinion, are the top factors when it comes to longevity?

Well, some colleagues in the US

have helped us out answering that question.

This isn't from my own research,

but they've done a meta-analysis of all of the published studies

that look at mortality so the rates at which people die, really.

And top of their list is actually social support

so over 7 1/2 years, you're more likely to survive rather than die

if you have good social support, rather than poor social support.

That has a bigger effect than quitting smoking on mortality.

-Wow!

-And a bigger effect than obesity so that's related to nutrition

and some of the diseases associated with mortality as well.

So you're saying the most important thing for an individual

-is social support?

-It could be.

That's been identified in this study,

but I think we need to paint quite a holistic picture

of all the parts that might fit together.

Why is it that family may have that influence on mortality?

So it could be around the influence they have

on providing support to people who need support,

providing a sense of identity,

what sort of role you have in life

when your family and friends are around, that supports that.

But it also might be to do with loneliness,

whether or not experiencing loneliness

places certain stresses on the brain that cause you to die earlier.

'So that's very interesting.

'All three of my Welsh centenarians,'

they're all surrounded by a strong family support network,

just as Professor Burholt has suggested.

And if I think of my upbringing,

family has always been at the heart of life in the Chiappa household.

'I think the main reason I've got so interested in longevity

'and living to be 100 is that I'm a mum now with two beautiful daughters.

'Fiamma is two and little Serafina is all of 12 weeks old.

'I read recently that babies born after 2013, which both of mine were,

'will have a one in three chance of living to 100.

'That's an extraordinary statistic,

'but it does come with a worry

'that I, as a parent, might somehow impede that chance.'

It does make you think, having children, though,

about what can you do to give them a good chance in life,

to give them a great start

and hopefully live on for many years into the future.

It certainly is getting me thinking right now

about not just nutrition, but other factors.

It does start from day dot, really, and is part of, I guess,

being a mum that you want to give them the best possibilities

in life right from the minute they are born.

'And yes, good wholesome food

'is certainly a part of that equation for me,

'which is why I'm going to use some of Ronald's home-grown produce

'to make a broad bean pesto for tonight's supper.

'But don't get me wrong,

'I'm not one of those paranoid mums

'who won't feed their kids certain foods

'because they're worried about the sugar content.

'Fiamma does have treats - home-made cakes, ice cream.

'For me, it's about the balance.

'Although it will be interesting to see how this pesto goes down!'

Broad beans are certainly not one of my favourite vegetables

because they are quite bland and they are quite hard and tough,

but in there, that is absolutely delicious.

We have one brilliant pesto sauce,

inspired by one of Wales's centenarians.

'So it's broad bean pesto pasta for supper

'and there's three generations of Chiappas at the table tonight

'and I'm going to take this opportunity

'to grill Dad about our own family's longevity.

-Grazie!

-What was Nonno Pino's words of wisdom, Dad,

for living a long life?

I think my Dad's words of wisdom for living a long life

was to have an active life and a happy life

and a very strong family life.

The family was everything to Nonno

and he was a very, very active man up until the day he died.

He was very, very active.

He would be out in the workshop.

-You say that now, that you have not the energy like your dad had.

-No.

My dad's family, they had nothing.

They were really peasant farmers and they had nothing

and yet they were happy.

Even though they were peasants living on very little,

they lived quite a long life, considering.

They lived VERY long lives.

-How old was Nonna Maria?

-She was gone at 93, I think,

when she died, my dad's mum.

My mum's mum died, she'd gone 90 and we all lived together...

-Louise's mum...

-Louise's mum, I think, was nearly 100.

She did hit 100, didn't she?

My grandfather's sister, she would still, in her 80s and 90s,

jump over her garden fence to go and get her eggs from the chickens.

She'd get up at three in the morning when we'd come in from a night out

and be like, "Right, let me cook you a plate of pasta

"and I'll make you a plate of spaghetti."

She was the most active lady I've probably ever met,

right until her last days.

Listen, if I had the recipe for a long life, I'd be a very rich man.

I'll have a bit of wine, Dad.

'Do you know what, my dad might never get to be a very rich man,

'but he's just said something absolutely priceless to me.

'And it's left me with the strong suspicion

'that I might have been asking the right questions,

'but in the wrong place.

'I think the real answers to longevity are not here in Wales -

'they lie in my own ancestral roots back home in Italy.'

Welcome to Europe's greatest longevity hotspot!

A place where people live longer, healthier lives

than anywhere else across the whole continent.

Where the levels of cancer, diabetes and heart disease

are a fraction of what they are in Wales

and where there are more centenarians than anywhere else

in the northern hemisphere.

This is the province of Ogliastra on the Italian island of Sardinia -

a place where there so many octogenarians, nonagenarians

and centenarians roaming the streets, that a mere tricenarian,

someone in their 30s like me, is a bit of a novelty.

So, what's going on? Well, that's why I'm here.

So I'm going to go out and I want to meet some of those locals

to work out what's the recipe for living a long life

and hopefully then I can take those secrets back to Wales.

With a population of around 59,000 people

scattered across its hillsides and small towns,

the province of Ogliastra is the same size as the borough of Merthyr,

but, unlike Merthyr, one in three of its inhabitants

currently live into their 90s.

And while there's only one centenarian in the whole of Merthyr,

there are 33 alone in Ogliastra's municipal town of Villagrande,

which has an overall population of just 4,000 people.

So, is it the sun? The fabled Mediterranean diet?

Or is there a hidden fountain of youth somewhere on the island?

'Well, I am about to find out,

'starting with a visit to Eugenio,

'who, at just 100 years and 39 days,

'is Villagrande's youngest centenarian.'

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

I just asked what is the secret of him living until he's 100

and he said, "It's not to die before!"

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

When it comes to food,

he says he doesn't eat evening meals any more, but...

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

I said what are his favourite meals?

He said, "A good plate of pasta," and it's nice to see how Italians...

You know, pasta is always that first dish you might give to a baby,

but even as you get older, it still remains a favourite.

SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

'Signor Eugenio and I spent the next 20 minutes

'talking through his life story.'

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

'It was a story that had many resonances

'with the centenarians back in Wales.'

I just asked Signor Eugenio what is the secret to long life

and was being active, working hard part of it and he said

he was one of eight children, four girls and four boys, and his father

always said the girls had to go

until prima elementare to school, the first year.

The boys had to go up to the fifth because it was really important

they learn to write, especially if they had to go off to war.

He lasted until the first year.

He did one day of his second, packed it in and basically

went and worked the land for his family, which was olive farming,

wheat and wine and he said, "We certainly enjoyed the years

"of the wine harvest and had a good life,"

so clearly he made a good choice to pack in the studies

and come and work the land and that is, I think, evidence

that that active lifestyle, that natural way of keeping fit,

has obviously served him well.

But he did just tell me he is waiting

to go to bed down the road in the cemetery.

But he's clearly lasting well

and he's enjoying living those stories and those memories.

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

'What a beautiful man!

'Although I'm not sure that Eugenio's recipe of leaving school early

'and spending your days making wine is the message

'I should be taking back to Wales, tempting as that sounds.

'I want to take back some hard, practical facts

'so I've arranged to meet Dr Gianni Pes,

'a molecular biologist at the University of Sassari.

'A world world-renowned expert,

'he's been studying longevity on Sardinia for over 15 years.

'In fact, it was Dr Pes and his colleague Michel Poulin

'who coined the famous term "blue zone",

'which denotes a region where the average life expectancy

'is considerably higher than elsewhere in the world.

'And he's brought me to Villagrande's city hall to reveal to me

'the fruits of his blue zone studies.'

Are there only four at the moment in the world?

At the moment, only four, yes.

Nicoya, Sardinia, Icaria and Okinawa.

'While studies continue into the other three longevity hotspots,

'it's the sheer wealth of historical records here on Sardinia that means

'Dr Pes and his colleagues have been able to draw some of the most

'comprehensive conclusions about what causes longevity.'

This is the civil archive that started in 1866,

then we have the parish archives that date back to the 16th century

so there is the possibility

to reconstruct any family tree for four centuries.

Absolutely unique in the world and this is very important

because it makes easier to do the genetic study as well.

'Interestingly, Dr Pes's genetic studies

'have led him to a wholly unexpected conclusion.'

When I started 15 years ago,

I thought that the genetic component was very important,

but, progressively, I've changed my mind

and now think that 80% of longevity

is explained by environmental

-or lifestyle factors instead of genetics.

-OK.

'So if genes are only 20% of the longevity equation,

'what, according to Dr Pes, are the other factors?'

Physical activity, good nutrition, social support,

a purpose in life - that includes also spirituality, if you want -

-and the fifth one, OK, is just by chance.

-OK.

Chance, eh? The roulette of life.

Luckily for me and Villagrande, there are no buses to be run over by.

Although wandering the streets,

I can see casual evidence of what Gianni has told me.

On the healthy nutrition front,

it's really interesting to know there are no big supermarkets

in the town, but everyone seems to have a patch of ground

where they grow their fruit and veg

or raise a couple of chickens or pigs.

There are no takeaways, no processed foods.

Everything appears to be fresh and locally produced.

Life couldn't be any different back home in Wales,

where we've got kebab shops, burger bars

and processed supermarket ready meals available on every corner.

And where basic kitchen skills,

no longer part of our schools' core curriculum, are so lacking

that many of us wouldn't know how to cook a spinach leaf,

let alone grow one.

Dr Pes's other key ingredients

were also readily observed on the streets of Villagrande.

Physical activity - cut into the hillside,

these higgledy-piggledy streets

provide a daily workout for the calves and cardiovasculars.

There's plenty of social support and interaction

and what I've noticed is how the young and the old mix freely.

Spirituality? Well, that's a given - we're in Italy!

But the one thing Gianni said that really struck me was about having

a purpose in life - something to get you out of bed every morning.

Apparently, the people of Ogliastra province never really retire.

They might slow down, but otherwise, they just keep on going,

getting up every morning to do whatever it is they've got to do.

This is particularly true of the men

and what's unique about Sardinia as a blue zone is that,

unlike the other three longevity hotspots,

there are as many male centenarians here as there are female.

So, the work-life balance?

Maybe it's really an unhealthy myth

and actually the secret is to keep on working until you drop,

which allegedly is what the peasant farmers of Ogliastra do.

So we're heading out of Villagrande

to see the evidence of Gianni's research

and how working in the outdoors and having a very active lifestyle

is really one of the strong contributing factors to longevity.

In the hills above Villagrande on 26 acres of scrubland,

81-year-old Francesco Messina rears over 300 head

of dairy ewes, goats, cows and pigs.

Rising with the sun, he works seven days a week, 365 days a year,

as have generations of Messina menfolk before him.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

He lives here on this land. He sleeps here.

He says sometimes he sleeps here in the open at this time of year,

it's so warm, there's nothing better than the fresh air.

He's 81 now, but basically his dad, his grandad,

his great-grandad all were farmers and shepherds.

His grandad lived till he was 86 and his father lived till he was 89,

all doing this life as shepherds and as farmers, working the land.

SHE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

They haven't modernised any of the machinery.

They milk all the sheep, the goats, everything by hand.

'This is Francesco's nephew Gianluca.

'He's only 54 so he's still a kid,

'but he's just milked all 217 of the ewes by hand, as he does every day.'

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

So this was all the milk from all these sheep tonight

and this is going to go to make some cheese.

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

So for all those sheep, it takes about an hour to milk them.

'And while work's undoubtedly hard, the living is no easier either.'

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

So, up until 20, 30 years ago,

he spent his life in similar huts like this.

He said it's a hard life, but equally it is one he's been brought up on,

one that he's used to so why would he have any other way?

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

I said if life is hard, why hasn't he gone to live in the town?

And he said, "Well, it's my job and, more than anything,

"I love my job and I love working with the animals,

"from cows, sheep, pigs. I'm here in nature."

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

In his opinion,

most of the centenarians were farmers or shepherds

and they lived a life like this in the land

so this would have been where they lived. They'd sleep on hard floors.

A very simple life, they'd cook on the fire, work the land in the day

and stay in here at night.

It's been really lovely coming up here,

to finally see a real shepherd from this area.

I'm not sure if it's really for me.

I don't know if I could do what he is doing,

live out here literally on the land.

But it definitely has made me think about how important it is

to live an active lifestyle. A LIFESTYLE.

Not just going to the gym and doing exercise every day,

but making it part of your life.

And also, slowing down your pace of life.

Not worrying about too many things,

the speed and the pace of life that we live today.

Really taking a step back and thinking,

you know, "Do we really need to do all that we do?"

And will that affect your lifespan in future?

During the past 24 hours, I've got so much more clarity

about the varied ingredients it takes to live to be 100.

But I left Francesco's smallholding with one nagging thought.

His way of life died out in the Welsh valleys

when the first mineshaft was sunk.

And it's under threat in Sardinia, too, as increasingly,

people leave the tough life in the hills

for the easier life of the towns.

But does this mean abandoning the life-prolonging traditions

and values of the countryside?

Or is there a healthy compromise?

The following morning, I got up early to spend my final day in Sardinia

with a family who firmly believe you can have it all.

Ciao! Buongiorno!

ALL GREET EACH OTHER

Meet Mariangela and Marco Mareo,

a husband-and-wife team who run what is best described

as a family cooperative.

Marco and Mariangela live in Villagrande,

sharing a house with their two teenage children,

Gabriele, 17 and Lucia, 21.

And they share their lives with their parents.

Marco's dad, who's 89 and Mariangela's dad, who's 76,

Marco's mum, 80, and Mariangela's mum who's 73.

As a unit, the extended Mareo family grow, rear,

make, cook and bake everything they eat.

It's a very typical family set-up here in the Ogliastra Valley.

But this good life is also a tough life,

requiring hard work throughout long days and weekends.

Both Marco and Mariangela have jobs.

Marco's a forestry worker

and Mariangela runs a small B&B at the family home.

So, their day begins around 7am milking the goats.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

He said this is something they have learned from their parents,

their grandparents and their great-grandparents.

I said, how old was he when he learnt to milk?

And he said about six, seven years of age.

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

HE REPLIES IN ITALIAN

I asked him, you know, is this really important for him

to do and pass down to his children? He said, "Absolutely.

"Otherwise, it's going to get lost."

The memory he has, not just from his parents,

but from his grandparents

was they always used to teach him to respect nature.

And if you respect nature, it will respond,

and it will keep you healthy and well into the future.

While the goats hop down the hill

to spend the day grazing by the river bank,

we head back to the house to turn the milk into some cheese.

The whole process they're doing today

to make this cheese is completely natural.

They are not using any additives, preservatives.

The thickening agent to make the milk the cheese is this...

the goat's stomach.

Their goats keep the family in milk, yoghurt and cheese

the whole year round. They never need to pop to the supermarket

because they never run out.

What's more, goat's milk has a higher nutritional value than cow's milk,

and studies suggest the milk helps lower the risk

of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer.

Not that the family need to be told all of this -

for them, it's a way of life that young Gabriele

is set to continue into the next generation.

For me, there's nothing better than seeing a young family

still using old methods to create some amazing food from the land.

You know, this has been home-made, and look...

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

17 years of age and he knows how to kill a goat, feed a goat,

milk a goat, and create the most delicious cheese fresh from the land.

Brilliant stuff.

'The one thing I am quickly realising is that there is no fast food here.

'The whole day revolves around preparing meals for the table.'

The Mareos are not farmers, they're just ordinary, working people

with a plot of land on which they raise all of the food they consume.

They don't go to the supermarket or call in a takeaway,

they just beaver away as a family to create fresh, wholesome food

that also keeps them exceptionally active.

Talk about that for a spinach leaf!

This is serious work. You know, you've got to work the land,

you've got to sow the seeds, help them grow,

you've got to stop the snails eating them,

you've got to collect them, clean them, cook them.

Serious work for a plot this size.

You don't do it on your own, it's a whole family thing.

And Mariangela said, when they collect the potatoes

it's almost like a party. "We all come here,

"we've each have got our jobs, and it's a real social occasion."

So, you can really see, I guess, how strong those social networks are.

Here we've got the beans.

I've heard, and a lot of people have talked about the importance of beans

for contributing to longevity

and beans were often a substitute to meat for the poor families.

Because they've got a lot of protein in,

and for those families that didn't have meat,

or maybe at certain times of the year,

the animals weren't ready to eat,

it provided them with those important nutrients to keep them going

for the hard and tough months.

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

'There's one more place I want to visit

'before I taste the family's produce. That's their cantina.

'An Italian larder that's like an Aladdin's cave for foodies.

'Cheeses, wines, pulses, olives, smoked meats and sausages,

'all of it produced and preserved by the family.'

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

..McDonald's, fast food.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

So, I said, obviously, in our world of today,

processed foods are all around us, and with added preservatives,

what's their feelings on that?

And they were like, all we use when curing the meat is salt and pepper.

They use no preservatives, nothing,

it's all pure stuff.

SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN

I'm going to their house, I want to eat some of this stuff.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

The family have offered to rustle up a typical Sardinian supper for me.

So, while Marco gets on with the man's work of roasting a goat haunch,

I'm going to join the rest of the family in the kitchen.

I am so excited about today, because just like in my family,

where you've got everyone in the family roped in to do different jobs,

we're here with Mariangela, and she's got her mum,

her daughter, her son's behind,

and this is what is very, very typical.

Particularly in this family.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Although, what I wasn't expecting

was the dish we were about to prepare.

The local speciality, minestrone soup

that not only takes six hours to make

but is heavy on the carbs and has a high fat content.

No olive-oil-rich Mediterranean diets here!

So, basically, it is a heavy dish, you've got beans, you got potatoes,

you've got pasta in it, and the cheese and all these flavours.

But Mariangela said that traditionally,

this was often fed to the farmers, the men that were away from home

feeding all these animals up in the hills and, often,

they would come back after a week,

and this was a real dish that would fill their bellies

and make them feel like it's great to be home.

They needed it, as well, because they'd been away for that time.

CONVERSATION IN ITALIAN

I asked, "Is this a typical job that the man does?"

He said, "Absolutely."

And it has been passed down from generations to generations.

The women often do the first course, the pastas, the risottos.

And it's the men that look after the meat.

He said, for him it's very important to pass this down.

His son knows how to kill, how to prepare the meat, and to cook it.

So, you can see he's very proud of that.

'Come meal-time, what I took for a cosy, family get-together

'seems to be transforming into a village festa.'

I don't know what is going on,

but I believe a family of five, six people

has suddenly multiplied into what looks like 25.

It doesn't look like this is going to be a small thing.

It's going to be pretty much a massive feast with half the village!

But, hey, I suppose that's Italian families for you.

LIVELY CHATTER IN ITALIAN

HE TOASTS IN ITALIAN

LAUGHTER AND CHATTER

So, this is clearly, in my opinion, what Italians are all about.

And particularly, here in Villagrande.

It starts from working the land, cultivating your own produce

and then cooking and eating altogether.

It doesn't really get much better than this.

Unadulterated home-made produce consumed at a communal table

by family and friends while being serenaded by the young folk

singing traditional old folk songs.

Simple lives, simple food and simple rituals.

Passed down and on through generation after generation.

I've no doubt that every single ingredient of living to be 100

is here in this room right now.

If only I could bottle it up and bring it back home.

And although I leave Sardinia the following morning

without the elixir of life clasped in my hand,

I do believe I've got some valuable long-life lessons

to take back to Wales which I can certainly share

with the Tantem family.

So, I'm back where I started on this journey for living a long life,

here in Wales. I'm going to go and see the Tantems.

I've learnt a lot and I got a nice big of goodies

that I'm going to take in to them.

And where better to share that experience

than round the dinner table enjoying a Sardinian-inspired supper.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Hello.

Oh, hello, how are you doing?

-Good, thank you.

-I've got some goodies.

-What have we got?

-Hello.

So, if you guys are committed to living a healthier life,

I reckon, we can have a chat about some things

that we can make a change already.

For me, one of the most important things

that I saw in Sardinia was that there was no processed food.

Nowhere to be seen. Quite simple, not to eat anything processed.

Do you think you could do that?

Yes. We've done it before. We can do it again.

There's no reason why we can't do it again.

It's not easy, you know, you've got to be organised.

You've got to make sure you've got space, time, to prepare things.

But you said you love freezer meals,

even though they're bought from the shop.

We can do that, we can create.

You love doing shepherd's pie, fish pie.

They are brilliant freezer meals.

It's just a matter of making them in bulk, putting them into portions

and then you can create your own freezer meals,

but they're home-produced.

I think, if you could cut out processed food and fizzy drinks...

How does that sound?

HE LAUGHS

Fizzy drinks out of your diet.

-I don't drink any fizzy drinks(!)

-Don't you?

-No...

ALL LAUGH

I am telling you, you would see a difference.

And I can show you some really simple recipes that you can prepare

in five minutes from the stuff that you already buy

-that will make your lives simple.

-Righty-ho.

Right, we're going to do a super-quick and simple pasta sauce,

Lee, you're going to do the chopping.

Finely chop an onion. Splash of olive oil in a pan.

Then we're going to pop in that onion.

At this stage, you can put whatever veg you want.

If you fancied any greens, you could put a bit of broccoli in.

If you like your freezer, frozen peas, frozen chopped veg,

you could now toss in a handful and mix that in.

What I'm going to do, I'm going to speed peel

some lovely ribbons of carrot,

you don't need too much, just a little bit of veg.

Peel lovely bits of courgette in.

Give that a stir, all together.

And then, once that has sweated down,

we are going to add our tin of chopped tomatoes.

-Right then, into this we're going to put a stock cube.

-Smells lovely!

A little spoon of cream cheese,

that will just give it a lovely bit of creaminess.

For me, being Italian, I don't think you can have pasta sauce

without Parmesan. And, again, this means you use less salt, as well,

it is just more natural.

It is expensive, but if you only use a little amount each time,

you know, that will last you a couple of months.

That's done.

You could easily double, if not triple, that quantity.

And then, that freezes brilliantly,

so you could freeze this in little individual containers again,

And there again, you've got your freezer meals that are fresh.

And basically, when you want to cook it, you just pull it out,

whack it in the microwave to defrost it and throw it over pasta.

Did you find out any other secrets to family life in Sardinia?

Yeah, I mean, I think, for me,

the things I brought away from Sardinia was the sense of family.

So, big communities where the family is really important.

BABY FUSSES Yes, you agree, don't you? Yes!

And, basically, it's the idea that it's not just eating good food,

it's the WHOLE process.

They sit together, they cook together,

they socialise together and there's this kind of family network.

So, it's not just the cooking.

It's the sitting down together,

enjoying it together around a dinner table.

That's one thing we have always done.

-We always sit at the table to eat.

-It's important.

We always make sure that that is something we do every evening.

It doesn't matter if we end up having a late dinner,

it is at the table. Always together, always at the table.

-Smells lovely.

-I hope you like it.

Absolutely gorgeous.

It's really nice.

So, how was the pace of life in Sardinia?

Was it as busy and as chaotic as ours?

No, definitely not.

They spend all day cooking one dish that they might eat

at the end of the day and it's a very slow pace of life,

but, I just think, we've got to be realistic.

We live in Wales.

We don't live in sun-drenched hills

with vegetable patches the size of a football pitch,

we do live in communities like we do,

but I do think, you know, there are factors that we could all do -

even myself included - to improve our quality of life.

Trying to walk every day, even if it is only ten minutes to work,

or even it's on the weekend, you take the kids

and it's raining, but you put some coats on.

It shouldn't really make any excuses,

cos we have got beautiful surroundings that we live in.

We might actually say, you know what, we just feel so much better,

and I do believe that I was brought up

in an Italian household in the Welsh Valleys,

but the one thing my dad was always adamant about

it that to be cooked fresh,

and it had to be all of us around the table.

They certainly didn't say, don't drink a glass of wine

in Sardinia, in fact, they all drank wine.

So, maybe, it's a walk to the pub with your family

for a glass of wine and then to come home to a home-cooked meal.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Salute!

So, what have I learned from my search

of finding the secrets of living until you're 100.

When I first started on this journey,

I had, at the back of my mind, that one of the factors might be money.

That somehow, wealth could buy you your help.

But actually, having visited the Welsh centenarians

and the hill farmers of Sardinia,

they actually proved that quite the opposite was true.

A hard life of honest graft,

especially if it's in the outdoors,

can actually help you live to 100.

And certainly, if you have got a good diet,

and a strong family unit and a purpose in life.

But are all these things possible in a 21st-century Wales?

Well, actually, they are.

But we have got to work harder to make them work

because our lifestyle is against us.

But given all of that, the tools are there for us

to live a long and healthy life.

It's just a matter of us utilising them.

And for that, there is no excuse.

ALL SING: Happy Birthday

I keep thinking back to something Doris told me on her 105th birthday.

Life is what you make it.

It's you who are the important person all the time,

and it's you that's got to make it, nobody else.

That it's you that's got to make it, nobody else.