First lady Jill Biden is reportedly unsatisfied with the substance of President Joe Biden’s diet.
According to a report from Alex Thompson at Axios, Ms Biden is urging the president to eat more vegetables and fish with his re-election campaign underway and a vast number of Americans concerned about his age and fitness to serve.
Per Axios, Mr Biden is not thrilled about efforts to have him eat healthier. The president’s favourite foods are said to include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BLT’s, pizza, and spaghetti with butter and red sauce, as well as ice cream.
Whether or not Mr Biden’s diet has any significant bearing on his fitness is difficult to determine. Mr Biden works out daily with a personal trainer, and his doctors have declared that he is in fine health. The extent to which a person’s diet determines their overall health is generally difficult to determine, with a host of other environmental and genetic factors contributing.
But the attention being paid to Mr Biden’s diet comes as he embarks on what will be a gruelling re-election campaign that could be complicated by perceptions about his health.
According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Americans believe Mr Biden is too old to serve a second term. Just as importantly, Americans at this stage see former President Donald Trump — Mr Biden’s likely opponent — as mentally sharper.
The irony is that Mr Trump, who is just four years younger than Mr Biden, also dealt with consternation over the makeup of his diet when he was president. Mr Trump, who once served a national championship-winning football team a meal of McDonalds products, reportedly so disliked vegetables that his staff resorted to sneaking them into his food.
Mr Trump reportedly skipped meals with some frequency, but regularly enjoyed fast food spreads including hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, and fried fish.
There is one other dietary similarity between Mr Biden and Mr Trump: neither man drinks alcohol. Mr Biden reportedly enjoys orange Gatorade, while Mr Trump is reportedly fond of Diet Coke.
