A US grandmother who looks decades younger than her age has credited her youthful appearance to her raw vegan diet.

Annette Larkins, 70, has been dubbed the “ageless beauty” by US media who say she looks as if she could be in her forties.

Mrs Larkins told the WPTV Network that she became a vegetarian in the 1960s when her husband owned a meat store.

As the years went by she gradually became a vegan, and for the past 27 years has only eaten raw fruit and vegetables.

“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,” Mrs Larkins said.

Mrs Larkins also collects rainwater to drink and water her garden full of fruit and vegetables – which she calls 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.

Mrs Larkins’s husband of 54 years, Amos, said people were baffled when they saw the couple out in public and often wondered out loud if she was 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.”