This 105-Year-Old Beat Covid. She Credits Gin-Soaked Raisins.

[Initech]

Ask Lucia DeClerck how she has lived to be 105, and she is quick with an answer.

“Prayer. Prayer. Prayer,” she offers. “One step at a time. No junk food.”

But surviving the coronavirus, she said, also may have had something to do with another staple: the nine gin-soaked golden raisins she has eaten each morning for most of her life.

“Fill a jar,” she explained. “Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days.”

Her children and grandchildren recall the ritual as just one of Ms. DeClerck’s endearing lifelong habits, like drinking aloe juice straight from the container and brushing her teeth with baking soda. (That worked, too: She did not have a cavity until she was 99, relatives said.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/nyregion/new-jersey-lucia-declerck-covid.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

I'm off to go buy a bottle of gin and a box of raisins.

[tanyev]

1. Well, hello, gin soaked raisins.

[Dream Girl]

2. But only nine!,

[tanyev]

5. Nine, Ninety...only a two letter difference.

[JHB]

19. Or ten days

[Midnightwalk]

7. I have a lot of time to make up for

[Throck]

3. Gin and raisins.

The next shortage. I can see the lines forming already.

[jpak]

4. 99 gin soaked raisins on the wall...

[iemitsu]

6. I believe this could be true because the

95 year old woman I know, who survived Covid, is gin soaked too.

[Vinca]

8. Works for me. Add to the grocery list. LOL.

[Warpy]

9. We had a 108 year old man and his 80 something son both survive here in town

The dad had survived the 1918 flu as a child.

Neither was arrogant enough to claim they had the secret to longevity or surviving deadly disease.

Some people are just hard to kill.

[Demovictory9]

10. only 9 raisins

[FakeNoose]

11. My guess - it's the raisins that saved her

The gin ... not so much.

[nuxvomica]

12. It's not the raisins themselves but looking foward to eating them

That's what gets her out of bed each morning. And I bet the no-junk-food diet helped her longevity even more.

[Initech]

15. I'd be willing to bet any combination of citrus and alcohol works.

[StClone]

16. Citrus no.

Health experts say raisins (dried grapes) are natural pain relievers. And the gin is flavored with juniper berries-- which have anti-inflammatory properties.

[liberaltrucker]

13. Was her younger self a gin soaked barroom queen in Memphis?

[Delphinus]

14. Gosh,

I had forgotten about this remedy.

I did it more than a decade ago.

[dhill926]

17. how could I, an enthusiastic lifelong consumer of gin...

been unaware of this miracle cure. Gin I got, I'll have to go get the raisins...

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. I've used gin-soaked golden raisins for joint problems

It's a common folk remedy for joint problems. They must be golden raisins, although nobody knows why. The instructions always involve a specific number of raisins, but I don't remember if it was commonly 9 or some other number. Instructions also vary as to whether to drain off the gin after the initial soak or just leave it on the raisins.

My experience was that it worked for me at the time. I also found that some brands of gin just didn't work, but I have no idea why.

That was about twenty years ago. Since then I gradually developed a set of exercises that work better. At 73, my back and joints are better than they were at 50, and no need for gin or raisins now.

[TomSlick]

20. I found the attached article which contains a recipe.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-gin-soaked-raisins-help-arthritis-189147

I am less enthusiastic after learning the raisins are soaked in an open container which would allow the alcohol to evaporate.

[pansypoo53219]

21. the queen's mum did this. i hate gin. i tried w/ whiskey. should make some.