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Health

The Weird, Wild, and Not-So-Wonderful Dietary Habits of Billionaire Tech Bros

If this is their secret sauce, we don’t want it

I

f I had all the money in the world, I’d hire an army of personal chefs to cook me Michelin-starred meals three times a day. So I just assumed this is what billionaire tech bros did. 

I couldn’t be more wrong. Instead of high-brow and pricey, the Silicon Valley CEO set uses a series of bizarre vices to stay fueled.

Mark Zuckerberg says he only eats meat he kills himself (I think this is just a creepy attempt at him making it look like he touches grass). Elon Musk and Bill Gates chug soda like water. Here’s the low down on the dietary hacks tech C-suiters say are part of their secret to success—and why you should give them all a miss.

Elon Musk: Addicted to Diet Coke

Despite debunked rumors that soda can boost testosterone, the chief twit’s  habit of downing 8 caffeine-packed Diet Cokes a day boast no real health benefits. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Coke and Pepsi have been shown to increase risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, and lower sperm quality (1, 2).

He’s not the only rich dude that’s hooked on Diet Coke, either. Bill Gates drinks up to 4 cans a day. Elon even made a sarcastic bid to buy Coca-Cola so he could put cocaine back in their drinks—maybe that will be more well-received than his Twitter acquisition.

Mark Zuckerberg: Kills His Own Food

Whether it’s a bizarre power-play or an attempt to touch grass every once and awhile, Mr. Meta has resolved to only eat meat that he kills himself. This was revealed in an ominous Facebook post where he bluntly penned, “I just killed a pig and a goat,” which he followed up with an email to Fortune explaining his new challenge.

“This year I’ve basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself,” he wrote.

He’s gone back and forth on this stance several times, declaring that he’d be hunting for himself in true, primal fashion in both 2011 and 2017. Liver King would be proud.

Whether or not he’s sticking to his resolution to only eat animals he’s killed himself, he’s reportedly taken up a hobby of shooting wild boars with a bow and arrow.

Billionaire Health Habits

Sir Richard Branson: Drinks a LOT of Tea

The 72-year-old founder of Virgin Group drinks upwards of 20 cups of English breakfast tea to fuel his day. That’s around 1,200mg of caffeine daily (three times the 400mg limit recommended by the FDA).

He’s such a fan that a cracked cheekbone and torn ligament didn’t stop him from grabbing a straw and posing with his favorite beverage on Twitter.

The FDA says that anything above this limit leaves you prone to side effects like insomnia, anxiousness, nausea, and headache. But even more alarmingly, it noted that signs of caffeine toxicity, like seizures, could be observed around the 1,200mg mark.

Bryan Johnson: Drinks Vegetable Slop

In his conquest to turn back the clock, anti-aging-obsessed Bryan Johnson, 48, seems to choose his meals with only nutrition in mind. For breakfast, he blends together two green concoctions (dubbed “The Green Giant” and “Super Veggie”) and chugs the muddy mix of broccoli, lentils, mushrooms, chlorella, and olive oil. If he’s feeling up for a change, he’ll even skip the blender and eat his daily Super Veggie whole, like a soggy salad.

And, lunch and dinner are pretty much the same on days when he doesn’t opt for one meal followed by a 23-hour fast.

  1. Ricci, et al (2017). Coffee and caffeine intake and male infertility: a systematic review.
  2. Chen, et al (2018). Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males 20–39 years old in the United States.
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