In an era of healthy eating, President Trump is a throw-back to a time, when Americans ate whatever they want. He makes us long for the days when throwing back a BigMac with a Diet Coke and a bag of Lays didn’t garner judging glances from friends and familiar and casual passersby.
Trump has been open about his love of fast food on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts. He famously broadcast a photo of himself tearing into a bucket of KFC chicken (while reading the Wall Street Journal), devouring a McDonald’s burger and digging in to a taco bowl.
“One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald’s. One bad hamburger, you take Wendy’s and all these other places and they’re out of business,” Trump told CNN. “I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard.”
Still, he added, “I think the food’s good.
Jo Travers, an esteemed nutritionist and author of The Low-Fad Diet, recently accessed Mr. Trump’s diet in an interview with The Guardian and suggested some changes.
For starters, Trump skips breakfast if he can, or he eats bacon and eggs. Travers says he should be “replenishing the nutrients his body can’ store overnight,” but that won’t happen with bacon. “It’s a precessed pork product, which has been linked with cancer.” She would rather see him eat a balanced breakfast of protein and carbs.
Travers cleared Trump’s love for meatloaf if he eats it with brown bread and some produce, again for balance.
“Meatloaf is essentially just meat… if you don’t feed your gut bacteria with fruit and vegetables, that can impact the immune system and lead to infections.”
Dinner is Trump’s favorite meal, but it’s no surprise Travers disapproves of his favorite evening foods—Big Macs or KFC. These foods overload the body with trans fats which have been linked to heart disease.
Trump also barely touches any foods containing vital omega-3s—the fats found in nuts, fish and flax seeds that aid in brain function.
“His body will substitute with other types of fats, which are less fluid, making it harder for near transmitters to get through. This is linked to mood disorders,” she says. One possible explanation…
Travers suggests the five full-time White House chefs might encourage their new president to embrace a few more fruits and vegetables with each meal.
A plate should be “half-filled with fruit and vegetables, a quarter with carbohydrates and a quarter with proteins,” said Travers.
Read more about Trump’s dining habits on the New York Times.
