105-year-old Icelander: “No fruit or veg!”

Guðrún Straumfjörð is 105 today.

Guðrún Straumfjörð is 105 today. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Styrmir Kári

Guðrún Straumfjörð was born on 24 May 1911 and is the third oldest living Icelander. Some of her longevity secrets are not necessarily what one would expect...

“I don’t eat fruit or vegetables,” says Guðrún, “except for the odd banana and a bit of cauliflower and cabbage. And no – no cod-liver oil.”

Bread soup with cream is one of Guðrún’s favourites, as well as lightly salted fish. “I don’t hold with these newfangled health foods,” she says.

Neither has she been a big exercise freak over her 105 years of life. She did some gymnastics in her youth, but stopped doing any real walking after she passed her driving test – back in 1940.

Guðrún is lively and has a good memory. While her eyesight is beginning to fail, she hears well with a hearing aid and walks about well with a walking frame. She takes a keen interest in foreign affairs and is looking forward to Iceland’s presidential elections this summer.  

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