Octopus, a bowl of ice cream, eight oatmeal biscuits, and a donut.
It’s an unusual order, but one you may hear if you went for breakfast with some of the biggest names in the corporate world.
Elon Musk is not only using Twitter to update users on company news, insult Bill Gates, and reveal Tesla projects, he’s also giving an insight into his personal life.
More specifically, his breakfast.
Peter Diamandis, one of the founding partners of health care business Fountain Life, tweeted earlier this week that “sugar is poison.”
Musk responded: “I eat a donut every morning. Still alive” to which Diamandis responded: “Okay Elon, allow me to be more specific. Sugar is a slooow poison.”
The exchange gave an insight into the lifestyle of the SpaceX founder, who was the victim of internet body-shaming when a shirtless image of him on a yacht with talent agency boss Ari Emmanuel went viral.
Musk’s daily doughnut ritual runs parallel to his previous statement on health and nutrition.
In 2020, he told Joe Rogan in a podcast interview, “I’d rather eat tasty food and live a shorter life.”
But Musk is in good company when it comes to big-name CEOs giving in to their sugar cravings.
Warren Buffett
Now into his nineties, Buffett has always had a weakness for sweet foods. In 2015 he told Fortune he was “one-quarter Coca-Cola,” saying he drinks at least five 12-ounce servings every day. Buffett has 400 million shares in the fizzy drink brand through his company, Berkshire Hathaway, and even lent his likeness to the cans on sale in China in a bid to boost sales.
His first Coke of the five cans he drinks a day is consumed with a tub of “potato stix” shoestring snacks, though the man worth $106 billion sometimes likes to switch up his routine by substituting a bowl of ice cream for the crisps.
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Buffett’s friend and fellow billionaire, revealed that the rest of the veteran investor’s diet largely comprises McDonald’s hamburgers—a brand Buffett also has a stake in—and snacks like Oreos.
In a GatesNotes post, Gates recalled: “I remember one of the first times he [Buffett] stayed at our house and he opened up a package of Oreos to eat for breakfast. Our kids immediately demanded they have some too. He may set a poor example for young people, but it’s a diet that somehow works for him.”
Buffett justifies his dietary decisions with tongue-in-cheek data, explaining: “I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among 6-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a 6-year-old.” The nonagenarian adds: “It’s the safest course I can take.”
Jeff Bezos
The Amazon founder’s breakfast is so baffling that he actually began using it as an investment analogy.
In 2014 Matt Rutledge told Dallas’ D Magazine he met the e-commerce mogul for a morning meeting to discuss the sale of his company Woot. The deal subsequently went through for $110 million.
Rutledge revealed that for his first meal of the day Bezos ordered a dish called Tom’s Big Breakfast, a preparation of Mediterranean octopus that included potatoes, bacon, green garlic yogurt, and a poached egg.
The founder remembers Bezos declaring: “You’re the octopus that I’m having for breakfast. When I look at the menu, you’re the thing I don’t understand, the thing I’ve never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.”
Mark Cuban
Like Buffett, the Shark Tank investor begins his day consuming products whose success directly impacts him.
According to CNBC, the Dallas Mavericks owner starts his morning with a pack of eight oatmeal cookies from a company called Alyssa’s Cookies.
Cuban reportedly invested in the brand in 2012 after he was gifted a box of the healthy bites by co-founder Doug Saraci, who added a note to the box asking for $50,000 for 25% of the business.
Cuban has also spoken out about enjoying a vegetarian lifestyle.
Having had both his hips replaced, Cuban made the decision to not eat meat to help reduce inflammation in his body, telling Habits & Hustle podcast host Jennifer Cohen in August “it’s like night and day.”
