Florida woman looks much younger than her years, calls garden 'fountain of youth'

Annette Larkins shows off her garden in her Miami-Dade County backyard. It's full of fruits and vegetables. Every corner of her garden has something that is edible. She also collects rainwater to drink and water her plants.

Annette says the food in her garden is her 'Fountain of Youth.'

"I am very vibrant, I have lots of energy, as I told you before, I am up no later than 5:30 in the morning as a rule, and I am ready to go," she said.

Annette's husband owned a meat store in the 1960s. That's when she became a vegetarian. But as the years went by, she became a raw vegan.

Annette says she does not eat animal products-- her food is unprocessed and uncooked. "My diet consists of fruits, nuts, vegetables and seeds. I do a lot of sprouting of seeds and as you can see from my garden and of course these are the raw foods that I eat."

Annette also juices fruits and veggies. You name it, she can juice it. Grapefruits, pineapples, even spinach. But not everyone in the Larkins family eats and drinks this way.

Annette's husband Amos of almost 54 years chose to continue to eat the way he did when they were first married. "I really wish I would have done what she did," he said.

Amos says people even wonder if Annette is his wife. "They will ask me 'what am I doing with a young girl? or they will say 'you've got your granddaughter with you,' things like that."

Amos takes prescription medicines daily for high blood pressure and diabetes. Annette says she does not even take an aspirin.

Annette says because friends and strangers kept asking her questions about her health and youthful appearance, she decided to publish two Journey To Health booklets, and she produced a DVD 12 years ago.

"The Discovery Channel, they took sections of the booklet and translated them into Spanish which is, by the way, my second language."

So how old is this size 4 beauty? Annette just turned 70-years-old.
 
Annette says friends her age see the difference in her quality of life. "This one lady who is my age, she was telling her friend, that I used to tell them about eating and they would not listen and her response to that was look at her now, and look at us."

Her husband says she is vibrant person. "She is an amazing person, she does everything. I mean she builds computers, makes all of her own clothes, grows her own food, speak three languages, it's amazing."