A Mediterranean diet, regular exercise and a positive outlook. Three of the factors normally associated with a long life.

To that list we can now add "a daily can of beer", thanks to 110-year-old Mark Behrends from Nebraska City, USA.

Mr Behrends, Nebraska’s oldest living person and the oldest man living in the United States whose age can be officially verified, puts his longevity down to a regular intake of alcohol.

“He always told everybody the reason he has lived so long is drinking one can of beer , every day at 3 pm,” his daughter Lois Bassinger told the Omaha World-Herald. “He always joked that that was his medicine, since he takes very little medicine.”

Beer. That's what a Nebraska man who turned 110 over the weekend said is the secret to a long life. Mark Behrends of...

In 2011, a Spanish study found that drinking a moderate amount of beer (which contains folic acid, vitamins, iron and calcium) could help cut the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure and even help people lose weight.

A 1998 Finnish study found that men who consumed one bottle of beer a day reduced their risk of developing kidney stones by 40 per cent.

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