Fasting to burger buffets: the weird and wonderful diets of politicians

Rishi Sunak survives on only water, tea or black coffee for 36 hours at the beginning of each week as part of an intermittent fasting diet, according to insiders.

The prime minister is "incredibly disciplined" and does not eat at all from 5pm on a Sunday until 5am on Tuesday, a "friend" told The Sunday Times.

Instead, Sunak has only water and other calorie-free drinks, such as black coffee and tea, as part of the so-called "monk diet", which is said to have both weight-loss and anti-ageing benefits.

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The background

Fasting is likely to be "particularly arduous" for Sunak, said The Sunday Times. The 43-year-old Tory leader is known to have a "sweet tooth" and to favour, in particular, Mexican Coke – Coca-Cola imported from Mexico that is made with cane sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup. 

In an interview with two schoolchildren in 2019, Sunak described himself as a "total Coke addict", but warned that his habit had left him with seven fillings.

Sugar, it seems, is one of Sunak's few vices (he doesn't drink alcohol). In 2022, he told "20VC" podcast that although he usually either skipped breakfast or had Greek yoghurt and blueberries, "I have a second breakfast mid-morning which is a cinnamon bun, a pain au chocolat or a chocolate chip muffin". 

Sunak is far from the only prime minister who has sought to stay, or get, fit and trim in the run-up to a general election. In 2015, David Cameron said he had cut out bread from his diet after being pictured looking a bit "chubby" while swimming at a beach in Cornwall, said the Mirror. Snacking in the middle of the day was his "downfall", admitted the then prime minister and now foreign secretary. 

Gordon Brown was said to have had a three KitKats a day habit. In the run-up to the 2010 general election, his chocolate bars were reportedly swapped for bananas at the insistence of his wife. The Labour prime minister reportedly then ate up to "nine bananas a day", and only treated himself to a KitKat if he was "under extreme pressure", according to The Telegraph. 

Joe Biden is also said to have some odd eating habits, with some former aides reporting that the US president eats "like a child", said Axios. Biden is said to enjoy food that "skews beige", including "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BLTs, pizza, cookies, spaghetti with butter and red sauce, and ice cream".

Biden's rival Donald Trump is fond of junk food too. During a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, Trump recalled comments by his former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who said he would "be around for 200 years" – if only he did not eat so much junk food. 

Like Sunak, the 77-year-old former president also has a penchant for fizzy drinks, and "is said to live off 12 Diet Cokes a day", reported The Independent. In 2019, he even welcomed national college football champions the Clemson Tigers to the White House with a buffet of burgers, pizza and fries from fast-food chains in the 140-seat State Dining Room, traditionally reserved for formal dinners with heads of state.

The latest

Sunak has spoken in the past about fasting being an integral part of his Hindu religion, "but this is the first time the true extent of his abstemiousness has emerged", said The Sunday Times. 

"It's true, he doesn't eat anything at all on a Monday," said an unnamed source. "It's remarkable really given that he is often on visits or doing PMQ prep on a Monday. It's a real testament to the discipline, focus and determination that he shows in all aspects of his life and work." 

Sunak is also said to enjoy Peloton cycling sessions led by Cody Rigsby, a former professional dancer "who encourages participants to imagine themselves as Britney Spears while on the stationary bikes", said the paper.

The reaction

Sunak might be that rarest of things, said Kevin Maher in The Times. "He is a man with a public profile who embraces the strict and health-conscious practice of intermittent fasting" and yet "he doesn’t talk about it". 

The "essential truth" about all diets is that while on one "you always end up discussing them, if only because it's obvious to everyone around you that you’re on one". Yet Sunak has "kept his mouth shut. Literally."

While evidence of the benefits of the monk diet is somewhat "thin on the ground", said Tom Bawden on the i news site, there is a growing body of research looking at the benefits of intermittent fasting more generally.

A 2019 study by the University of Graz in Austria, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, found that alternate-day fasting could help with weight loss and lower cholesterol levels. However, the study author also warned that fasting and food abstinence should be monitored closely, with more research needed to fully determine the risks as well as benefits.