How to diet like Trump

Not since Bill Clinton left the White House has a U.S. President so fully ignored healthy eating guidelines. Clinton’s diet later caught up to him and he’s made an about face on his eating habits.

Donald Trump embraces the Standard American Diet (SAD) and makes no apologies. It’s heavy on highly processed foods and lacking in whole foods including fruit and vegetables.

We know a lot about Donald Trump’s diet because he enjoys tweeting pics of himself digging into some of his favorite foods. We know he likes to eat a taco salad on Cinco de Mayo because he tweeted it to both prove he’s not anti-Mexican and to promote his Trump Tower Grill. This taco salad was the only reference to eating produce I could find when researching what Trump eats.

He isn’t embarrassed to proclaim he dines at the finest restaurants, the finest fast food restaurants that is. He loves McDonald’s, KFC, and Wendy’s. He explains these restaurants are safe because the food served there is guaranteed to be free from any contaminants.

I don’t have a beef with fast food dining. I’m no stranger at McDonald’s. I like their salads with grilled chicken. It’s one of my on-the-road standards. If you diet like Trump, you’re not ordering salad unless of course you’re at Trump Tower Grill on Cinco de Mayo

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I have to admit, with his free and loose reversing of regulations that protect consumers I hope these restaurants continue to adhere to their current standards if not mandated by law. I think the McDonald’s probably will because sickening and killing customers is bad for business.

Says Prez Trump, “We’re gonna be cutting regulation massively. The problem with the regulation that we have right now is that you can’t do anything. You can’t, I have people that tell me they have more people working on regulations than they have doing product.”

While he talks big about deregulating, specifics remain to be seen. He promises massive cuts in regulations with no down sides. Well to think that we don’t need regulations to protect the air, water, land, and our bodies from contaminants is a little risky, but I digress.

When the most important thing to a company is bottom line – more important than safety of products and satisfaction of customers – I get nervous. If Trump gets rid of the FDA and still continues his own love affair with fast food, I guess that makes it safe for the rest of us.

It seems like for the most part Trump doesn’t care much about dieting, when he does appear to be concerned, he tries to go low carb. He scrapes the cheeses and toppings (pepperoni, hamburg and sausage?) and leaves the dough. Boston conservative radio host, Howie Carr, reports seeing Trump remove the buns before chowing down on his McDonald’s beefy burgers.

He drinks a lot of diet coke. He does not drink alcohol.

Trump told People Magazine he likes his steak very well done and bacon and eggs for breakfast. He likes his eggs fried and cooked thoroughly, no over easy runny yolks for him.

He also cops to skipping breakfast a lot. Yes, I know that eating breakfast is a dieting must, however I’m okay with skipping breakfast on a diet if you can’t deal with eating first thing in the morning. I like cake or doughnuts for breakfast.

Trump is a fan of the White House meatloaf. In fact Trump likes meatloaf so much that recently when New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, was dining at the White House with him, Trump ordered meatloaf for them both, although other diners were free to order whatever they wanted.

I’m not judging Trump’s SAD diet although I would reject it for myself and wouldn’t recommend it for anybody else. If your goal is to lose weight SAD is better for gaining than losing. Sad.

He reports having lost some weight while campaigning but not because of his diet. He credits the loss to the intense physical activity in which he engages when giving speeches.

Trump’s personal physician wrote that Trump is 6′ 3″ tall and weighs 236 pounds (BMI 29.9. classified overweight; 4 more pounds would put him at BMI of 30 which is obese), but, despite this, his physician said “he would be the healthiest person ever elected president.” So based on that glowing assessment of the president’s health maybe we all should be eating the meat and cheese off of our pizzas and throwing away the crust.

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.