Dr. Pepper Is The Secret To 104-Year-Old Woman's Long Life, She Says
Porridge and avoiding men. Sleep and sushi. These are a few of the secrets women living well into their 100s reveal when asked about longevity. But Elizabeth Sullivan, a former math teacher from Forth Worth, Texas, who just turned 104, has a sweeter secret.
“I saw the doctor and he said, ‘Are you careful about what you eat?’ and I said, ‘Certainly not, I drink three Dr. Peppers a day,’ and he said, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s too much sugar. You will die if you keep drinking that,’” Sullivan told ABC News 24. “But 10 years later he died and I had to change doctors. So I’m still drinking three Dr. Peppers a day and people said that’s bad for me but you know, not very many people live to be 104.”
The sugary soda, Sullivan added, is what she guesses has been keeping her alive. And when Dr. Pepper’s CEO Larry Young caught wind of this, he wanted to send her a gift. Young personally delivered cases of Sullivan’s favorite soda in 70s-style glass bottles, which is how the soda was packaged when Sullivan first started to drink it.
“We saw it as a unique opportunity to ring in her big 104,” Chris Barnes, Dr. Pepper’s director of corporate communications, told ABC. “We wanted to thank her for being such a big fan of the brand and making us a part of her daily life.”