Ringo Starr’s daily plate features broccoli and blueberries—a simple, evidence-backed habit.
⚡ Quick Answer
Ringo Starr is 85, dropping a new album this week, and on tour in the western US from 28 May. He’s been vegetarian since 1965, sober since 1988, and strength-trains with a personal trainer three to six days a week. His daily plate has broccoli and blueberries on repeat. The one habit worth copying this week, if you only pick one? Twice-weekly strength training — the NHS is unambiguous that it’s the single biggest protection of independence past 75.
Ringo Starr was born on 7 July 1940. In April 2026, he released a new album. In late May, he’ll be on stage again in Temecula, California, kicking off 18 shows across 17 days with one day off. He’s 85 — turning 86 in the middle of the tour.
If you saw the “Ringo’s still going at 85!” headlines and rolled your eyes, fair enough. But there’s a genuinely practical question buried in the celebrity-ageing copy: what is this man doing with his mornings, afternoons, and dinner plate that’s kept him moving like that at 85? Nothing mystical. No rock-star secret. Just daily habits with real evidence behind most of them. That’s what’s worth pulling apart here.
The timeline — what an 85-year-old on tour this spring actually looks like
Here’s Ringo Starr’s spring of 2026. His album Long Long Road came out on 24 April, with collaborations from St. Vincent, Sheryl Crow, and Billy Strings. From 28 May through 14 June, he’s touring the western US with the 16th iteration of the All Starr Band — Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette, and Buck Johnson behind him.
The dates: Pechanga Theater in Temecula opens it on 28 May, then San Diego, Prescott, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Lincoln, Paso Robles at the Vina Robles Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, Denver, San Jose, Phoenix, closing at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on 14 June. That’s 18 shows in 17 days, with a single day off.
Euronews covered it straight: the schedule alone is a longevity argument. You don’t pull that off without sustained physical capacity — not just cardiovascular stamina but the muscular endurance and joint mobility to stay upright on a stage for two hours, night after night, at 85. The tour isn’t evidence that Ringo’s superhuman. It’s evidence that the daily habits underneath it are actually doing their job. And those habits, it turns out, are mostly copyable.
Daily diet — why broccoli and blueberries do most of the work
Ringo’s updated catchphrase, as Parade and Euronews noted in their April 2026 coverage, is “peace and love and broccoli.” That sounds like a joke. It isn’t — and he’s been saying it straight.
He’s been vegetarian since 1965 — six decades — and it was an ethical decision, not a health one. He’s not vegan; he still eats goat cheese. His wife, Barbara Bach, lives the same way. Together they cook vegetarian meals and drink morning smoothies with blueberries. Ringo’s own line, quoted in Parade: “I have broccoli with everything and blueberries every morning.” Lots of berries, fruit, vegetables, salad. That’s the plate.
Why broccoli specifically? British nutrition guidance consistently highlights it as one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables for older adults. It’s high in fibre — and fibre matters more and more as digestion slows after 60. It’s also a significant source of sulforaphane, a sulphur compound that’s been studied for anti-inflammatory and potentially protective effects against several cancers. For adults in their 70s and 80s dealing with joint pain or low-grade inflammation, broccoli is one of the better-evidenced everyday foods.
Blueberries are similarly well-supported. Research from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, among other UK and US groups, has pointed to the anthocyanins — the compounds that give blueberries their colour — as supporting both vascular health and cognitive function in older adults. The practical takeaway isn’t elaborate: fibre-dense green vegetables with dinner, polyphenol-rich berries with breakfast. Cheap. Available at every UK supermarket. That’s rather the point.
Regular strength and mobility work is central to Ringo’s routine, matching NHS advice for over-75s.
The ‘you’ve just got to keep moving’ rule — what his exercise actually looks like
Ringo’s own motto, repeated in interviews for years, is a single line: “You’ve just got to keep moving.” The specifics behind that slogan are more structured than the phrasing suggests.
Per Parade and Yahoo Lifestyle, he trains with a personal trainer three to six times a week in his home gym. The priorities are deliberate: muscle strength, and mobility. Not long cardio sessions. Not steady-state running. Barbara trains alongside him. When he’s on tour, he keeps going — self-directed sessions in hotel gyms or wherever space is available. No break in routine because of travel.
Why does this matter to you? Because the single biggest physical intervention against the kind of decline that actually takes people’s independence isn’t walking more. It’s resistance training. Sarcopenia — the age-related loss of muscle — accelerates sharply after 75. Without deliberate effort to maintain muscle, it goes. And when it goes, so does the ability to rise from a chair without using your arms, climb stairs without pausing, catch yourself if you stumble. Office for National Statistics data shows falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in over-75s in England and Wales. Strength training is the most directly protective intervention against that.
Ringo’s approach — regular, structured, strength and mobility rather than cardio — almost exactly matches what UK health bodies now recommend for his age group. It’s not flashy. It’s not complicated. It’s working.
What the NHS says about strength training for adults over 75
🔬 NHS Guidance
Strength, balance, flexibility — twice weekly
NHS physical activity guidance for older adults — 65 and over — names three priorities: strength, balance, and flexibility. For over-75s, the recommendation is at least two strength-and-balance sessions per week. The exercises the NHS specifically lists are functional everyday movements that protect the muscles you need for daily life.
- Sit-to-stand from a chair (without using your arms)
- Heel raises (standing on tiptoe)
- Side leg raises
- Wall push-ups
Sobriety since 1988 and the meditation routine most people miss
Ringo has been sober since 1988 — nearly four decades now. He went through a rehab stay following a period of heavy drinking in the 1970s and 80s, and he’s been open about it. It’s not a glossy detail; it’s a load-bearing one.
The evidence on alcohol and ageing has tightened considerably in the last decade. Recent UK and international research has consistently found that even moderate drinking in later life is associated with accelerated cognitive decline, and NHS guidance on alcohol (the 14-units-a-week low-risk threshold) now explicitly notes that the risk-benefit calculation shifts as you age — older livers process alcohol less efficiently, interactions with common prescription medicines are more frequent, and the fall risk goes up. For adults already managing age-related health changes, the margin for drinking is thinner than it used to be.
The bit that often gets under-covered is Ringo’s meditation and daily gratitude practice. Every morning, per multiple interviews: meditation, yoga, a deliberate gratitude practice. None of that would have sounded remotely medical 20 years ago. But the NHS Talking Therapies pathway (the service formerly called IAPT) now actively uses mindfulness-based approaches as a first-line step for mild and moderate anxiety and depression, and the evidence base behind short daily mindfulness practices — ten minutes or fewer — has grown considerably in the UK and internationally.
Ringo didn’t adopt any of this because a GP prescribed it. He adopted it because it worked for him. The medical establishment has, more or less, caught up.
The Peace and Love campaign — and why social connection is the under-covered longevity factor
Since 7 July 2008 — his 68th birthday — Ringo has held an annual global Peace and Love event, with people flashing the peace sign at noon in their time zone. NASA has supported it. It’s easy to dismiss as celebrity branding, and a bit of it is. But sitting underneath the event is something the longevity research has increasingly taken seriously: social connection and purpose.
Work by Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad and others has made the widely cited finding that chronic loneliness carries a mortality risk comparable to smoking around 15 cigarettes a day. Public Health England, now under the UK Health Security Agency, has cited this research consistently in its older-adult loneliness work. The Campaign to End Loneliness reports that over a million older adults in England go more than a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour, or family member — a genuinely sobering figure.
You don’t need a global campaign. But you do need regular, meaningful contact: a weekly walk with a friend, a community group, a fixed Sunday lunch. Ringo’s annual event is the megaphone version. The quieter version — showing up for the same people, repeatedly, over years — is what the evidence actually supports.
Six Ringo Starr habits you can steal this week — and two you probably can’t
| ✓ Steal These | ✗ Can’t Steal These |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Ringo Starr in 2026?
Ringo Starr was born on 7 July 1940, so he’s 85 at the time of writing in April 2026 and turns 86 on 7 July 2026 — mid-tour. He’s currently promoting the new album Long Long Road and the 17-day US tour with his All Starr Band that opens on 28 May in Temecula, California.
What does Ringo Starr eat for breakfast?
Per Parade and several interviews, Ringo has blueberries every morning, typically in a green smoothie he prepares with his wife, Barbara Bach. The routine is deliberately simple — blueberries, sometimes with other fruit, blended. He’s said repeatedly that blueberries and broccoli are the two foods he thinks of as his anti-ageing staples.
Has Ringo Starr always been vegetarian?
He’s been vegetarian since 1965 — over 60 years. As Parade and SurvivorNet note, his original reasons were ethical, not health-related. He’s a vegetarian rather than a vegan — he still eats goat cheese. The health benefits have followed, but they weren’t the motivation.
How often does Ringo Starr exercise?
He trains with a personal trainer three to six times per week in his home gym, focused on muscle strength and mobility rather than cardio. Per Parade and Yahoo Lifestyle, he also trains on tour — self-directed sessions in hotel gyms — and works out alongside his wife Barbara Bach at home.
What is Ringo Starr’s Peace and Love campaign?
On his 68th birthday, 7 July 2008, Ringo started an annual event asking people worldwide to flash the peace sign at noon in their time zone and say “peace and love”. It’s been supported by NASA and observed in dozens of countries each year. It’s now a fixture of his public identity alongside the music.
⭐ The Bottom Line
Twice-weekly strength training. That’s the non-negotiable one.
Ringo Starr isn’t doing anything magical. He eats broccoli and blueberries. He strength-trains several times a week. He meditates. He doesn’t drink. He walks with his wife. He stays connected to people. Every one of those habits has a British evidence base behind it — NHS guidance, UK university research, public health data.
The one non-negotiable takeaway, if you do nothing else from this list this week: start strength training. Twice a week. Bodyweight. At home. The research on this is unambiguous — it’s the single biggest thing you can do to protect your independence past 75. Ringo’s got a home gym and a trainer. You’ve got a living room and twenty minutes. That’s enough to begin.
Related reading: NHS strength training for over-75s · Loneliness and older adults in the UK
Published: · Last reviewed: 24 April 2026
