Just what the Dr (Pepper) ordered! A woman out of Texas may have found the secret to staying young — and it’s not what you’d expect. According to Elizabeth Sullivan, who celebrated her 104th birthday on Wednesday, March 18, the elixir of youth is none other than Dr Pepper.
“I started drinking ’em about 40 years ago, three a day,” Sullivan shared with Dallas-Fort Worth’s local CBS affiliate on Wednesday. “Every doctor that sees me says it’ll kill you, but they die and I don’t. So there must be a mistake somewhere.”
Sullivan started her three-a-day habit in her 60s. Now she drinks the sugary soda multiple times a day, every day. In fact, it’s how she gets herself going in the morning.
“People try to give me coffee for breakfast. Well, I’d rather have a Dr Pepper,” she quipped.
With that in mind, the soft-drink company gifted Sullivan with a crate of glass bottles of the stuff. They also presented her with a special birthday cake designed to look like a Dr Pepper can.
“When you live to be 104 and still can talk to nice people, you deserve some Dr Pepper,” she told CBS DFW. “Nobody’s gonna believe all of this stuff!”
Dr Pepper itself celebrated its centennial back in 1985. According to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group website, the drink was invented by pharmacist Charles Alderton of Waco, Tex., in 1885, making it 130 years old this year!
