Just how long can humans live? Though the average life expectancy around the world is around 67 years, there are an estimated 200 to 300 super-centenarian (those who live beyond 110) around the world, and one of them may be the world's oldest man, Carmelo Flores Laura from Bolivia, who turned 123 last month, according to the Daily Mail.
According to Bolivia's civil registry, Laura, a herder from the mountain village of Frasquicia, 50 miles outside the capital La Paz, is still healthy, walking without a stick and doesn't need eyeglasses. The native Aymara has three children, 16 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren, and was 24-years old during the beginning of World War I. Laura told a local news station that he believes the secret to his health and longevity are his daily walks and diet that consists of no pasta or sugar.
Instead, Laura dines on cananhua, a wild species of quinoa that is rich in amino acid and protein, which he cooks for himself, as well as foxes and lizards.
"I've never been lazy. I always shared the cooking with my wife," Laura told Bolivia's Rede Uno TV station. "We would only eat what we could find growing wild. We ate mostly skunk meat. I still go on long walks every day."
If he truly is 123, as government records claim, Laura would easily be the world's oldest living person, a title that currently belongs to 115-year-old Japanese woman Misao Okawa, and would beat out the oldest person on record to ever have lived, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.
The oldest man to ever to have lived on record is Jiroemon Kimura, who died this year at age 116. In order to claim the title officially, Laura would have to have his documents verified by a Guinness Book of Records official.
As for Laura, he isn't quite sure of his exact age. "I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores told reporters, though his memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Before Laura was born, birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia, according to the Daily Mail, though his baptism record is considered an official and authentic record of birth.
Currently, the official title of the world's oldest living man belongs to 112-year old Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez of Grand Island, New York, a self-taught musician and coal miner.
Click here to see photos of Carmelo Flores Laura, who turned 123 last month according to the Bolivian civil registry, as well as a photo of his identification document that verifies he was born in 1890.
