Jane Goodall worked into her 90s. Here are 5 lifestyle habits that might explain how she stayed ‘fit as a fiddle’ for so long.

• Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist and conservationist, has died at 91.
• She followed a plant-based diet, enjoyed learning new things, and was working right up to her last days.
• Here are several lifestyle habits that might have helped her stay healthy and active for so long.

Jane Goodall, world-renowned ethologist and conservationist, has died of natural causes in her sleep while in Los Angeles for a speaking tour. She was 91.

Widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, she transformed our understanding of primates when she documented their ability to use tools, challenging the long-held belief that only humans were capable of such innovation.

In later years, her work expanded to include environmental conservation, animal protection, and human rights. Even in her final months, Goodall remained active and committed to her work.

Here are some of the lifestyle habits that may have helped her stay healthy for so long.

Eating a plant-based diet

In a 2017 personal essay, Goodall urged people to stop eating meat and shared that she herself had given it up decades earlier.

“I stopped eating meat some 50 years ago when I looked at the pork chop on my plate and thought: this represents fear, pain, death. That did it, and I went plant-based instantly,” she wrote.

She added that she “immediately felt better, lighter” once she stopped eating meat.

In an interview published in February, Goodall told The National that she went vegan for “ethical reasons” but soon “realised the other benefits to our health.”

“Our gut is not made to eat heavy meat and we can get lots of digestive problems,” she said. “Now we also know that animals in these horrible factory farms are intelligent and how they are cooped up is absolutely terrible.”

Goodall said she welcomed the shift toward plant-based eating.

“I’m vegan and I’m fit as a fiddle,” Goodall said. “A plant-based diet is really, really important and, luckily, more and more people are becoming vegetarian or even vegan.”

A 2021 study by researchers from the University of Naples suggests that a plant-based diet rich in olive oil and tomatoes can help lower the risk of heart disease. Eating more fiber can also help with gut health and weight loss.

In 2022, researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway found that eating more plants and fewer processed foods could extend life expectancy by up to 10 years, with beans, whole grains, and nuts offering the greatest benefits.

Keeping busy with work

Goodall continued working right up til her death.

She told The Cut in 2017 that she typically spends “300 days a year on the road.”

“The only time that I’m not working is when I am at home. I spend the evening with my sister and my family, and I take whatever dog is there on a walk. I’ve got no time for hobbies. What is a weekend? It doesn’t exist. What is a holiday? It doesn’t exist,” Goodall said.

Goodall told The National that she doesn’t have time to meditate but gets through each day “as best I can.”

“I do what I have to do, catch up with emails, videos, do Zoom, do interviews and meet people and give talks, lectures. And that’s my life. The other thing is I don’t think about my health, I just be,” she said.

Karen Glaser, a professor of gerontology at King’s College London, told Business Insider in 2024 that working later in life can provide fulfillment and help protect cognitive abilities.

Dr. Shai Efrati, a physician and professor in medicine and neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, told Business Insider in March that work can offer a sense of purpose.

“If you are quitting one type of work, find another one. Fight for a purpose, be needable for something,” he said.

Learning new things

During a May appearance on “Call Her Daddy,” Goodall shared her thoughts on aging with podcast host Alex Cooper.

“I don’t think there’s a favorite part of aging, quite honestly. But I suppose, OK, if you look at it philosophically, the longer you live, the more you learn, and I don’t like a day that I don’t learn something. Even a little thing,” Goodall told Cooper.

Goodall added that aging has given her a chance to deepen her understanding of the world.

“And the other thing is, you know, when you get older, you learn — well, I do. You learn more about what’s going on in the rest of the world and how to interact with people,” Goodall said.

Exposing yourself to new experiences can keep your mind sharp, Jason Shepherd, an associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Utah, told Business Insider in 2023.

“I think a lot of us get into routines and habits where we’re doing the same old thing each day,” Shepherd said. “But learning new things helps with brain plasticity, and if you are able to keep using your brain in new ways, you can have better mental outcomes as you age.”

Not being stressed

Goodall told The Cut that she doesn’t “get stressed very often.”

“I’m able to concentrate on what’s happening right now. If one’s calm, then it’s easier to deal with whatever the problem is. I don’t consider my life stressful, although there are times when it is,” Goodall said.

For example, it can be stressful when she’s headed to an important meeting and her flight gets delayed, she said.

“So how do you cope with it? By finding the best solution you possibly can. And maybe the solution is just that it wasn’t meant to happen,” Goodall added.

Research has found that chronic stress can weaken the immune system and may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal problems.

Longevity researchers who have spoken to over 1,000 centenarians told Business Insider in 2023 that most centenarians they studied avoid worrying about things beyond their control.

“Many centenarians are very focused on things that they have control over, but not very stressed about things out of their control,” Ben Meyers, the CEO of LongeviQuest, an organization that maintains a database of the world’s oldest people, said.

“There’s not a single centenarian I’ve met who was actually aiming to live that long. They’re all kind of surprised. They’ve enjoyed their lives, and they’re happy to still be here,” Meyers said.

Spending time in nature

It goes without saying that being in nature was where Goodall felt most at home.

“A happy day for me is if I can be out in nature somewhere,” Goodall told Reader’s Digest in a 2024 interview.

She tries to look for pockets of nature even when in a city, she said: “If I go to a hotel and there’s one tree, I will sometimes move my bed around so I can just be there and see the tree.”

Speaking to Cooper on “Call Her Daddy,” Goodall said that her days in the rainforest with chimpanzees sometimes felt like a “spiritual experience.”

“And what I discovered was that if you’re out in a beautiful place with someone, someone you love or you know, your family or something, then it’s human beings in a beautiful environment,” Goodall said. “But when I was alone, it was just, I was part of that world, not separated from it by being a human in that world.”

Research has shown that spending time outdoors can have a positive effect on health, such as improving short-term memory, reducing inflammation, and lowering blood pressure.

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